Hey everyone! I'm home today, bored.... so I said to myself, "Self, why don't you update your story?" And so I said, "Self, that's a wonderful idea!"
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Erin's POV
Knowing I had a flight the next morning to St. Louis, Missouri, I went to bed at around 9. I made sure I was all packed and ready to go triple checking to make sure I had my competition leotards ready. I walked into the bathroom to brush my teeth and to say goodnight to Shaun.
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THE NEXT MORNING (cuz I'm to lazy to write the rest)
I woke up at around 5. I threw on a pair of sweats and a sweatshirt and french braided my hair. Since Shaun was such a lazy butt and wouldn't get up when his alarm went off, I walked into his room and started jumping on his bed, just like the hyper active little kid I am.
"Stop or else the tickle monster is going to get you." He mumbled while shoving his head deeper under his pillow. I just laughed and continued jumping on him. About a minute later I felt his arms wrap around my legs and pull me down on top of him. He started tickling me. I was giggling uncontrollably. My face was all red and I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard. All the while Shaun was laughing too.
"S-S-Stop it!" I stuttered out.
"Say Shaun is the sexiest big brother ever!"
"Never! My will will not break!" I said trying to squirm away from his hands, but failing epically.
"Say it and we can go downstairs and eat." He responded.
"Shaun is the sexiest big brother ever! Over my dead body!" I laughed as he finally stopped tickling me and I rolled off of his bed onto the floor. I landed in a heap, still laughing.
"C'mon my sack of potatoes!" Shaun yelled as he picked me up and threw me over his shoulder and ran down the stairs. Man what is up with this guy and carrying people over his shoulder. Like seriously....
After we ate a breakfast of cereal and smoothies, we went back upstairs to grab our bags and get ready to go to the airport. Since this was my first competition since living with the Whites, everyone was coming with. Cathy and Roger sat up front and the luggage was in the very back of our Suburban. I climbed into the very back seat with Shaun and Kari situated herself in the middle seat. We swung by Jesse's house and he threw his luggage in the back and climbed in next to Kari.
The whole ride to the airport was filled with joking around and singing along to the radio- very off tune. By the time Roger pulled up to the airport, Shaun and I sounded like dying seals and Kari was recording us saying she was going to put the video on youtube. Apparently she had videotaped the entire ride....I'll have to get her back sometime...
So apparently we had checked in online, which I had no clue about. We went through security, and got some snacks for the ride. I already had an open bag of jellybeans in my backpack and I busied myself by tossing them up into the air and catching them in my mouth. Once again Kari was videotaping me, so once I finished, I turned to the camera and bowed multiple times.
With the sugar coursing through my body and still having an hour until we could start boarding, I started doing random gymnastics around the airport. This time it was Shaun filming me.
"Triple lutz!"
"Dork that's a jump in skating, not a skill in gymnastics!" I responded stepping down from my stag handstand and flicking Shaun.
AFTER PLANE RIDE!!!!!
Once we got out of the cab at our hotel in St. Louis, we put our luggage away and threw on our swim suits as we had declared a chicken war on the airplane. As we walked into the pool, I saw a few gymnasts I knew, like Jordyn Wieber.
"Jordy!" I shouted!
"Erin!"
I ran over to her and she engulfed me in a hug. I haven't seen her since the last training camp at the ranch.
After catching up with Jordyn, I jumped into the pool where what do you know, my siblings were acting like little kids splashing each other. I swam underwater and pulled on Jesse's leg, knowing it would freak him out.
"What the hell!?"
"I got you good bro!" I managed to choke out while I was laughing.
"Chicken Time!" Kari shouted.
Our teams that we decided would be Kari and Shaun vs Me and Jesse.
"Boys on the bottom!" Kari and I shouted pushing them under.
"But we're men!" Shaun pouted before Kari pushed him under.
I climbed onto Jesse's shoulders and as he rose out of the water, he grabbed my legs so I wouldn't fall off. Once Kari and Shaun were ready we started the war, with me successfully pushing Kari off of Shaun's shoulders after about five minutes. I flipped myself off Jesse and we all decided that since I had podium training tomorrow, we could just go back to the hotel rooms and watch a movie.
Kari, Jesse, Shaun and I were all sharing a room and Mom and Dad were in the room across the hall from us, claiming "That way if you get to noisy it doesn't disturb our sleep." Of course they were joking though. There were two double beds for the four of us.
"Erin and I have the one by the window!" Kari shouted jumping on the bed, pulling me with her.
"Why? I wanted the window!" Jesse whined.
"So that way if you bozos stink up the bathroom we don't have to smell it." Kari stated simply, sticking her tongue out at the end. We all showered than ate sandwiches for dinner. And all curled up on the beds, we popped in I Am Legend... Dude those creatures scare me so much....
The next morning, as soon as Kari and I woke up, we went down to the lobby where the hotel serves breakfast. I had a bagel and a hard boiled egg making sure to fill up on protein for the five hours of podium training I had ahead of me. I pulled on my blue and purple Under Armour leotard and pulled on a pair of running shorts and a loose tank top. I french braided my hair back into a messy bun and sprayed it with hair spray and helped secure it with bobby pins and barrettes. Finally, I started on my makeup. I brushed on some purple eye shadow, black eyeliner and water-proof mascara. I applied some chapstick and shimmery light pink lip gloss.
I grabbed my gym bag and walked across the sky walk to the convention center where the Visa Championships would be held. I checked in with my coach and started taping my ankle and jumped onto the floor, running with all the other senior gymnasts.
Technically, I'm not supposed to compete as a senior as I'm only 13 but I'm so advance the FIG let me. The ultimate goal was for me to compete in London, only about a month away.
I finished podium practice and watched as the juniors walked in for their training sessions. We had another session tomorrow and then two days of break while the men had their time on the podium.
SKIPPING REST OF TRAINING NEXT DAY
On my free days, we went sight seeing. We saw the Arch, visited the science museum, the Budweiser plant and the City Museum. It was all so much fun! We saw so many cool science things I thought my mind was going to explode! And at nights, we would sit in the hotel rooms and played card games like Apples to Apples and Quelf... I swear I have never laughed so hard when I have played Quelf...
Finally day 1 of competition came. I got dressed in one of my custom leotards that I had designed. I pulled my hair into two french braids going back into you guessed it, a messy bun that I pinned with bobby pins and barrettes and sprayed with hairspray. I then wrapped the scrunchie around my bun. I started on my makeup, using a sparkly silver eye shadow with a hint of pink, black eyeliner, mascara and sparkly pink lip gloss. I pulled on my black team warm up and grabbed my gym bag. We had already warmed up before we had to get ready so that way we could look our best.
"Go get them elf!" Shaun said to me as I walked down into the podium area.
"Ok tomato!" I shouted back, earning a laugh from my family as I gave them all a hug goodbye.
My rotation for the competition was vault, bars, beam, floor.
"Erin! You're in my rotation!" Jordyn screeched as she ran over to where I was taping my ankle and putting my Tiger Paws on for vault.
"Yes!" I responded even louder with more enthusiasm making people look over at me.
"Gymnasts please go to your first event." The announcer stated. I was second up in our rotation after Anna Li. And soon enough the judges saluted to me, giving me the signal to go.
I started sprinting down the runway and hurtled into my round off, onto the board, and pushing my hands off of the table. I rotated my body two and a half times, coming up on the blind landing. I stuck it and saluted to the judges, grinning.
I hit all the rest of my routines consistently. My beam was a little wobbly, but I stayed on. My floor was excellent.
By the end of the day, Jordyn and I were tied for first place. Congratulating her, I grabbed my gym bag and got ready to go back to the hotel, exhausted. I met up with my family and we walked back over. I pried myself out of my leotard and hung it back up. I took my hair out and scrubbed my make up off of my face. After I showered, I climbed into bed and put on a movie with the rest of my siblings.
I went through the same routine the next morning, except a different leotard this time. Today's eye shadow was all pink though. I walked over to the arena and began taping up just like yesterday and was in the same rotation.
Overall I did even better than yesterday. I hit everything and was really strong. At the end of the day, i found myself standing on top of the podium with a gold medal around my neck. Only the top 25 senior gymnasts got to move onto the Olympic Trials and I made it.
As soon as I saw my family, Shaun picked me up and spun me around in a circle saying "I knew you could do it elf!" over and over again. I finally got to hug the rest of my family members and then I whisked off to do interviews.
The next day as we were on the plane ride home, I had so much to think about. And the one that captured my attention was "How did I end up with such a good family?"
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HEY EVERYONE! I am loving all the positive comments! I hope this was a good chapter :) It was really fun to write!
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PEACE OUT MAH LLAMACORNS!!!!!