Opening Ceremonies

It was finally here!  The Opening Ceremonies for the 2019 Junior Olympic games!  MadHatter had been dreaming about this day since she decided to become an Olympic runner about 4 years ago.  Sadly, back then, we didn't live in the U.S., so this goal was entirely out of her reach and relegated to daydream status.  Then we moved home, and what seemed like minutes later she handed me a brochure for the Coral Springs Blazers track team, and I signed her up on the spot.  Nevermind that training didn't start for another 3 months.  Since that first practice, she has trained for this moment.  And suddenly we were on the road to the Jr. Olympics - literally.

We left Savannah behind us early in the morning and made the uneventful drive through South Carolina and most of North Carolina before settling in at our hotel room in Greensboro.  A short shuttle bus ride to Aggie Stadium and we had our official start numbers and a swag bag of souvenirs.   That didn't mean we didn't need one more - a shirt with her name on the back, and her events on the sleeves...

The back of her T-shirt.  This was the 8th of 13 sheets of just 11-year-old girls!  SO many athletes.

And of course, Stinkerbell had her frozen Ice.  Tradition can't be broken even though she was sick as a dog...

A few of the athletes from her team that came for the Walk of Athletes.  Little did I know that parents and siblings would also walk the track with them...

We lined up alphabetically by state and off we went...

The cauldron was lit (yep, just like the big Olympics)

And we made the jumbotron...

And then it was time to cut out.  They did run the 200 m girls 11-year-old race that night, but Stinkerbell was feeling worse and worse the longer we sat.  I needed her to be up and out early the next morning for MadHatters race, so we called it a night and tried to get some sleep.  With all that nervous energy in the room, how successful do you think we were?