Atlanta Crown 2025
Atlanta Crown 2025 – First Meet of the Season
January 12, 2025
Here we are. The first gymnastics meet of the 2025 season. In Atlanta. I drove up in a storm. We had planned staying over since October when I tried a new thing for me called Airbnb. I didn’t think about early Friday sessions or I would have booked Thursday night too, but this is only the second meet we’ve stayed over for. All of the others we’ve driven up and back or carpooled with someone.
They called us near noon on Thursday to say the spot we picked had been canceled! Wow! Then the guy at customer service was so nice and rebooked us something similar. It was much more expensive, but the drive was comparable, which was all I needed. Fortunately, the airbnb customer support guy said there would be a credit toward our rebooking to help with the extra expense.
Crisis averted…
We planned the drive to avoid the ice storm. Had to detour to get Kimberly’s grips. This put an extra 45 minutes on the drive. We still chose to avoid the storm as much as possible by going west on 10 instead of 26.
Laud kept making his sound effects to let us know it was potty time. Clean all the way from night time to the event! I was surprised!
We got to check in early, which was nice. I was like, sweet, a pause for 40 minutes, Jillian can get dressed and do hair… but in the rescheduling, i guess the info in the app forgot Thea! I get a text while I’m doing Jillian’s hair saying I have five, yes, 4 plus infant. Nope have to fix it in the app… (???) Okay, stop hair, try to get my phone to work the “app” which means the website, blank error pages, signin 4 times, can’t seem to get it. (stress level is building but I keep trying to convince myself everything will be okay and we won’t get kicked out) Finally find the spot to change people to add yep, there’s 3x adults, 1x infant and 0x children listed, Thea got forgotten. I’d even texted the original host saying we had 5 but his said max 4, he said infants didn’t count so I didn’t realize the last-minute reschedule had any errors! Fix that, save that, it logs me out! I’m done, it’s 220, we need to leave, and bingo, another two texts from airbnb! Login, try to read the texts, Kimberly has taken over Jillian’s hair, (stress skyrockets to the roof!!) THEY HAD TRIED TO CHARGE $0.63 ON MY STOLEN CARD!! I had replaced the card months ago but instead of allowing me to remove it, airbnb said it was “tied to a reservation” so I’d had to add my second one and couldn’t change it to default! I quickly set it to charge the $0.63 on my new card. Tried to remove my old card or change the new card to default – no luck, still the error “can’t remove this card as it is tied to a reservation” – whatever. Clock is at 2:30pm, we are going to be late!
Kimberly finished hair. I looked at hair. We decided to race to the arena and pray it all went through. I’d recheck after we got Jillian to her coach.
It worked out (I’d find out about 4pm) crisis averted…
Parked in the wrong spot but all the parking garages are actually attached to the venue, we just have to hoof it a bit through the ice and snow – honestly, I had changed my sandals out for my work shoes, good on that one. The walk was fun! Everything was snow and ice! It was so pretty (pics because we are Floridians and this is super cool!) By the way: this was Laud & Thea’s first time and Jillian’s second time in snow, this is the first she remembers because last time she was Laud’s age.
Enter the venue. Jillian says, “now this looks familiar” as we pass four or five non competing gymnasts throwing tumbling skills in a deserted hallway being observed by two tired moms. We know we are in the right place. Ask directions, spot another of our gym families (one of Jillian’s teammates), finish hair, and get down to check in gymnasts and myself as a spectator. This is the only meet this year where Theadora is still free. She’s 5yo and most don’t let 5 year olds in for free anymore.
Gym A is our spot, which looks like a club, according to my 17yo – how does she know when she’s never been in a club?
The girls are so nervous! Their beam is super slippery and even during warm up, everyone is falling off. Jillian says she’s going to buy a chalk block before each meet and have it in her bag just in case so she can make the beam better for everyone next time (and that makes me smile). I mixed up two girls’ names – better than my record of calling everyone someone else though, but I do it even with my kiddos, so you know, mom brain thing. I should just stick to Thea’s, “You got this!” with no name attached.
Now I’m sitting here, checked out of our airbnb at 1030am, (stress skyrocketed once more because checkout was 11 and Laud cried fussy teething all weekend and all night both nights so I overslept a bit on Sunday morning) waiting on Kimberly to compete. We’re going to watch some gym friends (Level 7s) do their thing.
So thankful for this journey. Laud is entertaining everyone today as his new tooth doesn’t seem to bother him after 11am today. We are going to see Kimberly do the thing she loves so much.
I love this part. Yes, we sit 4 to 5 hours at a time to catch our kiddo doing a few seconds of each event. Maybe 2.5 minutes total at this level. It was like 1.5 minutes for Jillian 😆. Yes, the little siblings can annoy each other, cry because they are teething, throw tantrums even though they are 5yo and know better, or even knock your recording device out of your hand. This is what they train all year for. This is why I’ll always encourage them to love what they compete.
And yes, Thea will likely scream, “YOU GOT THIS KIMBERLY!” and “YOU GOT THIS HANNA!” and “YOU GOT THIS COACH ZOEY!” so everyone can hear. She needs to scream for them to hear on bars and vault at this one!
Enjoy watching your children be passionate! Teach them to be encouragers. This is what i love to watch. This is what I see when I watch a gymnastics competition. WGV Gymnastics is such a blessing to my family!
Feeling grateful and blessed!
Thank you for reading!
Type at you later!
~Nancy Tart
