Twins That Aren't

Double the pleasure, double the fun.  But double the nerves and stress, too.

Thankfully this sort of thing doesn't happen very often, but at this last weekend's meet--the Emerald Team Challenge held in Eugene, Oregon--Alyssa and Natalie were scheduled to compete in sessions that started just one hour apart.  Their meets were held in separate but adjoining gyms.

They had to be ready to go at the same time, which meant I had to buy another set of curlers and do double the "meet hair."

The girls get asked quite frequently if they are twins.  It happened several times this weekend.  I get it.  They are so similar in size.  But the older of the two is very quick to answer, "No!" whenever the question is asked.

They do look an awful lot alike in this photo, don't they?

And even though they are four and a half years apart, they are great friends.

They looked even more alike when dressed in their competition gear:

Our old gym was at this competition and Alyssa was so excited to see her old coaches, Chen and Tia.  We will always love them.  They were so good to Lys.  They marveled that she hasn't really grown in the last year and then joked in their broken English that we should stretch her more.

The above picture was taken right outside of the gym Alyssa competed in and just inside the gym where Natalie competed.  So it was in this very spot that Jon and I ran back and forth, back and forth, trying to watch both of our girls at the same time.

I'm pretty much always a wreck at meets but this scenario had my nerves through the roof!  Thankfully, though their warm-ups were often overlapping, they were never being judged at the exact same time.  And you know what?  They were both amazing!

Natalie had to be the very first beam routine of the entire session, which can be very nerve-wracking, but she did great--one of her best of the season.  It started her meet off right and she went on to have an all-time all-around best of 36.025.  Her first 36!  That's a big deal.

Lys also had a great meet.  She debuted a new series on beam--back handspring back handspring.  On her first warm-up she missed a hand and had a pretty big crash that left her with bruises on her arm.  But she jumped right back up, though the rest of her warm-ups were shaky and she didn't stick any of them.  Did I already mention that I was a wreck? However, being the competitor that she is, Alyssa nailed it when it came time to perform her routine in front of the judges.

She finished with a 37.0 all-around.  Another meet in the 37's?  Can you believe it? 

Both of the girls were in insanely hard age groups but still came home with some new hardware.  Fifth place and higher got trophies.  Crazy.

Alyssa placed 5th on bars and floor, 4th on beam and 6th all-around.  Natalie was third on vault and 7th all-around.

Because the girls were competing at the same time, they didn't get to watch each other's routines or follow each other's scores.  One of my favorite moments of the whole weekend was when Alyssa learned that Natalie had scored a 36.  A look of delighted shock spread over her face and she grabbed her sister in a congratulatory hug.  So sweet.

Lys thought Nat deserved to pick where to go to dinner and once we got back home, we celebrated by getting her nails done and going for a Starbucks treat.  A "36 party", we called it.

It was great to see both of the girls do so well and it was even fun watching them go off to competition together.  They do look a lot alike but I love that they are so different.  If they were twins they'd probably be the same level, which would have made being a spectator much easier.  But since they are not twins, their differences made for a crazy competition day.

Crazy, but good.

*Meet videos here.  (Jon and I agree that it was probably Alyssa's best floor routine of the season.  And her beam series is pretty exciting, too.)