My life as a Special Olympican of Missouri: Team MO Meeting (fourth & final session) 5-19-18

*Warning, this is a long post*

When I woke up this morning, I was so excited because I was going to the last team MO meeting, so that means that the time to travel to Seattle is coming up fast, I mean FAST! I woke up at 8 am, we stopped at McDonald's to have breakfast at 9:11am. Our destination is 1 hr and 30 mins away. I'm really excited to see everyone! We arrived at 10:50am at Hickman High School in Columbia. Training session last until 11am to 4:30pm. When we arrived, we stood in line so we could check in. While we were in line, we saw our team (Athletics, some of them) saw some other team members as well, it was nice to chat with them. After we checked in, we went to the gym and wait until the rest of the team MO arrive. Some of the staff members got a few of athletes (2) and coaches, so they could show us our uniforms, and let me tell you, they are AWESOME! They announce the top 10 males: 1. Lucas Blattell 2. Aiden Petterson 3. Nick Vaughn 4. James Ross 5. Charlie Phillips 6. Jesse Hodgson 7. Harrison Schmidt 8. TJ Bray 9. Brett Harper 10. Jon and Paul Burnett (They tied) the top 10 females: 1. Lynna Hodgson 2. Jamie Rosso 3. Jessica Grammer 4. Jody Davis 5. Mary McManus 6. Rebecca Tincknell 7. Lisa Berryhill 8. Libby Waddell 9. Amanda Geno 10. Amanda Koch the coaches: Ken Petterson and Kris Clark. After all of that, we ate our lunch, they were healthy ones too :) After lunch every team went their separate ways so they can train for the rest of the time we had.

The athletics team went to the track at the school. It started to sprinkle, and I loved it, wasn't too hot and they were a few clouds in the sky, which it made more enjoyable to be outside. We all practiced our events that we will be competing in. Shaquana and Emily had to get their times in their events because they wasn't at the last time we met (a weekend ago). Both Shaquana and Emily had to leave early, so after they left, the coaches worked with the relay time (Mark, Mary, Brett and Dustin). While they were practicing, Jesse, Allison (PR Assistant) and I walked around the track. It was really nice to visit with her. When we were about to leave, the bocce team came out to practice. Coach Genice showed us the baseball field, it was really cool to see. Jesse really enjoyed it! We went back to the gym and gathered our stuff and waited for our parents to pick us up. Our mom picked us up at 4pm. TJ rode home with us. I don't know about Jesse and TJ but I was exhausted, that's a good thing, right? lol

Athletic's competing uniforms

I had a lot of favorite moments that happened today, I can't just pick one! So let me share them: When I challenged coach Michelle (track and field coach) to see who could get more steps in on that day (I teased her when I beat her) we both had a good laugh about it ( I was already beating her) lol, When I saw all of the athletes, I've made some great NEW friends, the MOST memorable moment when Susan Shaffer (head of the delegates) talked about how I encouraged the group on facebook. That made me feel so good! We got this awesome team post card, face card and we got to take our competition shoes home. We need to break them in. OH! I almost forgot to mentioned, when we did the plank challenge, I did it for almost 2 mins!! I was the last female athlete who did the plank. There is only 42 more days until the opening ceremony!! Please enjoy the pics!!