MERCEDES PLACED 2ND AT STATE PEDAL PULL!!!!!

WE ARE GOING TO NATIONALS IN SOUTH DAKOTA!!! WOOO HOOOO MERCEDES!!!
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Here is the email I sent, along with a pic of Mercedes and her trophy, to several friends, family, pastor, the newspaper, teachers, and principal:
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Good Morning everyone!!
Today is a great day as it's Sierra's 10th birthday. But. . . I have to share our news that happened over the weekend with Mercedes.

As most of you know, the kids have done pedals pulls since Sierra was 4 yrs old. Each of the kids (including Lincoln) have done very well this summer and each qualified to go to State Pedal Pull Championship in Hutch. This means that any child who placed 1st or 2nd in any State sanctioned pedal pull can go to State. If 1st and/or 2nd already qualified then the child who placed 3rd can go to State. (Generally there's around 600 kids who compete at State.)

Anyway, State was this past weekend. There were 71 boys in Lincoln's group and he got 4th place. He was a few feet short of the 3rd place boy. I told him he did very, very well considering competition was that tough and he got 4th place. Next was Mercedes and she was all psyched up and was so excited to pull. There was around 30 girls in her group and she was inches from a full pull. After she went, she was in 1st place. Mercedes was #21 in the group, so there were several after her and we all were soooo nervous! There was one girl who got a full pull, so she bumped Mercedes to 2nd place. As each remaining girl went, we crossed our fingers so Mercedes wouldn't get bumped. State gets pretty crazy as there are pulls going at each end of the building. I asked my mom if she would write down the measurements (since I was sitting with Mercedes in a different area waiting to go) of everyone, but it gets crazy as they are announcing measurements for the pulls that are going on at the same time. So, mom said she wasn't always sure if she was writing down the correct measurement that pertained to Mercedes' group. We were just nervous and excited and really we weren't positive where she placed after the last girl went. We knew she was inches from a full pull, so we only hoped she placed 2nd or 3rd. Well, the 3rd place person was announced and we thought Mercedes went farther than her and then her name was announced as the 2nd place winner!! My mom and dad were there (Jon was in TX working, so he couldn't be there.) with me and the kids. We all started screaming we were sooooo excited!! Because she placed 2nd, she is going to NATIONALS in SOUTH DAKOTA!!!! This is such a huge accomplishment for her. She really worked so hard in the pedal pulls this summer! The National Championship is the last weekend in September so that's where we will be!!

Sierra's pull was in the afternoon and she was soooo excited as she was also #21 in her age group. As she knows, the competition at her age is also tough. The 3rd place winner pulled 16'3" and Sierra pulled 14' and some inches. She, too, was soooo close!! 2nd place pulled 16'6", so that shows you that literally, each inch counts. We all told Sierra that we were proud of her, too, because that's a big deal making it to State and still being in the top of the group.

Both Lincoln and Sierra told Mercedes how proud of her they were and it was just cute to see them. There were a few tears from Lincoln because he was sad about not getting a trophy and Mercedes did, but he realized it was ok and he had a good pull, too.
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Soooo, Nationals are the end of September and believe it or not, the top 5 in each group at Nationals move on to Internationals!!! Mercedes will be competing against kids from all States that have State sanctioned pedal pulls. We all told her she needs to keep riding her bike until Nationals so leg muscles stay strong! :)

Attached is a pic of Mercedes and her trophy. We all are so proud of her and I just wanted to share.

Thanks for taking the time to finally reach the bottom of the email!!!

(Our computer system is down right now, so hopefully it's up soon! Oh, how I love Mondays!!)

Have a great day everyone!!
blh
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What an absolutely fabulous weekend. We are just so extremely proud of all 3 kids. They each worked so hard.

Peace.