Lily's first belt buckle

Today Andy took a very-nervous Lily to her first competitive archery shoot. The Mt. Madonna Bug Shoot is in Watsonville, about an hour south of San Jose. It was an all-day affair, with Lily shooting from about 9 this morning to 5 in the afternoon, with a 15-minute break for lunch. There were hundreds of competitors coming from all over the region.

Lily was really nervous about participating and almost didn't enter. I think she only agreed to go when she learned last Thursday evening that Nali (her friendly competition from class) was planning to go. Nali is also 8 and going into 4th grade.

There was a small group from Cal Sports Academy, the club where Lily shoots: Nali and her parents, Lily and Andy, Chris (in the back), Michelle (one of the instructors), and Michelle's sister, Elissa.

 

 The younger ones got to shoot closer in. (Still looks pretty far away to me.)

 Nali and Lily posing with the big kids, who were shooting from their regular distance.

 Goofing around while waiting for their turn to shoot.

 How awesomely bad-a$$ are these girls?

 Who's afraid of spiders? Not these girls.

 Hanging out with Chris, who shot in the adult group.

 Taking on the giant scorpion.

 Woo hoo! Lily won her female age group!

And earned herself her very own belt buckle! Now we just have to buy the belt to go with it. Nali took 2nd. Andy says there were about 9 or 10 girls in the Cub group, which went up to age 11.

 Proof: the scoresheet.

Hitching a ride in the back of a pick-up back to the parking lot. Happy girl. 

 Serious hardware.

 Waiting for her at home.

 Proud girl. Rightly so.