We flew in really late from Wyoming on Saturday night and had Sunday at home to regroup and do all the laundry then Olive and I took off for KAR dance nationals Monday morning! We stayed at the Anaheim Marriott hotel where the competition was taking place, which was so nice and convenient. Luckily the drive went smoothly and we arrived that evening to check in. We did not want to get back in the car so we walked a few blocks to a Cheesecake Factory for dinner. It just so happened to be Trav and my anniversary. Never get married in July. 9 times out of 10 we are managing an extended family vacation or something for our kids on our anniversary. I took my cheesecake back to the hotel and sent a thumbs down pic to Travis telling him this was not the way to spend 19 years married. But it's ok, I was happy to be with my girl! Also had to laugh at the picture Wayne edited and sent in the family text feed. Who needs heads?
Most of her dances were scheduled for Tuesday. She danced beautifully and it was fun to see her on stage. Unfortunately, our studio was out of our league and no one really placed very well.
I don't remember what clued me into the fact that my tires were bald, but I spent some harried hours on the phone with Gunnels trying to make sure I wasn't going to hydroplane and die on our drive to Flagstaff right after we got home. There was supposed to be a ton of rain that weekend. I got some new ones ordered and an appointment set for the morning we would get home.
The whole studio met at the "Packing House" for dinner one night. Kind of like a restaurant mini mall with tons of choices. It was super yummy!
Maren Hanson is always so generous and ordered Einstein bagels to be delivered for all the for breakfast one morning when they were at the pool. I wished I could have out with the moms and girls but I had school work to get done in my room.
A little more dancing and then we had a free afternoon! So Olive and I drove to a nearby mall to see a movie and do some shopping at the outlets. This was also when I found out Olive was in a group text feed with some boys she didn't know and one boy was sending incredibly vulgar and profane texts, talking specifically about Olive's friend, Jane. It was an infuriating and eye opening parenting experience.
We had one full, free day so we went to Disneyland with Millie and Emerson and Emerson's sister, Delaney, and Maren and Vivienne. Maren's brother and his daughter also came! We got hopper passes so we went to both parks. We ate tons of treats and rode all the best rides! But the BEST part about it was I wasn't in charge! Millie and Delaney organized the fast lane passes and decided where we would go and when. Glorious. No stress. I just got to be a passenger princess. Can't recommend it enough.
Well, turns out, ONE dance from the whole studio qualified for the finals. One out of 40. And Olive was in it. "We've Got Rhythm" It was one of her tap numbers. It's won awards all year because it's unique. There's not music. Olive pulls out some food in the middle and takes a bite and passes it to a couple of the other girls. So I've been in charge of bringing the food to each comp. We've done a Taco Bell burrito, a big soda in a styrofoam cup, a giant lollipop, etc.
They only made it to the finals out of default. Another studio had two dances qualify and they are diplomatic and only let one dance from each studio make it so late in the week we found out they'd have to stay til Friday to compete this dance again. Fun for them, but kind of annoying because we could have left sooner if they weren't in the finals. And you guessed it, it didn't place in the finals. We were told to stay for awards which were at 10pm, but we left after the dance around 5pm. I did not want to START driving home at 10pm and I needed my car to be in the shop getting new tires the next morning. There was some drama with the moms and Taani because of it all. Thankfully, we had a safe drive home. I'm so glad I got to have this experience with Olive. We had a lot of fun together and I'm proud of all she's done this year!
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