Perfect Timing!

Victoria's dance studio finally got to enter some dance competitions this year. They only got to compete in one, two years ago. The other two were canceled due to covid, no surprise there.  Last year, there were competitions,  but fewer of them, and the competition leader, George, was going through extreme cancer treatments and recovery for most of last year. He's one of those people for whom just about everything went wrong during covid. They have recently found another spot on his liver, so we're all praying that he can get through another round. Needless to say, last year we weren't in a position to compete.

This year, we have two competitions we're scheduled in. Last weekend was the first one and this weekend is the other. It's nice to have them scheduled two weekends in a row. My mom wanted to come to experience a competition with us, so she came last week. It turned out to be perfect timing because we didn't have school Friday or Monday for mid-winter break/President's day. 

This post will be about our visit with Grandma Pat. After the competition this weekend I'll post all the details about both competitions, though you can see some info on Facebook about last weekend's success in the competition.

As usual, my mom joined me at work each morning. We have lots of fun at Red Bell and it's enjoyable to have another adult there, especially one who can teach Yoga! 

The backs of my adorable students!

We ended up getting some crazy weather. All the snow melted with all the rain we got on Wednesday. Then everything froze up and we got a new fresh pile of snow on Thursday. I was supposed to host book club that night at my house, a book which my mom had also read, but we ended up doing it over Zoom, so I still led the questions, but I didn't make any treats or get to host it in my new sunroom. Tumbling for the boys and dance class was canceled because of the road conditions. So, if there had been school scheduled for Friday, it would have been canceled. I was still scheduled for work Friday because of all the school we've missed recently due to covid and snow days. We wanted to give the kids some days that normally would be off, a chance to come in, though Red Bell is open all the time for the childcare kids, this was an opportunity for those who attend the preschool program. Being such crazy weather, not as many showed up, but I enjoyed it and my mom took my kids to see Sing 2 at the movies. 

By the time we all returned, the sun was shining and the roads were still lousy, but my mom and I took the boys sledding while Victoria and Kai hung out with friends. 

Erik going down with speed!

Austin actually didn't sled, he snowboarded!

Saturday morning we were up bright and early for the competition, which took most of the day. Jason dropped Kai and Austin off at the church for a stake volleyball and pizza activity (finally getting some church activities going again!) Erik got to help Jason move a family out of our ward and watch the Friend Face to Face. So they all kept busy. They even got to see some of Victoria's dances on live stream.

I taught my 16-17-year-old Sunday School class on Sunday (my daughters are both in that class now!) and we had a normal, relaxing Sunday. 

On Monday, I took advantage of our zoo pass and we went to Toledo with Austin, Erik, Kai, and her friend CJ. My mom hadn't been to the zoo in a while. We got a warm sunny spell that day and Toldeo is about 8 degrees warmer than Canton, so that was nice! All the indoor parts were closed because it was President's day, but we enjoyed the outdoors and the animals we could see there. Since we didn't spend time in the aquarium or the reptile house, where we usually spend a lot of time, we finished at the zoo much sooner than normal. So, we went to a nearby park and I can't believe how much fun these teens and preteens had there! It was a little slushy and very muddy, but we avoided getting too messy since we're all capable of that nowadays.

It looks like those kids are in with the tigers!

Red Panda

The otters put on a good show!

We don't often see the elephants because we always run out of time and they're at a hot part of the zoo. 

Beautiful bald eagle

We did some NInja Warriors wall climbing at the park when they were done at the playground.

Then they had to throw ice chunks in the river.

Quirkle in the evening.

Even though my mom didn't plan on coming for days off, it turned out that way and worked great!

Stay tuned for dance competition updates!