We celebrated a bit here and there leading up to my birthday. Jason's parents were visiting and took us out to eat on Thursday and we enjoyed a delicious homemade Puerto Rican dinner with them on Friday. They sang and gave me some gifts then. Saturday I was at the dance competition most of the day. Jason and his parents could come to the earlier dances and it was fun to share that with them.
Victoria and I got home at 12:30am on my birthday. The time changed, giving me one less hour, and it was snowing when we went to church that morning, so not the best wake-up on your birthday, but at least the rest of the day was restful and full of fun messages, conversation, and time with my family. My friend took me to lunch today and we're going to go to the temple and have dinner with some friends on Friday to celebrate more, so that'll be nice.
I love my family and friends!
This is Abuelo's new truck that he came out here to pick up. Very nice!
Two weeks ago Victoria's dance studio participated in the CRU dance competition in Dearborn, MI. It's a harder competition with more studios at the elite level. Dancin' Feet is at the intermediate level. The determining factor for what level a studio is is the amount of time they practice. At Dancin' Feet, Victoria participates in regular dance classes, 3 days a week for around 2-3 hours each class. On Fridays, they have competition practice for up to 5 hours. A couple of times there will be a Saturday 5-hour competition practice. This seems like a nice, load of practices, and a lot of them are even able to participate in other activities- like Victoria is on the track team and participated in the Winter Throws Club. She also has a job and church obligations. I can't imagine having to uphold an elite studio practice schedule!
At CRU Victoria and all the other dancers from our studio danced beautifully and claimed some amazing awards, despite going against some pretty tough competition. They weren't scored against the elite teams in all categories since they are on different levels, but they were in some. For all the numbers they danced, they scored from the top 10 to the top 2, which was Victoria's trio dance. They received all Ultimate Elite and Superior adjudications, which are the top in CRU. Their group number Jailhouse Rock was called back as part of the Entertainment Showdown. For Victoria's solo, she was invited to perform at the Broadway National Company in Universal Studios Florida, next January. We looked into sending her there since she'll be off track from BYU I in January, but it seems like the biggest honor is just to be invited. No one from our studio goes, or from a lot of studios this far away, because of the time commitment and cost. She's fine with that. In fact, she was looking forward to the next competition that occurred this past weekend, and then on to Nationals in July.
Saturday's competition was the Empire Dance Challenge. It's with pretty much all intermediate dance studios, so Dancin' Feet definitely "shows up" there. They have a different scoring system from CRU, so Victoria received High Gold for her solo and trio and Platinum for the rest. Those are the top two levels of scores. All numbers were in the top 10 again. They received Best Precision for Singing in the Rain, best senior large groups for Singing in the Rain and Jailhouse Rock, Best Teen Production for Jailhouse Rock, and a special judges' award for Stand By Me for dancing with "feeling".
Whether or not they get top scores, I'm so proud of the hard work they all put into it, and love watching Victoria and her friends dance. Their main instructor, George, works so hard, as well as the other instructors. It will be sad to move on after Nationals this summer. She's worked with George for so many years!
These pictures and videos are all from CRU. I paid for the package from there since you're not allowed to record, though I do have one pic that I took at Empire of the trio since it captures the beginning formation better. Some dances were performed better at CRU, and some at Empire, but the quality of the pictures are amazing since they're professional.
Trio- Everybody Wants to be a Cat
Solo- I Think It's Going to Rain Today
Large Group-Jailhouse Rock
Small Group- Make You Feel My Love
Group-Singing in the Rain (which they did last year, but it's such a favorite, they have to perform it at Nationals, which they haven't done yet.)
Group- Stand By Me
The beginning of Cat at Empire (they creep out of the curtains, which adds so much to the dance!)
On the Saturday of the CRU competition, Victoria was able to participate in the States throwing competition for weight throw, which she qualified for. It wasn't her best throw, but considering she had danced the night before at CRU and then had an early wake-up time to make it to States, she was awesome! I mean, how many dancers can say they just threw a 25 lb ball 23 feet, the weekend of their dance competition?
What dancers do when waiting to throw- dance!
The best throwers in the state!
What happens when you throw early after a late night of dance-slap happy!
People finally got power back after that ice storm, the puddles were finally starting to dry up, and there was no ice nor snow on the ground, then we got hit with a snowstorm Friday afternoon. Luckily, school wasn't canceled because they followed the weather predictions, which were actually pretty accurate. However, they did cancel after-school activities, which was also a good call. The one thing that wasn't canceled was Victoria's dance practice and parent meeting immediately following it. Next weekend is our next competition and George didn't want to practice the night before the competition. Jason was perceptive as we watched the snow pile up outside. There was more lightning, which they call "Thundersnow" and is a song that Kai played in orchestra recently. Jason and I agreed that he should go with me to the meeting so that he could drive Peppa (Victoria's car) home while I drove Cinnamon.
Good thing he did! When we came out of the meeting into the 6 inches of snow that had just fallen in the previous 5 hours, Peppa being only a little Ford Fusion, couldn't carve its way through the unplowed snow. So, Peppa had to stay at the Summit Friday night while we all drove back in Cinnamon. Another good thing since the defrost wasn't working and I couldn't see a thing! The windshield was fogged up, the snow was coming down, and it was night. So Jason had to take over and try his best to get us home safely. Victoria thought the adventure was a blast.
Again, we kept our power, but many places lost it. Lots of trees were ruined, due to the fact they just went through an ice storm and then got pounded on with heavy snow. Here's what our yard looked like yesterday morning.
The way they bend is not good!
That apple tree was always leaning, but we believe it is now uprooted because it's leaning too much.
The forsythia in front looks awful!
Around 11am on Saturday, the roads were still not plowed and Jason had to go through the grooves of previous cars, surrounded by piles of wet snow on the roads themselves, to help a friend whose car was in a ditch from the night before. When I left at noon, the roads were better. I took Erik and a couple of friends sledding, which was the only good thing out of this storm. Erik got to sled this winter, which hadn't happened due to Austin's broken arm, and Austin and his friend didn't even want to come with us, now that his arm is healed. Oh well, we had fun and it turned out to be a beautiful sunny day!
.jpg)
.jpg)
