Dance, Dance, Dance!

 If you haven't noticed by the uptick in my Facebook posts, we have had many big events happening. I'm way behind in blogging it all, so this one is all devoted to dancing, in some form, and Victoria. 

Almost a month ago now, she went to prom with her prom "squad" as the group quickly became close and they hung together in the days leading up to prom and then afterward. You may also remember the cute "promposal" that Jack did at Senior Night for track. 

My mom and I got to sneak a peek at the girls getting ready and when the boys arrived to pick them up. We followed them to Mill Race Historical Village where we took group pics and I had to contain my excitement at all the cute couples. 💓

It took Victoria, my mom, and me to get the boutonniere to stay on right, but his was the only one that stayed on the whole night!

Each one of these kids is one of Victoria's really good friends, so it made it extra special and fun!

They went to dinner at Ford's Garage, which offers grill and food items similar to Applebee's, and then to the dance. Instead of going to a big party after the dance, they opted to go to Mallory's for a movie instead, which I was happy about. When Victoria returned home just after midnight, I was shocked and pleased. It being on a Thursday night probably helped with the earlier arrival home. The seniors were done with school by then, but there were a couple of juniors in the group, so they had to go to school the next day! 

A week after prom was Victoria's last dance recital. Since she has been dancing at Dancin' Feet for 15 years, this was probably the hardest "final thing" for me. 15 years is a long time! They highlighted the seniors with a picture video of them at the beginning and a segment where each was highlighted by how long they've been dancing and what they're going to do next, plus acknowledgments for all the teacher and family support. When I went to take her lunch in between recitals and before volunteering at the bake sale, I was already losing it and broke down. Luckily, that ended up being the biggest emotional moment for me, besides just getting teary-eyed later while watching her dance. We had some friends come and watch and when I'm around people, I tend not to be as emotional, so that was good. They kept me calm and level-headed!

This is when I lost it.

Senior highlights. Victoria was the Tinman.

James Bond contemporary.

Tap Company

Jazz

Senior number. It was Old McDonald and was hilarious! Victoria was a pig.

Jason was in the Dad's dance again.

Grandma fan!

Fans!

Dance buddies

We didn't get a family pic there.

This was why: Jason was coughing like crazy and had to wear a mask, except when he was on stage, Austin had an ear infection, Erik had just broken his pinkie, Kai was still in her cast, Victoria broke her toe, and I was just exhausted!

We ordered the dance DVD (thanks Gramms!) so I didn't record the dances at the rehearsals or the recital, which we're not supposed to then anyhow, but I recorded some of my favorites from the DVD to my phone so I could put them here (I know- weird and backward). There will be one more dance event to go to in a couple of weeks at Nationals! (Here are a few of her 12 dance numbers, plus the Dad's dance because it's awesome!)

A week after the recital, Victoria and I went to see Taylor Swift! You may remember that her Christmas gift was the tickets that somehow Jason got, even though everything crashed when all the "Swiftys" were trying to buy tickets. They were very affordable too! A quick background on T. Swift for the grandparents: this was the Eras Tour where she featured songs from all of her different musical eras. There are many of them. The thing to do at her concerts is to dress up as from one of her eras, or a combo. Victoria helped me find a top that represented the Reputation Era. Also, my top was bejeweled, so it went with one of her songs. I got it from Plato's Closet which actually had sections of the store dedicated to the concert and I only paid $8.99 for it!! It totally reminds me of my Grandma Joyce. She would have worn something like that to church! Victoria got a skirt and decided to wear one of her dance costumes as the top and sunglasses that represent the Lover era. It was very fun!

Of course, the dance costume is a little different when you're going out in public, but she still looked sweet and innocent😇

The concert was super good, just as everyone has said. Girl in Red was one of the opening acts, one of Kai's favorites, so we enjoyed that part for her. For the main concert, everyone got lit-up bracelets that were connected to the music and lit up at just the right times in different colors, too! In the song Lovers, somehow the bracelets lit up in the right places to make heart patterns at either side of Ford Field. It was amazing!  The dancing, the music, the special effects and props, the costumes, and Taylor's supporting dancers, singers, and the band were all fantastic. It was a great show. My one complaint is that Swiftys are too excited to sing way too loudly! My eardrums were about to explode because at parts of songs they were all screaming the words. At times I almost couldn't hear Taylor, but she must have had a pretty good mic.

I was a zombie the next day, due to lack of sleep for my old bones, but it was worth it. I had different Taylor Swift songs in my head for the rest of the week!

MVP

 Erik got the xray and he doesn't need surgery, just 3 more weeks in the cast- hooray! There is a shard of bone that will round out on its own since he's young, but if it doesn't, they'd have to file it down after the cast is off. Always something to keep us on our toes!

Now that the soccer season ended and the medals and trophies have been given out with pictures taken, I can finally post this. Erik's team, the Sharks are fantastic and had an amazing season! They were undefeated in the regular season, beating most teams by at least 6 goals. At the Canton Cup, they got 2nd place. They lost during the first game to Erik's best friends' team, his twin friends from church. It was a tough game and the Raptors were ready for us. Their coach had come to our last game to watch how we played and they brought their best game against us! We choked and had some very bad calls by the ref, but we learned from it. 

The next day, we came ready for our game and played well, but it still was close, even though we won. Our next game was scheduled for Sunday morning, during sacrament meeting. I had already said we weren't going to make it because we only have 3 Deacons and Erik takes his Priesthood responsibilities very seriously. We would have our final game just after church and we figured that would be good enough. Well, after watching the Sharks during the Saturday evening game, I wondered if I should have him play the next morning after all. He's one of the main goalies and a very tough defender. I knew how badly they wanted to win the final two games and I also knew that our Sunday morning game was to a team that we had lost to the previous 2 Canton Cups, and the only one we lost to then. However, I kept telling myself that his going to church was indeed the better option and that he would be well-rested for the final game only a couple hours later. That night, Jason received a text from Erik's very good friend's dad from the team. He is a Sikh and a man of high integrity. I sit with his wife at every game. He said in essence, that while he knows how important Sundays are for us in our worship and for family time, he really felt like the team needed Erik at the Sunday morning game and if we could find it in our hearts to let him go, the team would really appreciate it. 

So, we decided to let him go. I took him to the game, which started 30 minutes before sacrament meeting. Everyone else went to church. 

I have to say that I didn't expect to have a turnout the way we did when we chose to miss church for this game. The team played the best they'd ever played against the very tough Tigers and Erik played his personal best ever! We had a pretty good first half offensively. It was back and forth, but the best part was Erik got to play midfield for part of it and scored his first goal ever! We were ahead 3-1 at the half and the Tigers came back for the second half with a vengeance. They were on our side for most of the second half and our defense played hard. It turned out that Erik was goalie for the second half and while the Tigers kept shooting and shooting, not a single one got past Erik! He blocked 10-11 shots, one after the other. The other parents around me started calling him the MVP of the game and I was just amazed at my boy out there playing his heart out. The score stayed 3-1 to end the game and we had finally beaten the Tigers! I was so shocked at how well he had played and was excitedly talking to the other parents about it and the final game only two hours later, that I didn't see the team holding Erik up on their shoulders and chanting "MVP!" until they were just about to set him down. I got to soak it in for a brief moment, almost in tears but missed that amazing photo op. 

Coach was so proud of the team for our long-desired win and so grateful Erik was there. Our last game was also very close and the game ended up in a tie, but we still took 2nd place in the Canton Cup because that team had lost to two teams, whereas we only lost to one. 

It took a couple of weeks to get the trophy and then the medals for both the Canton Cup and the regular season, so when we finally had our last gathering and scrimmage on Tuesday, Erik was all cast up from his break that occurred later in the day after our final game of the season. I'm glad he made it through and so grateful for the growth he made during this season! Now he just has to heal for the next season in the fall. Go Sharks!

Erik's not afraid of getting in there to defend!

He's very good at communicating and supporting his teammates. He's sometimes like a mini coach because of his viewpoint as a defender or goalie and can tell teammates when to move up or move back. At one game, when we were 7 points ahead, he was playing defense and waiting for some action on our end, he turned and looked at me and said, "Hi Mom!" It was hilarious because it was so unexpected and out of the blue! 

Goalie!

I don't know how I don't have a better pic than this at this particular game, but I love his smile!

Two medals!

And a trophy!

The OG teammates from our previous team years ago that are together on the Sharks team, but Nielesh is going to try out the travel team. We'll miss him!