Oh how I have loved watching Ashlyn compete this season! It has changed her in so many ways! She has grown so much mentally and appreciates so much more in life. She has truly found her passion, or one of them, and it has come in the form of a beautiful natural ability!
On Saturday we had the last competition (isn't it funny how as a people if we are involved in something, even if from the sidelines, we refer to whatever that event is as "we"??!)! The competition was at a place called Lagoon. In Spokane I would most liken it to Silverwood. We were all excited. We had discount passes, parking passes, the works. Ashlyn was dancing at 9 and 11, so that would leave the whole afternoon for fun! YAY!!!
THEN.... we woke up... rain... pouring down rain. POURING!!! I'm being slightly dramatic. We actually knew the night before that it was going to rain and made plans for CJ to stay with Kailey and Canyon, since we had to be out the door by 7AM... and did I mention RAIN?!?!
HO-LY SA-MOKES!!!! It was insane!! POUR-ING!!!! ANDDDD being in the pre-7AM hour... did I even THINK to grab the umbrella when we walked out to the car in the pouring rain??? NOPE!! I sure didn't!!! Thankfully I grabbed an extra jacket (duh??? why???) that we threw over our heads to WAIT IN LINE for the tickets and WALK the block to GET TO the ticket booth AND the area where the competitions were held. UGH! OK, OK, enough of the dramatics... EXCEPT... our feet were totally SOAKED, to the point (after SEVEN HOURS!!!) that the prunes on them were actually hurting! 0% body fat Ashlyn was freezing... it was crazy!
Anyway...
we made it to the pavilion area, and found the dressing room. By the time Ashlyn's team had to be there the competition had only been going for an hour, so the dressing room wasn't too bad (it was later that it was packed and every inch of the floor was a puddle, and smelled like sweaty dancers, and rain... we told eachother we all smelled like wet dogs). There weren't a ton of people there... yet. She got changed, we found her team, AND a spot to park it until it was time for them to line up. The pavilion area was thankfully kind of like a barn/warehouse room, so the area we were in was covered, which also made it very crowded because... it was raining... have I mentioned that?? So, the girls head to line up... via outside, in their little dancing footwear called foot undies. Realized they went to the wrong side, came back in... via outside, went to where they were supposed to line up, but weren't sure that were they were supposed to be, went BACK OUTSIDE through a different door, disappeared for a few minutes, and came back inside... line up... and danced...
Needless to say their foot undies were soaked, and didn't do much good for anything other than slipping around. At one point Ashlyn almost fell flat on her back, that's when you don't see any dancers on the video because I was watching her... but not through the camera. She ended up being fine and...
THE TEAM WON BEST ALL AROUND for this dance in their division!!
Here is their second dance..
Despite the music being started before they were ready....
THEY WON FIRST for this routine!!!
Good job girls!!!
We are finally all dried out and warm... we didn't end up getting sick or anything even!!!
I truly enjoyed the time I got to spend with Ashlyn. Its hard to get individual time with your children, and now, somehow, I owe Kailey a couple of Mommy/Daughter days too.
Ashlyn's company recital is on June 11th, we will actually see her get to dance ballet!! We cant wait... she can because she hates ballet... but she doesn't realize how beautifully she dances either. We are hoping that next year we will have the finances to have her do a solo at these competitions. Its definitely something to look forward too.
