Ballerinas and Monster Trucks

We had a very busy weekend and will have several busy weekends for the next few weeks. On Saturday, we got up bright and early for the Idaho Dance Fest competition. We arrived at 7:30 a.m. and didn't leave until 8:00 p.m. with the exception of taking a lunch break. Abigail's dance teams did well and really, I thought all of the other teams did well too. I thought the competition was a good representation of dance in Idaho. At the end of the day the dancers did a dance down. A Dance Down is where a choreographer teaches a dance and then the dancers are judged according to memorization, personality, and technique, there was also a freestyle section. There were four categories Novice (age 5-7), Beginner (age 8-10), Intermediate (age 11-14), and Advanced (age 15 and up). Abigail was in the Novice category and she WON! I was shocked. There were about 30 other girls in the Novice age group and she was the last dancer standing. The judges give the dancers a ribbon if they want you to sit down until there are three dancers left and then the dancers do a dance down. Lots of pressure and kind of scary if you ask me. There are two runners up and a winner. The winner gets a trophy and a certificate. ABI WON! I was laughing and about to cry and her little heart was beating so fast, but she worked that dance floor. Proud mommy moment for sure! I am so bummed though that I didn't get a video recording or picture of it. I wasn't prepared for the outcome that is for sure. Her other dances Yellow and World of Toys did well. Yellow got four stars and a technique award and World of Toys got five stars and a high score of the day.
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This picture is of Abigail and some of the "toys" in her dance. Abigail is the toy soldier, there is a bear, jester, ballerina, and a doll (the doll didn't want to be in the picture).

Below is a link to the World of Toys dance. I have to say that this dance wasn't Abigail's best performance, you can tell that she really has to go to the bathroom and the distraction of having to "go" makes her get off beat for a little bit. I am still proud of her though, even if she is doing an underlying potty dance. She is the toy soldier in the front of the soldier group in the red shirt. The one in the white shirt is a little boy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzlGy8dPj3Q&feature=share

Abigail has become really good friends with a little girl named Maddie Long at dance. They are buddies and really cute together.

This is one dedicated dance dad! He woke up at 6:30 to cook Abigail french toast for breakfast before her competition. I was just going to feed Abigail a bowl of cold cereal.

Since we experienced all things girly at the dance competition it was time to get in touch with our red-neck side and go to the Monster Truck Rally. I don't think I have ever seen the ISU Holt Arena so full. And wow, there were some interesting walks of life that came out of the wood-works for this show. Darin got free tickets because he had to work after the show hauling away the smashed cars. It was a fun and EXTREMELY LOUD experience.

This truck was the girls favorite. It's name was BIG FOOT!

Sometimes the trucks didn't make their jumps over the cars and they had to be towed away.

We got some pretty good shots with our camera. Too bad they were blurry.

This was a tow truck. Elizabeth was pretty mesmorized by the moveable hood.The girls had fun at their first Monster Truck Show. What a long day! 12 hours of dance and 3 hours of Monster Trucks. Everyone slept well after all was said and done.