Cello recital

Cambrie is getting so good at these cello recitals, her confidence is soaring.  I love seeing her perform and be proud of what she's accomplished.

(The little pill wouldn't let me take a picture with her. This is the best I got!)

 

Spring Concert finale

The last concert of her Junior year was hard for Cambrie.  It was Senior recognition night and she had to say good-bye to so many good friends, especially her very first stand partner Adelaide.  

She has had such good experience with these crazy cellos, from going out to Dairy Queen after every concert and random weekend hangouts.  It will be so weird next year when she is the senior leaving.  In the middle of the concert, their director surprised them with a brand new piece of music and had them sight read it for the audience.  The orchestra was shocked and it was funny watching all of their expressions when they realized Mr. Tafoya was serious and really wanted them to play the piece. Honestly I was very impressed!  

Well done Cambrie, we love hearing you perform.

Level 7 Regionals

As part of our hunt for the best gymnastics coaches for McKenzie, we jumped around to a lot of gyms.  These gyms had posters of their optional girls and their regional qualifiers.  Each time we saw those posters it was a fun dreaming moment, "What if McKenzie qualifies for regionals?"  Then when that dream became a reality at State we couldn't believe it.  She has been living on a high since that meet and we were so excited for regionals.  There were eight girls who qualified from her gym, but at regionals every session is divided up by age.  This meant that we had girls at five different sessions, and McKenzie's plan was to go cheer on each and every one of her teammates, no matter how long we were going to be hanging out at the conference center.  Honestly, it was a lot of uncomfortable bleacher sitting, but it was so much fun and so worth it.  

 It was seriously nerve-wracking watching all of their teammates and wishing them their best meet ever.

Since the girls couldn't be on the competition floor all together, they all signed their rubber duck mascot, Quirky, with motivational notes to each other.  Quirky was able to go to every session and cheer on every girl.

This was the only time all of the qualifying girls were able to hang out together because of the schedule.  Pizza time!  

We didn't do any site seeing while we were in Albuquerque since we spent the entire weekend at the meet.  But we did stumble across these amazing transformer statues built entirely from auto parts.  That was actually really cool.

Bumblebee for Daxton.

Leesa surprised us by coming down to cheer on McKenzie.  We found time to go out for breakfast and this super unique joint named Curious Toast.  The food was delicious, but we were also so intrigued by the local art on display throughout the old home.

This girl wouldn't take a selfie with me before her meet!  This is the best I could get.

"McKenzie Rogers from Gymnastics Unlimited!"

She started on beam, which stresses me out but she doesn't seem to mind. She did great connecting her back walkovers, but fell on her roundoff which never happens.  She wasn't too thrilled about that but still ended up with a, 8.275.

The judging was tight, which isn't surprising for a meet like this.  Even though she felt like she killed it on floor, she didn't get the points she was hoping for.  Bars were the same.  It was a nice clean routine, but she doesn't have the giants and cast handstands the judges want to see.  Vault was the one exception.  She had one of her best vaults ever and scored a 9.475!  That was high enough to earn 6th place.  Earning a medal at regionals is not easy and the coaches and I were so proud of her.  

However, it wasn't exactly the dream meet she was hoping for with her other skills and she needed some cheering up from her teammates.  Teammates are magical.  

It was such an amazing weekend.  She left with a renewed determination and drive to come back for level 8 next year.  She is starting to see what it's like being surrounded by high level competition and it's amazing.  I am so proud of this girl for making her goals a reality!

Mo Pro

There is a lot of dancing going on in April.  Last week was prom and this week it's the stake sponsored, Spring Formal.  The kids all meet together at the stake center for dinner before driving down to Mile High Stadium for the dance.  I was bummed I wasn't there to help serve dinner to the kids, I love seeing them interact and look so good!  I may have had to do some arm twisting, but I was given a couple of pictures from Cambrie that I'm really grateful for.  Oh man, they make me so happy!  She said that they had a great time.  There was some dancing and a lot of hanging out just enjoying friendships. 

NHS and SHF inductee

Take a look at Miss Smarty Pants!  She was admitted into both the National Honor Society and the Société Honoraire de Français!  I am crazy proud of her as she's been working towards these goals. It was not easy and she had to learn a lot about herself to make it happen.  She doesn't love standing up on stage receiving recognition, but she was actually smiling up there and I was just so proud of her.

Bits of randomness

The random pictures off my phone that make me laugh:

Daxton tested into the GT program which means he gets to participate in some fun and extra activities at school.  Most recently they were able to take apart a number counter then reassemble it.

McKenzie rocking the shorts at her rheumatology visit.  

Dare I say this is a perfect grilled cheese?

Wiki stick creations during conference.

Sunshine break (with real glasses) in between conference sessions.

Love seeing them simply interact with each other.  They made a whole album of goofy pictures from the filters on McKenzie's phone.

 

Prom

It's time for Prom!  I always loved going to my school dances.  I know they look very different for Cambrie and her friends than they did for us.  For starters, they don't need a date.  If you want to go, you go.  So this year Cambrie and Isabel teamed up for pictures before the dance and for dinner with a group of her choir friends.  I didn't go with her to take pictures of the group (which apparently is something I'm actually supposed to do, so I'll fix that next year).  These are the pictures she gave me from her friends.  

It was kind of a crazy day leading up to the dance.  She had ordered a red suit to wear, having success with her teal suit in the past.  But at the last minute decided it wasn't what she wanted to wear.  Cue McKenzie.  Cambrie dragged her into her car right around 10:00 am to go dress shopping.  I had no idea what they were going to find, and I was shocked when they came home less than an hour later with a dress that made her look amazing.  She is really proud of her arms and shoulders as a result of her Jiu Jitsu training and this dress made them look good!  She paired her dress with sword earnings just to give it a little bit of that Cambrie spunk.  

The dance was actually down at the Denver Zoo.  Cambrie said it was one of the best dances because when they grew tired from dancing then she and her friends would just go walk around the zoo.  She met up with Matthew and Finlay by the giraffes then spent the rest of the night with them.  I can't share all of her stories about who danced with who, who is now together, who played the best jokes on each other, but I loved hearing them from her.  

This group of guy friends have been her core, stalwart group for the last couple of years and I can't tell their moms enough how grateful I am for them.