Vacation Update
December 17, 2007
Vacation continues to go nicely. I really needed some time off. The last part of the year at work was rough. I still haven’t decided if I am going to go back to work on the 2nd of January or delay until the 7th. I had been thinking the 2nd, but the kids are trying to get me to make it the 7th since they have that whole week off from school.
On Saturday, Suzanne and the kids had their annual Christmas dance recital with the Alma Dolores International Dance Centre. This tends to be the biggest production of the year. Unfortunately, its also the performance with the most little kids. One can only take so many 4 and 5 year olds up on stage trying to dance. Don’t get me wrong, we were there with our kids too, so I fully understand the families and how they like it. I just wish they didn’t cut out a large portion of the older kids and adults from this recital.
All that said, this recital was the most crowded that I have seen yet. Almost the entire theater was jammed pack and some folks had to stand up for the show. When the first act ended, it cleared out somewhat because most of the little kids had to go home for bed. Sean and Savannah did very well in their dances and had a great time. Suzanne didn’t actually dance in this recital, but as the pom pom teacher and song and dance teacher at the dance studio, she had several numbers in the show. Her pom pom class continues to be popular and growing in size. In fact, its too big and there was too many kids on the stage at once. They still looked pretty good, but if you have 50 girls on stage, at their age, there is no way to keep them all in time. After the first of the year, she will be breaking the pom pom class into two classes to keep the size more manageable.
The kids have finally won us over and sometime this coming week we will likely be getting them cell phones. We have wanted to wait until they are old enough, but will all of our activities, there are times that we give them one of ours so we know where everyone is and what they are doing. It is just making sense to get them a phone. There will obviously be some strict rules on when they can and can’t use them. It will cost $10 a month apiece to add them to our current plan. For a normal month, they will pay us half the bill out of their chore earnings. If they are particularly bad in a month, they will foot the whole bill. If they should happen to have an outstanding month, we will pick up the whole month tab. Hopefully, this cost / sharing type of arrangement will help them be responsible. It doesn’t hurt that I want to get myself a new phone too – probably one of those LG Voyagers.
We had a nice sight in our yard today as the local herd of antelope when strolling by our house. The herd size is definitely up this year, which is good. Enjoy the prong horn antelope images below. They were taken from our back porch.
Savannah’s Cheerleading Squad Takes 2nd
November 3, 2007
In a VERY long day, Savannah’s cheerleading squad earned a second place in the regional cheerleading competition. Her squad competed in the normal category. There was also an elite category where more stunts, tricks and stuff are done.
Unfortunately, this whole event seemed extremely disorganized and haphazard. It was very frustrating for Sean and I and many, many other folks that were there. They were intolerably behind schedule. We were told to be there at 12:00 for Savannah’s competition. It was 2:15 before they actually performed. The venue for the competition also was very short on parking spaces and seating spaces for folks. Quite a few folks were grumbling while we were there.
I don’t have a clue what they were thinking because each squad was given 2 and 1/2 minutes for their performances. They then put 10 – 15 minutes between each performance. There was much more down time than actual cheer time. They also gave periodic 20 minute breaks that went closer to 30 minutes. It should have been a lot easier to predict the performance times than they did. Since most of the time was down time, it should have been really easy to control and stay on schedule.
Of course, the competition wasn’t put on for me. The girls seemed to quite enjoy the downtime between performances as they played dance music and the girls all got up and danced during the breaks. In truth, it seemed more like a giant dance party for a few hundred girls than a cheerleading competition.
Savannah did really well and pulled of her stunt nicely. She smiled well and was easily heard in the crowd. The whole squad did much better than I expected. Suzanne is the coach and had some issues with a few of the girls this year. They seemed to pull together nicely for the competition. Savannah was quite content with a second place finish.
So, football and cheerleading are done for another year. We get our Saturdays back, but will miss watching the kids compete.
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