We got home from spring break on a Tuesday and had to turn around Thursday to head to Ft. Worth for Marlie's dance Nationals! It was a bit crazy but totally worth it!
Marlie started the weekend dancing her solo. I had been trying to talk her out of doing her solo at Nationals. The floor is small and slippery and I knew she wouldn't be able to practice beforehand since we were skiing! But she begged and I caved. We got up and went downstairs to warm up and run through it a few times. Her friends Lauren and Lexi joined us and she was excited to have them watch. We got dressed and came down and went to watch the high school girls perform. We were watching them when Marlie was supposed to go on (yikes) so we ran into the other ballroom and she was up! She wasn't nervous at all. As she was waiting on stage to perform they were playing music and she was dancing. She danced the best she's danced all year! Her friends were there to cheer her on and she had the time of her life! We got to see Clara dance not long after Marlie and she did so well too!
And we got to take a pic with Mrs. Stacey who started the studio years ago. She is amazing, angelic and a great role model for all of us!
Marlie got to watch Ms. Avery dance just before she went on. I think Avery inspired Marlie to dance well. Avery is such an amazing dancer!
Lauren and Lexi were so sweet to cheer Marlie on. It meant a lot to Marlie having her friends there and I think it's what made her smile so big throughout her performance!
And last but not least, a very proud Mom and Dad. We wished Matt were here but he stayed home with Nene so he didn't miss his baseball tournament! He would have been so proud of his sister (but might have jumped out of his skin watching dance for 2 straight days!).
After all the fun we headed back to our room to get ready for team jazz! This was a super cute dance but the hardest for the girls since they learned it sort of last minute. They were a bit off during their performance but placed 3rd overall. I love these costumes and Marlie's big smiles!
One more team dance to go and we're done for the day. Team contemporary was last for Friday. It's a beautiful dance (my favorite) and the girls did great! They placed 1st and were SO excited!
We slept in Saturday. Only 1 dance today so it would be an easy day! It was time for the Ninja Turtles to go out and Shell-Shock the crowd! They did great and as always the crowd loved it. They placed 3rd for hip hop and the girls were so happy to get a trophy! This is the girls favorite dance.
We took a long nap and then jumped out of bed so we could go watch Marlie's friends Lyla, Lexi and Lauren do their final dances. We got to the convention center just in time to hear them announce the solo finalists. In Marlie's age group (1st-3rd grade) there were 5 finalist. We did not expect at all for Marlie to place. We had plans with everyone to go out for dinner as soon as the girls were done. But guess who's name they called? Marlie Maziur! Marlie and I looked at each other and she said, "Mom they just called my name!" We couldn't believe it. I texted Clara immediately and asked her what to do! All the finalist had to re-dance and we had about an hour or so to get ready. I was trying to show Marlie my excitement without also revealing my shear panic! This means I have to redo hair and makeup, get dressed and she has to dance again!! AHHHH!
Once we got ready we headed down to find Clara. She has made finals too along with several other of our high school girls. We found them hiding, stretching in a back hallway and Marlie was probably most excited about just being here with them getting ready.
She was ready to perform again and everyone was there to cheer her on. My sweet friend Jaime had saved 2 seats right upfront for Doug and I. At this point I was just so crazy proud of her for making finals that I just wanted her to go out there and have fun. And she did. My heart had finally started beating normal by this time and I think this was the only time all year I wasn't nervous for her.
Thank you to all the sweet Moms and friends who cheered her on. I can't imagine how hard it is to go out there and perform for over 2 minutes by yourself. But these people cheered before, during and after and honestly that's why she did well. We had a fun dinner afterwards with Lauren and Lexi before heading to awards that night. Marlie placed 5th and we couldn't have been more excited. To be a 2nd grader and place at Nationals is awesome!
I was exhausted by the time we got back to the hotel (midnightish) but Marlie and Dad were still happy and full of energy! What a fun weekend! Marlie I'm glad you talked me into letting you compete at Nationals. Congratulations my sweet girl!
Since the kids loved their first ski experience last year we decided we had to go again for spring break! This year we decided to go to Deer Valley. Doug and I had skied there before M&M came along and loved it so we thought it would be fun to take the kids. Papa and Nona Lisa joined us which made it much more fun!!
The trip started off well. Two of our four seats got upgraded to Economy Plus. When Doug told Matt that he and Marlie were going to sit in those seats Matt said, "what are we in, Economy Minus?" So that stuck the whole trip...Economy Minus! Hilarious!!
We were a little nervous because the temperatures had been pretty warm and there wasn't much snow on the ground when we flew into Salt Lake City. Thankfully though most of the runs (at least the greens and blues) had plenty of snow so we were in good shape! The kids spent the first 2 days in ski school. Matt was a little frustrated at first that he didn't pick up right where he left off last year but it only took him a day or two before he was flying down the mountain! Marlie did well also. I couldn't believe how brave she was going down a few steep hills! The weather was unusually warm which I loved and we skied most days in 50 degree weather!
It was fun this year...Doug and I got to ski with Matt one day while Marlie was in ski school. It was nice to spend some one-on-one time with him. Doug and Matt had fun skiing together too one morning and that's when Matt discovered he liked the moguls! And then we spent at least 2 days all skiing together! Thankfully all the jumps and entrances into the kids zones were off of the long green runs so Matt was happy skiing those. Otherwise I think I might have gotten left out skiing the greens on my own!! The best part of skiing together was Marlie skiing with the GoPro and narrating the video the entire way down the mountain! She loved it and we all couldn't stop laughing at her play-by-play which was mostly of Matt and how awesome he is!!
Although my peeps didn't want to take a day off of skiing I managed to convince them that our bodies needed a rest and we went tubing! We all loved it and the kids mostly enjoyed going down head first!
Great trip, great weather and great family time! Looking forward to another ski trip next year with my big and little skiers!!
Baseball season is here! It's our first year of kid pitch and I'm amazed at how well these boys are pitching. Matt asked Santa for catchers gear for Christmas and loves playing catcher! You'll also find him at 1st base (I still think he's the best first baseman I've seen play), 3rd base and in center field when the other team can hit. As always we continue to be so proud of Matt for just playing so hard and being a great team member.
The Hooks have won 2 tournaments this year. The first was small, only 4 teams, but the last one was 17 teams and they pulled of 3 solid wins on Sunday to win the championship. Both tournaments the boys got rings, yes no trophies, rings! Matt went to school last week with a necklace that had both rings on it. Hilarious! Looking forward to watching these boys finish out the season! Go Hooks!
Matt was ready for another great season of flag football and a great season it was. Doug and Geoff Houlton led the 3rd and 4th grade Jaguars to a winning season. The games were a little more intense this year but the coaches did great and the boys showed great teamwork and character on the field. I was amazed at how many kids on this team contributed and loved all the high-fiving and hooting and hollering for each other. We were mostly 3rd graders but you would have thought these boys were middle schoolers already the way the talked to each other on the field..."watch the blitz", "contain". What a great group of kids and the icing on the cake...what a great group of parents.
This year the kids moved around quite a bit and learned several positions. Matt of course loved playing defense. He was great at pulling flags and caught a few interceptions too! Coach Geoff did a great job of coaching the defense.
On offense Matt got to play a little bit of quarterback...
running back...
But this year his favorite position was receiver and man can this kid catch the ball! He's just like his Daddy!
He took some pretty hard falls throughout the season and was never afraid to sell out for the ball.
When he wasn't in the end zone already he would run well, making cuts and trying to stay inbounds.
Thank you to Dad and Geoff for all your hard work. These boys have learned so much from you both over the years. In fact this year our boys knew the rules better than our officials!!! It's great to see these friends have the opportunity to play together. We even recruited some of Matt's baseball team to come play so Dylan and Logan joined us which was so fun! Can't wait for next year already!!!
.JPG)
