Cheerleading - Audrey's group had a fantastic year winning all 3 local competitions, were Georgia state champs, and 2nd place at Nationals. Pretty impressive if you ask me! More importantly, Audrey was happy. She loved it! She has some new skills. Her shyness dropped at least one notch. :) She even won the "Blossom" award this year. Both her coaches spoke highly of her and the changes in skill and personality she made through the season. She wouldn't speak to anyone in the beginning, but by the end she was leading and helping other girls. So proud! She couldn't do a cartwheel at the beginning of the season and now she has a beautiful one, a spectacular round off, and working on a back walk over. Both girls are currently in a gymnastics/tumbling class and love it!
Disney - Cheerleading Nationals were in Orlando this year, so we made it a full blown family vacation. We were there seven nights. We stayed in a beautiful resort. When the team commitments and competition was over, it was time to play! This was, after all, the girls' first visit to Disney! We had a 4 day hopper pass and we wore it out! Day #1 was Magic Kingdom. The girls really enjoyed meeting the characters (starting with Rapunzel) and all the cool rides. Love some animatronics (is that a word?)!! Day #2 was Animal Kingdom which I like to refer to as a zoo on steroids. This was my first time there and although we didn't get to do everything we wanted, we were exhausted by the end of the day. (Maddie fell asleep at 6:30 on the shuttle ride back to the resort and didn't wake up until 7:30 the next morning!) I LOVED the Lion King show. And, Maddie got chosen to be in the show, which was adorable! Derek got me on a crazy roller coaster, but I survived. lol Day #3 was to Epcot. First time I've ever been there, too. Loved all the countries. Again, lots of characters to meet (aka lots of standing in line). Great shows! We all loved the Spaceship Earth (?) ride. I was totally impressed with how intrigued Audrey was and how as we went through the different time periods, she remembered (and was excited) at all she knew that we had studied. She asked questions through the whole ride. Day #4 was Hollywood Studios. I really enjoyed this one (Hello, Tower of Terror is there!). We had some rain that day, but nothing terrible. All in all, we had a fantastic time. The 8 hour trip was not bad at all. The kids did really well. But, I seriously needed a vacation to rest from my vacation of fun when we got home. LOL
Derek is sooo loving his job! He is traveling a lot more than he was, but he is so happy. And, they are really pleased with his work. He's a smart dude! =) Silly boy has put himself in the running to go to Singapore for a year, so stay tuned! He's still active in his culinary group, as well. We've found a new Bible Fellowship at church that we both like and he's had some activities with the guys there. Other than that, he works a lot. And, he's trying to re-enroll at UT to finish his PhD.
I am still very active in singing at church with the WOW group. LOVE, love, love it! The ladies are amazing and the ministry opportunities are fantastic. I'm also getting to do some more choreography through the church. Our Children's spring musical is coming up soon and I'll be doing a flag number, ballet number, and cheer routine. Fun!! I'm doing a couple of songs with the Conservatory of Music for their spring production. I'll also be helping with some other programs in the coming months, but will wait to elaborate on that later. =)
I will do a separate post for homeschool for all those interested in how that's going.
Oh my word, you all are busy! I'm envious of that Disney trip. I love going there!