Friday, March 15, 2013

Feis Fun: Early 2013

Going into 2013 Sarah's goal was to get out of prizewinner and the "grades" and into the preliminary champion level of Irish dancing.  Secondly, she wants to dance her best at her first Nationals this summer.  Regardless if she recalls, because the competition will be very tough, she wants to dance well and enjoy the experience.  And finally, she wants to recall at Oireachtas again and hopefully place higher than 15th.  We are happy to say and so proud that she has accomplished goal #1 and will be competing as a preliminary champion at her next feis in April.  Here are some highlights from the feisanna so far this year.

Feis in the Desert, Chandler AZ - January
 1st Place N/PW Slip Jig Special U9

Feis Orange County - February
 1st place N/PW Treble Reel Special U9

Feis Rinnce Conejo Valley, Westlake - March
 5th N/PW U10 Slip Jig Special
5th N/PW U13 Treble Reel Special
8th Junior Tramore U13 Reel Special
14th St. Patrick's Day U13 Special


Ski Week in San Antonio

 There is actually no skiing in San Antonio, but since we are not ski people, we decided to head down to S.A. and visit Opa and Myrtle.  Daddy was in Daytona and the girls always have such a blast visiting the city.  It really is a great place for families and kids.  February is actually a pretty mild month and the Stock Show and Rodeo is in town.  Here is a look into our time there!

First thing we did when we landed was head down to the river walk.  It was a perfect 70 degree day so we had a little Mexican food at Casa Rio, one of our favorite spots, and enjoyed the afternoon.  The girls got ice cream and we enjoyed walking around.
 



We then went back to the house.  Lauren with her Opa.

The next day we headed out to the Stock Show and Rodeo.  I remember growing up going every year to this.  For 2 weeks you can go and see all the animals, ride the carnival rides, and see a rodeo every night.  The girls don't get much of the country experience I grew up with so I thought this would be a great activity for us to do.  They LOVED it.  They had fun seeing the animals (although Lauren refused to walk through the cattle barn.  She about passed out from the smell!) They enjoyed the rodeo, too!  Sarah was a bit sensitive to the calf roping and any competition that involved strangling or wrestling an animal, but she is my very sensitive, free spirited California girl, so  I wasn't surprised.  On a related note...she has often talked about going vegetarian because she can't stand the thought of the animals being killed, but then she always says, "But bacon is so good!"  I have to concur.  So is Thanksgiving turkey, steak and lobster, and that good ole In n Out burger!

For our next outing we headed out to Natural Bridge Caverns and Wildlife Ranch.  This was a new experience for all of us and I HIGHLY recommend it.  The animals at the wildlife ranch were amazing and you can get super close to them and feed them.  The caverns were also way cool.  Lauren was a little afraid to go into the caves because they were dark, so Myrtle stayed above ground with her.  Sarah on the other hand, loved it and it was really awesome!

The last day we went to Gruene for a little shopping and Landa Park in New Braunfels so the kids could play a little.  Great little park that is even better in the summer. Here is Opa with his grand-daughters.

One more night was had eating out for Mexican food.  This time we went to Mi Tierra.  A San Antonio landmark.  Great food, atmosphere, bakery, and it NEVER closes! 

Flying home....oh look,  you can see where our house was when we lived in Riverside from the plane!  Next to that reservoir. Almost ready to land!





Valentines Day 2013

I am a little behind on blogging.  I blame pinterest.  So I am going to attempt to catch up!

Valentine's Day this year was so super fun.  As tradition goes I made the girls breakfast for dinner and we had chocolate fondue for dessert.  I set a pretty little table complete with roses and gifts.  Daddy was out of town working again this year, so he had special gifts for them.  New dresses! 


Judging by the look Lauren's face...this might have been the last year we do the chocolate fondue.  She didn't love it this year! 


Sarah also had her Valentine's Cotillion.  It was so cute and she had so much fun!



We had lots of fun preparing for the day.  Homemade Valentine's for Sarah's friends and heart shaped cookies to give as gifts!  Such a fun day! 

Daddy and I were even able to get away for a little retreat to Terranea the week before for a little R&R and spa time!

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Western Region Oireachtas 2012

              This is my girl!

I am such a proud mom.  (can you tell?) Sarah began her road to Oireachtas last January by starting to travel to competitions basically once a month.  She would take class 2-3x a week, plus drill classes, plus additional private classes.  She did about 15 competitions this year (that is a lot considering we don't have local competitions but about 6 months out of the year).  We traveled to Texas, Phoenix-3x, San Fransisco and San Diego.  Her goal all year was to become Prizewinner level in all her dances and recall at Oireachtas.

Just to give you a little background on what Oireachtas is...it is a regional Irish dance competition and for kids that compete in U10 and up it is a world qualifying event.  So pretty big deal.  Sort of an Olympic trials of Irish dance if you will.  This year Oireachtas was in Bellevue, WA and kids from all over the western region of the US were there to compete.  There were 39 in Sarah's U8 group, which was actually a pretty small group.  So on the one hand you can look at it as though she didn't have much competition, or you can look at it as a tougher competition because only 1/2 the dancers recall and that means only about 18/19 spots are up for grabs.  When the girls start the competition they do a soft shoe dance (reel) and a hard shoe dance (jig) and those scores are totaled and the top 1/2 recall.  So Sarah's goal was just to make the cut.  Being a non-championship dancer (prizewinner level is just below prelim champion) it was a tall order.  Normally girls that recall are all of the championship level when it gets to Oireachtas.  So here is my girl....

Big smiles because she RECALLED!
Even bigger smiles because she got 15th!

I couldn't be more proud.  She worked hard and she danced well and it was a great time all around.  Here are some pics to prove it!
Ready to dance
 Kelly School U8's
 U8 Finalists
 My girls!  So proud of Lauren for being so good and sitting through long days of competition!

 Sarah with Ronan McCormack.  One of her choreographers.

While in the greater Seattle area we decided to make a vacation out of it.  We had never been up there before and we had friends to see and lots of touristy things to do.  Here are some of the highlights.  It was a great Thanksgiving week and we had much to be thankful for!

Seattle Aquarium



Pike Street Market
Original Starbucks!!

Ferry ride - Skyline at night
Space Needle

EMP- Nirvana


Pacific Science Center

Snoqualmie Falls

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