SYTYCD: A Magical Night

We had been waiting for this night since July. And just so you all know, I brought a perfectly good camera with me. And the battery was dead. A little part of my heart died when I discovered that. I'm not kidding. So I was stuck using my phone and couldn't take pictures of the stage because of the glare - didn't know until today that I could take the flash off my phone - bummer. Anyway...back to our magical night. We arrived around 6:30 and ate dinner at the same BBQ place that we ate at last year at So You Think You Can Dance. Why mess with a good thing? btw, I love pulled pork. Yes sir, I do.

After we made our way to the arena and down, down to our seats ON THE FLOOR! Super close on the floor. Like close enough to see facial expressions and see tears. That close.

Me and my better half. I love my husband. Not only because he's more obsessive about SYTYCD than me, but also because he makes me laugh so hard that sometimes my stomach hurts.

This girl is so awesome. And she is totally her mother's daughter. Which makes her super awesome.

*I had a picture of Tiffany to post here, but since I value our friendship, I didn't post it. Even though she looked hot in it.

Lisa and Julie came too. Btw, Julie's hair is magical. She can flip it and people give her what she wants. I've seen it.

The show was everything I wanted it to be and more. Seriously. So many of the dances gave me the chills. And since it was the last night of the tour and Lauren & Ade's hometown, the dancers were in high form. Ade and Allison switched outfits for the bollywood number. Lauren lifted Kent (instead of the other way around) during the disco number. All the girls wore mustaches during that number. Jose and Dominic stuffed their pants for their hip hop number. And Dominic was freakin' hilarious. He totally stole the show.

We decided after intermission to give each worthy dance a standing ovation. We are such nerds, but it was so much fun. And we totally made eye contact with the dancers. Ian swears he had a "moment" with Kathryn.

My favorite dances included: Fix You, the best friend's dance, the Mad World dance and the prom dance. I also loved the dance with Russell, Dominic and Jose. Mostly because of Dominic. I would've loved the Alice in Wonderland dance but they put Lauren in instead of Allison. It was still good though.

A picture of the stage at the end. I wanted to remember how close we were. Because it was the last night of the tour, the director put a montage together and we got to watch it with the dancers. This is the dancers leaving after.

Ok, so after we were waiting in line to get t-shirts when a woman approached Julie (it's the hair) and gave her 2 backstage passes. Of course she took Lisa backstage with her so the rest of us waited in a room by one of the exits. There were also a whole bunch of teenagers there with shirts that said something like, "I loved Lauren before America". Whatever. Anyway, when the security guard asked them why they were loitering they said they were waiting for Betsy Frodman (Lauren's mom) to give them backstage passes.

A couples minutes later in comes Betsy with a bag full of backstage wrist bands. She starts handing them out. I beg Ian to get some for us. But he won't. Then we see super creepy guy ask Betsy and she gives him two. I guess Ian figured at this point, why not? So he went over and had a conversation with Betsy while me, Tiffany and Tayler tried to pretend we didn't know him (I know I told him to do it but it was still embarrassing!). So....thanks to Ian we got to go backstage to meet the dancers! WOOOOHOOO!!!!!

We quickly made contact with Lisa and Julie and then waited. In the meantime Julie used her hair to get us some posters from Betsy (I feel like it's ok to be on a first name basis with her because she did give us the passes). A while later, the dancers came up!! I first saw Dominic and Ade and right then I felt like my evening was complete.

Dominic was rad. I asked him if he was still in Quest Crew and he said "no" but hoped to be in it again some day. WE LOVE YOU DOMINIC!

Then we met Ade. We had to wait because he was hugging his mom and family. But it was worth it. I told him he was my favorite dancer - which is mostly true. If you haven't seen him dance, I'm sorry. He is amazing.

Ian was a little obsessed with Kathryn. He's pretty upset that this picture is blurry. Hey! I was using my phone! She was gorgeous and super nice. I could've stayed and chatted with her all night.

We tried to get to Kent but a whole bunch of old ladies were surrounding him. Poor kid. He was so awesome. Oh! and I loved the Kent/Allison relationship dance. LOVED IT!

Here is Allison and Ian. We have loved Allison from the beginning when she danced with Ivan to "Why". And remember when she left and Travis was crying and she danced around him. I'd pay good money to see Allison and Travis dance together. We told her we loved her.

I also met Billy but he was snotty. So whatever. The other girls got a picture with Courtney and Lisa told her, "I've loved you since Courtney and Gev!". All the dancers were there, but the only ones I really wanted to meet were Dominic, Ade, Allison and Kathryn. And I did. :)

It was one of the best nights of my life. I'm not even kidding. I was with some of my favorite people in the world meeting some of my favorite dancers in the world.

It was perfect.

P.S. My apologies to Trina because I didn't get a chance to ask Lauren or Kent if they were really dating. If I had to guess, I'd say no.

Weekend Happenings

Holy cow, where has this week gone? It seems like every week flies by. Anyway, last Friday Step Up 3 came out. I have been looking forward to seeing this movie for a LONG time. Mostly because it has quite a few SYTYCD (So You Think You Can Dance) dancers in it. Friday night Tiffany, Tayler and I went to dinner at Sauce (one of my favorite restaurants) and then on to the movie. Tayler wore her leg warmers and Twitch glasses in honor of the occasion. In case you didn't know...Tayler is awesome. We had a blast. And now we want to learn how to hip hop dance.

Saturday afternoon we headed out to Mattas (by Bass Pro Shop) for lunch with Ian's family. Ian's brother Sean has a mustache in honor of National Mustache month.

I told him he looks a little creepy, but he didn't seem to mind.
After lunch we headed over to Bass Pro Shop. You can't tell but John, Meg, Sean & Xander are in front of the aquarium.

Evan has a love/hate relationship with all of the animals there. He wants to see them but they freak him out a little.

After Mattas we headed over to Jared & Tricia's for Molly's first birthday. Holy cow, I can't believe she's one!

Have you seen a cuter baby? I just want to eat her cheeks and thighs.

Ready for cake!

At first Molly wanted to eat the table instead of her cake.

But then big sister Emmy showed her what to do.

Kim and I were chatting on the couch and dad came over and sat between us. I love my dad. He's one of my favorite people in the world.

Molly got lots of loot.

Evan had fun playing with some girl toys.

The weekend flew by, but it's always fun to spend time with the people I love the most. We had a blast!

Buckle up...this is a long one

Today started off with me making sunflower cakes (yes, you read that right) and my family asking what the horrible smell was. I was making them because today was also Multi-Cultural Day at the boys' school. Ben's class studied Native American cultures and his teacher wanted to have a food table with samples of different Native American foods. Hence the sunflower cakes. I also made pumpkin raisin cookies (which smelled much better than the cakes).

After making the cakes, I quickly slapped on some make up and clothes and ran down to the school to see Alexander's group do their presentation on Meso America. It was so interesting and dynamic - those boys were hilarious! They even did a small commercial during their presentation about ritual knives. It cracked me up! Thanks to Adam who babysat so my mom could come too.

Then I went back home and attempted to get a little work done. An hour later I went back to the school to bring in the sunflower cakes and pumpkin cookies for Ben's class. This one mom, Emily, organized the whole food table - it was wonderful! She found creative and appetizing foods to make and display. I had to leave before the kids got to eat but when I came back later, Kahea (who also slaved in the kitchen making beans and squash) said it was a huge success!

I love the happy look on Kahea's face in this picture

I quickly ran to pick up lunch at Elmers for my mom and dad and then ran home. I got a little bit of work done, and then went back to the school to be a docent for Alexander's class. This meant that I got to take a group of kids around to the different classes to see what they did. My favorites were Japan (the kids got to make oragami and hats), Egypt (the kids made these AWESOME pyramids out of food), Native America and America (Max's class). It was such a wonderful and enriching way to spend my day. Plus I got to hang with my homies - that's always a fun thing!

My cousin's little girl - this is the look she gave me when I told her to smile

Thomas - all dressed up as an early American settler

Xander checking out the reports in Ben's class

I loved when each time Max saw me he would run up to me and give me a hug. And Ben would come over and talk to me. Alexander was having a bit of a rough day (some punk girls in his class were rude to him) but he told me afterward how happy he was that I was there.

My mom watched Evan most of the day so that I could go. She is such a trooper! When I came to pick him up I asked if she wanted a drink (we were going to Sonic) and she said a whiskey would be great! I guess Evan really wore her out.

Tayler's class is studying Egypt and this week they did a wax museum. Tayler was an Egyptian Goddess. She's was awesome. And looked beautiful.

It's so fun for me to watch kids learn and be creative at the same time. I love it! And now my kids are on break - I'm so excited not to have a schedule for the next 2 weeks! Woohoo!

Michael flexing his muscles. He's quite the ladies man :)

Cake

Mama Mia was everything I expected it to be and more. LOVED it! Let's just say there were people dancing in the aisles at the end. I'm going again next week when Ian can watch the boys. My dad is an awesome grandpa...but not an awesome babysitter. He lost Evan without even knowing it - thank you Laura for saving him! And he caught Evan playing in the toliet numerous times. I'm reminded of the time when he was watching Max...and Max went home. Ian happened to be driving home and saw Max wandering down towards our house. Or the time when Adam was young and we had horses. And we found Adam in with the horses...Sigh. I still love you dad, but I guess somethings never change.

This weekend would've sucked if it weren't for Tiffany letting us bombard her house 2 nights in a row. I really feel like she gets the short end of the stick in our friendship. Let's just keep that on the down-low.

Tayler showing off the finished cake

Tonight we attempted the Death by Chocolate cake again. This time with raspberries and slivered almonds. Better than last week but still can be improved upon. Tiffany thinks we need to make whipped creme frosting for our next attempt. And use sliced strawberries instead of the raspberries. This is why we are friends. These things don't occur to me.

Us girls watched The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants while the boys watched Avatar. Evan and Elliott became friends. And I have long suspected that Evan has a crush on Tayler (good taste).

I don't know if you can see, but Evan sustained an injury around his eye...we think it's rug burn. The bigger boys like to take foam pads and slide down the stairs. Ben says they slid right over Evan's face. Poor kid had a rough day...first grandpa loses him and now this! It's tough being #4.