The last week in June was very crazy for us. James headed to Youth Conference with our ward which left me as a single parent for a few days. It just so happened, those few days were some of our busiest. The girls dance, tumbling, and cheer recital was that week. The studio that they take classes at likes to have the recital in Ogden at the Weber State University theatre. This means that there is a lot of driving involved. They have the dress rehearsal in the daytime, after which, they have class pictures, and later that evening is the recital. The recital is actually over two days. They have two different casts because there are so many classes. Lindsey and Heather were slotted to perform both nights, however.
This time of year is also the time for end-of-year class programs. Heather's class did their program the same night as the recital. This is where the day got interesting! As I had Lindsey in Ogden at her dress rehearsal, I realized I had forgotten that Heather would be performing twice. She takes dance but is also in the same tumbling group as Lindsey. I asked their coach what night she would be performing and as it turned out, they were going to perform both nights. Somehow, I had missed this fact. I told him Heather wouldn't be able to come that night because she had a class program but she would be there the next night. He responded that would be O.K. but asked if I could please have her there for dress rehearsal at 4:00pm (once again, I had overlooked the fact that there would be a dress rehearsal for tumbling, which meant Lindsey needed to be there too) so she could be in the pictures. That was the first kink in my plans.
I had planned to return home after Lindsey's morning dress rehearsal and not go back until right before the show. Now, I had to have Lindsey and Heather back in Ogden at 4:00 pm. We headed back to Syracuse and waited for Heather to get out of school. Once she got home, we wisked her away and headed to Ogden (not before we made babysitting arrangements with one of Luke's friends for Matthew--there was no way he was going to last through another rehearsal, while Luke went to piano lessons.) After the rehearsal and pictures (I've decided to take my own team pictures from now on, but that's another story) I explained to Heather that I would take her back to Syracuse and drop her off for her program, which Grandma Marcia was going to come watch, and I would head back to Ogden with Lindsey for the recital. Lindsey had costume changes and needed someone to help her. This began the next kink in my plans.
When Heather realized that no parent would be at her program, she started sobbing. I tried to explain that Grandma would be there but she really wanted me to watch her part. I worked it out with Lindsey to drop her off for the recital early and I would go to some of Heather's program. We waited as long as we dared before dropping Lindsey off (we didn't want her to be there too long by herself) then headed back home. Heather started getting quite nervous as the clock was ticking down closer to start time. I promised her I would get her there before the program started. Sure enough, I pulled up the school two minutes before showtime. I dropped her off, found a place to park and headed in. Her program was really cute. It was about being friends and getting a long. There was a lot of singing with small skits in between each song. Heather is quite a performer and you could tell she really enjoyed it. She did a great job on her skit. After her skit was finished, I headed back to Ogden to help Lindsey.
I got to Ogden before Lindsey's first number. The timing couldn't have gone better. Lindsey performed with her cheer team and with the tumbling team. She has fun doing both of those things and it is fun to watch her. We finished in Ogden at about 10:00 pm. By this time Luke was calling us, he was worried something had happened to us. I was just happy we had made it through the day!
The next day went a little smoother. Savannah and Heather had dress rehearsal but Lindsey did not. We spent the morning in Ogden, went home for a bit, and went back for the recital. Grandma Marcia and Grandpa Dan came to watch the girls at this recital and Luke stayed home with Matthew. I'm pretty sure Luke is happy to babysit and miss the dancing. Savannah loved her dance. She got to be Belle, her favorite Disney princess, and dance to a song from the movie. Heather was the biggest surprise. All year she would tell me how her teacher would tell the other kids in her class to watch Heather because she knew the dance. I would always smile because I know Heather is never lacking in self confidence. But when we saw her dance, I was surprised at how good she is. Her love for performing comes out in her dancing too. Heather has always been more of a tomboy, I think that's why it was surprising to see what a good dancer she is. Marcia leaned over, as surprised as I was, to comment how good Heather was. I had to agree.
