Rachel's first dance convention was held in Ogden on the first weekend in February. We booked a hotel room near the convention center to eliminate the driving back and forth over the multiple days we were there. Gabe, Rachel and I drove up right after school on Thursday, got checked in to our hotel, got freezer meals from the hotel lobby, ate them, and then hit up the indoor pool. We came back to our room, got showered, and I put the kiddos down for bed. Brian and Michael arrived a little bit later.
The next morning, Rachel had her first solo competition. I did her hair in the team competition style before it hit me that I could have done something completely different since she was dancing all by herself. Make-up is always fun, and lipstick is the hardest. This is our typical form for putting on lipstick. I learned it from another dance mom. I'm trying to decide when I'm going to let her start wearing her own makeup outside of dance. If she starts doing it sooner than 12, just know it's because I thought it might be easier on us both if she did some of these things herself.
After hair and make-up were all finished, and everyone ate the breakfast that Brian and I had picked up at Walmart the night before, we headed to the convention center. Brian had driven to Chelsea's house to pick up Amber so she could watch Rachel and spend the day with us. Taryn and her girls joined us as well and were there to cheer her on. We could tell she was nervous because she was a little stiff. She slipped once, but thankfully recovered quickly. We were pretty darn proud of her, especially because this was her very first solo performance.
She did so great! We had to wait until the afternoon to hear how she did though. That didn't stop us from taking pictures.
Here she is with Miss Mackenzie, her coach for the year.
And her supportive brothers. We're taking bets as to when Gabe will pass her in height.
Rachel with Amber, Evie, Gabe, Abby, and Michael.
With Amber. Can you believe they're only 6.5 months apart?!
Trying out some dance poses.
and getting her brother to help.
After pictures, we went back to the hotel to swim.
Then, we got Rachel ready for her convention and awards ceremony and grabbed lunch at a crepes place between our hotel and the convention center. They were SO good!
After lunch, we went to the awards presentation. She felt a little lost up there on stage since there weren't any other girls from her studio up there.
She got a high gold rating on her dance.
She got this bangle as a trophie.
After getting her reward, we got her number pinned on her for her convention, and Brian took Amber back to her house on his way home with the boys.
I brought her dinner during her break, but other than that, I just hung out in the hotel on my own. I tried to work, but I didn't make much progress.
The next day, we had some time so we took a walk around downtown Ogden. We both really liked this Old Post Office Building.
We ate lunch together, and we did some window shopping before I dropped her off at the convention. I made sure to bring her dinner during her break.
After the convention was all over, we stuck around for the after party and awards before calling it quits a little after 10p.m.
We headed back to our hotel, so grateful we didn't have to drive all the way home after finishing so late. We grabbed a picture in front of the Old Post Office building on the way back.
We went to bed and headed home first thing the next morning.
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