April Part 12: Dance and Let's Play Music Recital

When the scheduler first called me to schedule my heart surgery, she first threw out April 18. I pulled out my planner and saw that the 18th was the day before Rachel's ballet recital, and I knew there was no way I could do it then. I looked through April and May and realized that there was not going to be a great time to do surgery until July, and even that wasn't really great. Deciding it would be better to do it sooner than later, I scheduled the 25th, hoping I could recover enough to handle Apri-vember and Maycember. 

So, with six days until surgery, Rachel had her ballet recital. This time, they had it in Taylorsville, they did two performances, and they did a school night. I was not happy about this, but what could I do? I had to check her out of school early to get her to Taylorsville for her call-time. Then, I had dinner by myself and read until the performance started. Brian had the more difficult task of getting the boys ready, getting Gabe to Let's Play Music, getting Gabe early from Let's Play Music (we would have had him skip if it hadn't been the week before his recital), grabbing dinner, and then getting to Taylorsville during rush hour. They barely made it in time, but they made it time. 

The Recital's theme was "A Night at the Museum" and each dance was inspired to a degree by a famous work of art. I can't remember the work that inspired Rachel's dance, something about a walk in the park, and so her class danced to a Mary Poppins medley and had the CUTEST costumes. 

Rachel did so great! I was so proud of her! 

We got to greet her in the lobby after her first performance. 

Michael and Rachel pinkie promised to be friends forever. I think. 

I went to Target to buy flowers, but they didn't have any at that one, so I made my own out of pipe cleaners and tied mini Kit Kats to them. I used a flower gift bag for a vase. 

Remember how I told you that carrying Rachel was a thing?

After greeting Rachel, the boys headed home, and I stuck around for the second performance, but in the meantime, I was amazed by how blue Rachel's eyes were in the lobby. 

I made her pose for a few more pictures, now that most of the people had gone. 

Well, some of the people had gone. 

And then I watched her later performance, the one that started at 8 p.m. On a School night. 

She did so great again. 

We got her a burger and onion rings after it was all over, around 9:30. Poor thing was starving, despite the many snacks I tried to get her to eat. 

The next week--the week of surgery, the week Rachel fell and hurt her leg, and the week she got a little cold--came around and it was time for her final solo competition. She was tired, burnt out, and not feeling well, but still she had to dance. Her dance mama was tired, weak, and struggling to get enough air, especially after walking way more expected around the high school her competition was at. We were all a hot, tired mess, except Brian. I told Rachel about Michael Jordan beating the Jazz in the play-offs when he had the flu. I told her she was Michael Jordan with the flu and she could do this! 

She rallied. She danced, and she earned a ruby rating. We were so proud of her for sticking with it, even when she didn't feel up to it. 

My mom, who was in Ogden watching Chelsea's kids while Thomas and Chelsea were in Europe, came down to Salt Lake with Amber on Saturday to watch Rachel's final team competition and help me get Rachel where she needed to go. My mom helped carry her big bag to the dressing room for us, took her lunch to her during a break, and basically was my legs throughout the day. The boys had games all day, and so Brian was with them, and I really appreciated my mom helping me. Rachel really loved that Grandma and Amber were there to cheer her on. She had some pretty big smiles for us that day. 

For their final competition, Rachel's team scored a diamond on The Rose, a ruby on Glam, and a diamond on Purse First. A rose Diamond was that absolute highest, but I only heard about two of those awarded. They did amazing! 

Rachel was supposed to stick around the competition for a Master Class, but when she expressed not wanting to go, I told her she didn't have to. Her coach gave her a bit of grief, and by the time my mom showed up with her at my car, Rachel seemed upset. I texted her coach, "I'm sorry about the masterclass, but Rachel's been running on empty all week and we're both just done today." She told me that it was okay, and I really appreciated her understanding. Well done, my dear little Michael Jordan! You did it!

We went from Rachel's competition in West Valley to Gabe's Let's Play Music Recital in Highland. He was so cute and did so well! 

We loved having a carpool this year with our neighbor, Charlotte. It's been fun having a familiar face in class. 

Miss Kara has been phenomenal and so patient with me and my issues. 

Unfortunately, due to the nature of this time of year, we had to drop Michael off at his flag football game and completely miss it to be at Gabe's recital. If only we could be two or three places at once! It was a crazy, long day. After we got home, I totally crashed (there is no good time for a mom to have surgery!). 

 I'm so proud of all my kids! It takes a lot of work and sacrifice to develop talents. A year ago, Gabe set a new year's goal to learn how to play the piano, and he's been working on it for the past eight months. Rachel wants to be a great dancer, and she goes three days a week to make that happen. Michael is throwing a football every chance he gets. It's fun celebrating their hard work, which we did by getting dinner at The Purple Turtle so we could all have their yummy shakes!