Gem State Champions

The first weekend of spring break was Freestone's biggest ballroom competition of the whole year.  I about died when I noticed back in the fall that it overlapped with our trip to Imperial Beach.  By the best luck ever, both of Freestone's events were scheduled for Friday, and nothing for Saturday.  It was even better luck that his dances were both in the morning, since the Friday events go until 11 pm.  I had visions of driving straight to California from Idaho Falls at 11:00 at night.  It worked out perfectly for us to leave for Cali at our regularly scheduled time of 2 am on Saturday.  But back to Friday...

We had to be in Idaho Falls at 8 am, a three-hour drive away.  We left home at exactly 5 am, and made it in 2.5 hours, thanks to the 80-mile-an-hour speed limit and no traffic.  At the same time, Scott took Araceli to cello.  That was fun for him, since he never gets to sit in her lessons.  Freestone's tango was the very first performance of the day, at 9.  By this time, we had grabbed breakfast, applied makeup and tamed his hair with a whole can of hairspray.  He doesn't like to leave anything to chance when it comes to hair!

"Sweet Dreams," their tango, won first place in the "Smooth/Standard" category for preteen.  So they got an award that named them national champions.  The whole team was ecstatic!

Later, the swing.  Again, they took first place, but this time with an even higher score, 96 something, so they got a Superior Plus rating.  It's fun that they're so good.  There's only one ballroom studio in our area, that I know of, so I'm happy it's such good quality.  DCB dancers have good technique, as far as I can tell, and I'm not expert.  But they seem really clean, and they keep winning, so...it's all good!

Freestone's coach, Shawn.  He loves her!

Around noon, we began the return trip south, but not before celebrating at Fiesta Ole in good old Idaho Falls.  It was fun being on vacation with Freestone, Ptolemy, Tziporah and Annabel.  Yes, Annabel, a little girl who needed a ride home to Kaysville for a soccer game tomorrow while her siblings compete for a second day at the Gem State Classic.  She was cute.  What an adventure it is to have Freestone! Great job, kid.  We're proud of you and we love you!