Happy Easter

We had such a fun Easter weekend this year. We started off by going to a local dance competition to see Emily and had a wonderful time. It was a lot smaller and faster. The scoring was a little different though. They didn't have the teams compete against each other and just gave each dance a score. Emily's team did amazing as well as all of Downtown Dance.

LeeRoy: I made sure to take video of their performance. You can watch it here.

On Easter morning the girls woke up to find their baskets. They were so excited! After munching down tons of candy we went to church and then over to my mom's house for dinner. Lacie was so nice, she took the girls on a nature walk. She wrapped their wrists with duck tape and any treasures they found on their walk they were able to stick to their wrists. When they got home Lacie covered the tape with seran wrap and tied them with yarn making a bracelet. Emily even wore it to school today. After their walk they had an Easter egg hunt in the backyard. Wendy found a bunch of eggs and thought she was so cool! We had such a great time!

2nd Dance Competition

Mom, Lorenzo, Emily and I just got back from Utah where Emily had her 2nd dance competition of the season. I hadn't talked to LeeRoy in a few days because he was gone on a mission so when I pulled out my phone to check the time right before Emily was about to perform I was surprised to see him trying to call me on Skype. I hurried and answered, then switched to video and he got to watch Emily perform live from his room in Iraq. Such great timing. It meant so much to both of them!

Their performance was AMAZING! All of our teams got 1st place in their own categories. Every routine also took high point overall EXCEPT for Beginning. We were still happy but a little disappointed............ that is until Emily's dance teacher posted this on the dance studio's Facebook page late Saturday night:

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So...as you could tell by my face when they announced Overall Beginning and it did not say Downtown Dance I was a little shocked. That sounds horrible but I thought Beginning did great--so I got the judging sheets and realized by the scores that there was a mistake. Yes there was... on the tabulation. They did not figure Beginning's scores into the overall totals. BEGINNING TOOK 1st PLACE OVERALL BEGINNING! Your dances were the top 7 routines of the day!

All routines took 1st and every routine took High Point Overall! We also were the #1 overall studio of the day! WAY TO GO! I honestly cannot believe it and I hope these dancers realize what a huge achievement that is--I have never had this successful of a competition season! SO PROUD OF YOU!

That deserves a day off! TAKE MONDAY OFF AND SEE YOU ALL THURSDAY!
Here is the reason we are not having dance on Monday...Time After Time 299, Jai Ho 297.5, Glee 297.5, Wonderland 297, Ruby Blue 292, Because We Can 293.5, and Shake Your Groove Thing 292.5. These are all out of 300 points possible! THIS DESERVES A BREAK! CONGRATS DANCERS!

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When I read this I couldn't believe it. I was so excited I flipped on the hotel light, waking up the room, so I could share the news. We had a tough time getting back to sleep after that. Emily was through the roof and is so excited for the last two competitions of the season. The only thing she wasn't happy about was not having practice on Monday! LOL! Crazy girl!


Some of the girls gathered together to watch the other dancers.


Emily with her new trophy.

Peter Cottontail

The girls and I were driving home tonight when we spotted a large, white bunny hopping along the road. It was dark so it is hard to see in the picture but the girls screamed, "It's an Easter miracle!". It was pretty fun!

1st Dance Competition

This weekend kicked off the beginning of the dance competition season. Emily was able to compete with Downtown Dance as part of the Showteam for the very first time. She was so nervous but they did great! Her team has 23 dancers and 19 of them are brand new to the Showteam this year. They ended up taking 1st place in their category. All of downtown did amazing as well and every dance they performed ended up taking 1st place. We are always proud to be part of such an amazing program and I am so happy Emily has found something to be involved in that that she loves so much. This is the first of 4 competitions so I will definitely be adding more dance posts later.

In the locker room getting ready to perform



Emily with her dance teacher


Stretching out



All the dance teams waiting for awards to be announced


1st Place!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



All the trophies Downtown Dance Studio took home

USD-North

We left the Base and headed north for Mosul, Iraq. We passed a few barely interesting sights, and a lot of nothing.



After driving through 9 hours of this, we entered the streets of Mosul and spent the night at the base in the city. Here is a quick glance at the streets into Mosul.



We then went on a few day trips to outlying bases. We Even drove up to the Iraq, Turkey "Boarder" and into Habur Gate.

This is the smallest post in Iraq. The Kurdish people have their own state within Iraq and have prospered from it. We spent the most time of our trip here in Habur Gate.



We even went for a walk out into town and then up to an old outpost overlooking the Turkey Border. Here I am with 'Tony' our interpreter. He said he would love to move here and start his family. He's never been to this area before.


Then we went to dinner at a place called 'Restaurant'




On our way West we made a wrong turn and found ourselves in a Cemetery, very wrong. I got out to help move the trucks out of there and then decided to just run back to my vehicle.




We then spent a quick time at another base out west and found ourselves 'wrong' again.

After this week we made it back to our home base at Balad.

(7days 850+ Miles)

Wendy Clothes

I asked Emily to get dressed this morning and this is what she put on ......................... Wendy clothes!

Sister Visit

Since we were on Spring Break this week we wanted a day we could go spend time with the Robison family. Alisha had to babysit all week, but was off early on Friday so we decided that day was the best. I needed some headbands done for Emily so we spent all morning making them. Of course when I say we, I mean Alisha did most of the work while I had fun playing with the kids.

The girls played so great together. They played with toys, played on the computer, and just had a lot of fun. Kenna is hilarious. She had us laughing the whole day.

After the babysitting girls left we headed into Twin Falls for some shopping. Children's Place had just opened and we wanted to check it out. They had such cute spring stuff on sale, so we got lots of great things. After shopping we made our way to Perkins for some dinner. Travis was helping a friend move but was able to meet us there.

It was definitely hard to say goodbye. Emily cried as we started the drive home but I came prepared with lots of activities and snacks for the car. The drive was nice and Emily and I chatted almost the entire way. Thanks again Robison family for an amazing day!

Nerd in front of NERF

Here's me at the Division level change of command. All the leadership is inside while I am out at the NERF totally geeking out.