Carnival of the animals

My students had their concert the last weekend in May. It was a great show. They performed in Carnival of the Animals and I had classes that were aviary and aquarium. I had three pieces of choreography in the show and I couldn't be more proud of how my students did. The parents that I talked to were impressed with the improvement their daughters have made - I am glad they can see that because I get to see it in action every day in class. All of my students really worked hard this year. I will be back to teach some of them in the fall, but I am teaching fewer classes and a group of the girls have moved up or are leaving so I will miss this specific group of girls. It is definitely bittersweet to see students move up because I feel like they are my own girls in a way. I love to see them progress and move up but I miss them when we don't spend nearly every day together anymore. I think I have said it before but I love being a teacher because it is so fulfilling. 

I had a group of girls perform for their first time on pointe and they did great! For being on pointe for a little less than a year, they did fantastically. They looked strong and did a lot better than I did the first performance that I wore pointe shoes! haha... Also, for one of the shows Boston and Chandler came to watch and Boston loved being in the audience and backstage. It was so much to take in and observe. The girls loved seeing him too of course :)

My cute girls surprised me with a gift at the last show - to say thank you and goodbye for the summer. They brought a tutu out on stage when all the teachers came out and put it around my waist (when I caught them making it they said it was for the studio director so it was definitely a surprise to find out it was for me). They also gave me a gift box with a beautiful dancer necklace inside. I got lots of hugs and a few tears after the show :) Show time is always so fun and I am grateful I have Chandler's support in what I do.

Now for the load of pictures!

Backstage

Warm up class

Pointe warm up

Mini company - aquarium. Sadly I didn't get any shots of them on stage.

Jr company/pointe class girls - aviary. We are missing a couple of girls. 

My dancers on stage:

Pointe class with level 2 dancers - and I am so proud of the girls who weren't on pointe yet but were fantastic understudies.

Jr. company aviary - full class

A few other dances from the show:

I have the best job ever!

Surprise!

For Mother's Day we decided to drive up to Idaho to visit Chandler's mom and surprise the whole family for a weekend getaway. We just told Chandler's dad we were coming and he snuck us in late at night on Friday. The next morning we came down to breakfast and surprised everyone. It was so fun to do something like that! We got it all on video here.

It is always good to see family, and Boston loves seeing and interacting with different people. We got to stay until Monday morning. Chandler was so wonderful and got me delicious truffles and a nice card for Mother's day. We also got to skype with Chandler's brother who is on his mission in Ohio since we were there. We wish we could have visited my mom too. :) 

The whole gang in Idaho! We are just missing Jonah - on his mission. 

My little family on Mother's Day :)

Boston with the guys

Cousin love 

San Antonio, seven months

We are living in San Antonio! We got here on Monday and we are already loving it so far. The heat is getting worse every day though. The first day we got here we said "eh, this isn't too bad we could handle this all summer" and then we tell that to a native Texan and they just say how much worse it gets. Hopefully we will be so afraid of the heat that it won't seem so bad? We are only here for the summer so we will see if we survive. :) We love it though. It sort of reminds us of Southern California with the green rolling hills. Everyone is really friendly here with their southern hospitality. I like that groceries and gas are about the same (or better) price as Utah. Our apartment is nice - the only real challenge has been having one bedroom but we are making that work.

Getting here was quite the adventure. Our landlord passed away unexpectedly a few days before we were supposed to move. He was so lively and funny and a great cook. He was so selfless and always doing things for other people. He will be missed for sure. Sadly we missed his funeral because of all the things going on. We had a lot of help from friends and family moving our stuff into a truck and then into storage in highland - the only thing was we weren't as prepared as we should have been and had to move more things the next day. We also had to clean but thankfully our landlady had a bunch of family in town for the funeral and they did most of the cleaning. A dear family friend of ours helped us out and with organizing our things in storage. It was not how we planned it, but it worked out wonderfully and we couldn't be more grateful for good friends and support. We even got to see my sister and her kids for half a day while she is visiting the states from Korea! All in all, we got on the road about ten hours later than planned but no worries - we made it to our hotel in New Mexico super late.

And boy was it fun getting there! We drove through Moab and on the way we hit a brief but frightening sand storm. We felt like we were in the Middle East or something! There was dust everywhere and it was thicker than any fog I have seen. I was worried about something dangerous blowing into our car - thankfully only a few tumbleweeds did. Chandler, as always, kept his cool and got us through it. Later we lost connection to our GPS as it was getting dark. We didn't have our backup directions so we stopped to ask. No one knew how to help us, but chandler took some pictures of a few maps and we made it. We were blessed the whole way! And boy are we thankful for interstate highways after driving on so many farm roads in the middle of nowhere.

The next day of driving was long but fun. We tried to go to a little bit of church but we couldn't find it. We were glad we tried to go though. Boston started to lose it a little, but he liked watching things on the iPad - well, actually the only thing that really kept his attention was the first half hour of Frozen so we watched that MANY times. :) I think he likes the music. We got to Lubbock in decent time and we loved our hotel room. Boston loved crawling around and not being in the car. The last day was the shortest, and we got to our place in the early evening! Now we have been getting settled and Chandler starts work on Monday!

Boston is seven months old now - crazy! He likes eating bananas and... nothing else besides milk :). We are still working on the solid food program.  But he does like trying to drink from my water bottle and spilling water down his shirt. It is so cute. He has quite the personality. He loves playing with things and gets upset if we take anything away from him - little stinker :) He is also trying to crawl/scoot and it is adorable to watch. He is so curious about the world around him. I can see a little bit of me in him with his passion and drama. I see a little bit of his daddy in him with his ability to focus and really observe the world around him. It is so fun having adventures with our little family!

And now for a few pictures :)

Boston with one of his cousins from Korea!

Our empty apartment! It's weird to think we won't be going back there.

3 days of driving!

My boys at a gas station somewhere in New Mexico :)

Our hotel room in Lubbock - it was so nice!

First time swimming! We went in the pool at our complex here in Texas. We think Boston liked it.

This is going to be a fun summer :)