Disney Again!

Whirlwind trip this was, but a blast. Birthday trip for DD, surprise trip for a school friend of hers. I wish I was that good at keeping secrets! Her friend didn't know she was going until her family arrived at the airport. They flew down, we drove. Driving allowed us the freedom (without having to rent a car) to find an ice rink.



We had 2 rinks in mind on our way down. I try to learn from my mistakes - took DD off the ice for a week and a half in August - she couldn't land ANY of her jumps for about 3 weeks. Not going there again! Fortunately RDV Sportsplex is on the way into Orlando. We had stopped for the night in Jacksonville, so the drive to Orlando wasn't too bad. DD got on the ice and had it pretty much all to herself. $13 for private ice (the only others on the ice were a coach and student wandering around the rink doing laps). Wrapped that up and headed over to see the mouse.

Arrived at the Yacht Club early. As the porter was removing ALL the luggage from the car, a man approached us and said "you must be the XXX family, and this must be DD". I just looked at him and said "who wants to know?" This was our first time staying on the club level, so I hadn't experienced this level of Disney customer service before (of course I was paying DEARLY for it). Nice touch, but really not worth the extra cost. We were never at the resort while the lounge was open, although I have heard since then that you can ask them to leave somethings in your room. Good to know.



Highlights of the trip: Hanging out with friends at the parks, Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party, watching the girls go ga-ga over the Naked Brothers Band at the pool, being away from the rink and work.



Next up, thinking about going to Canada for a trip... Ottawa or Montreal. Time to start researching.

Busch Gardens

Busch Gardens Europe has been a favorite of mine since high school. Back then the fall was the PRIME time to visit. The park is open through the last weekend in October and back then the October weekends were usually cold, and the park empty.

Not so anymore! I heard the park actually reached capacity yesterday.



We've been season passholders for a number of years now - it's 2 hours door to door... not too bad. Back when life was simple it was fun to pack up DD after school Friday, and go camping in Williamsburg for the weekend. Don't really have time for that these days. This year the season pass was pretty much a waste - went yesterday for the only time this season.



The girls rode all the coasters - multiple times each. DD is a coaster fanatic, her friends aren't so much, but learned to love them.

High School Musical the Ice Tour

All I can say is WOW!

DD actually enjoyed it so much Friday night that she begged to be able to see it again. Fortunately there were tickets still available for yesterdays show.

I actually sat there mesmerized, studying the costumes. By Disney standards the costumes were pretty simple.

DD was grilling me on the actual skating skills. For her the special part was knowing one of the skaters in the show. It's someone she's known since she started skating. Alex is playing the part of Zeke, and what a great job he did!

I want to know... why do I feel like this is possibly the BEST Disney on Ice production that I have ever seen? At first I thought, maybe I feel that way because it's been so long since I've been to one. But, no, two of the coaches from our rink were there yesterday (and they used to skate with DOI), and they agreed - best show, hands down.

I'm going to chaulk it up to the skaters, the lack of silly costumes, and the choreography - I believe the same choreographer was used for the ice show as was used in the movie.

DD's FAVORITE song right now:

Regionals videos

After being told to expect the DVD in 2-3 weeks, imagine our surprise when it arrived yesterday (less than a week after the event).

After watching the videos, bad mom that I am, I'm even MORE shocked that DD won the whole thing. Not that I don't think she's the best skater I'VE ever seen... just surprised that the judges liked it.

Yesterday she worked with Audrey Weisiger again. It never ceases to amaze me how her whole attitude changes after (and during) a lesson with Audrey. DD has even come off the ice to point out how much her cheeks hurt from smiling so much during the lesson. It's not that they're out there having "fun", but DD just enjoys the lessons that much.

DD tried to downplay her excitement, but Audrey is supposed to be choreographing her Juvenile program. DD is already trying to "design" her dresses.

Here are the videos:

1st round (she placed 3rd)
Here are the judges placements:




Final round (she placed 1st)
Judges placements:

Regionals are over!

Phew, what a crazy couple of days! DD is beside herself with joy. She actually finished 3rd in her group - first clean program she's skated, in competition, since June 2004. This allowed her to go to the final round. The final round appeared to be a bunch of worn out young ladies. DD decided to play it safe - go for the clean program. Turns out it paid off. She won. Got her favorite thing for it to... a trophy. Complains that there aren't enough trophies in skating.

What bothered me the most: NASTY parents and coaches. Standing there looking at the results for the first event, a well known coach said (not really to anyone in particular, but I just happened to be standing next to her) "I can't wait for the new judging system, this judging is not fair". How should I feel about that? Maybe I shouldn't have taken it this way, but the fact that her skater finished 4th to DD's 3rd made me feel like it was directed at me.

Then there's the parent, when the results from the final round were posted this morning, that my daughter overheard "whoever put that skater in first was psycho".

Holy cow! And we wonder why kids are learning to be such bad sports?!?!?

Fortunately, in all this, there were a lot of great parents, and coaches that had nothing but wonderful things to say to dd. And getting to hang out at the pool Friday night with 2 of her skater friends was an added bonus.

Will post pictures/video when I get a chance.

Phew, the season is ALMOST over. Hard to believe all the hard work of this summer has been leading up to this moment. Dress is finished - well except for rhinestones. Guess what I'll be doing at the hotel Friday night?



How it goes all depends on which child shows up to skate. Lately it's been a major roller coaster. No biggie. This season doesn't REALLY matter. Next year, in Juvenile... different story. Fingers crossed on that one! Guess what she has going for her (for next year) is that (for the most part) her jumps are clean.

Here is a video of her most recent competition. Not the best job, but she was happy.



To decompress, in November I'm taking her to Disney for her birthday. Her only request was that she got to stay in a room on a floor where you have to use a key to get there. Wonder where she got that idea? The fun part is that she knows we're planning on meeting up with a friend that lives in Florida, but she has NO idea that her best friend from school will also be down there at the same time. Can't wait to see the surprise on her face! Hope the weather is nice!

Next dilemma... where/when to cruise in 2008? I know, TOUGH decision that I have to make. Due to the potential competition schedule we really can't go away for spring break as we have for the past 4 years... so now I'm looking at getting away just after school gets out. Toyed with sailing up to New England/Canada... but I can't seem to do it - to me cruising is palm trees, sand and beautiful blue water. So, now, drive to Florida to sail for 7 nights to the Western Caribbean (3rd sailing on same ship, 3rd trip to same islands, but this ship is moving to the west coast, so we'd like to sail on her once more), or hop on up to New Jersey for a 5 nighter to Bermuda? Decisions, decisions!

Cape Hatteras Here I Come!

We've been going to the Outer Banks since, well... forever. At least the 80's. For the longest time we bunked down in Avon (on Hatteras Island), but more recently we've continued on down farther down the road to Hatteras Village. This despite arguments that Avon has more to offer ( read... more bars ).

My memory may be getting faulty, but it seems to me that the water down in Hatteras Village is clearer and warmer than that in Avon. It's definitely less crowded than Avon.

One of our biggest problems is that certain family members only want to shop at Food Lion, and that's at least 1/2 hour each way. Me, on the other hand, don't believe in cooking (on a good day) and on vacation, forget about it! So, for my family it means a daily trip into Avon for more beer.

We've gotten spoiled over the last 4-5 years. Oceanfront house with a pool, elevator, wireless internet... can't be beat. After sitting on the beach, playing in the ocean all day, it is SO nice to head back and hit the pool in the evening.

The view off the front decks on one of the houses... this was probably one of the noisiest houses. The ferry loading area can get quite busy.


On the Ferry to Ocracoke

I absolutely love sea oats

The Beach Bunny

So quiet and peaceful

The battle of the crabs. Towards the end of the vacation we have a crab feast - we pick 2 crabs to battle it out, the winner gets released.

The winner is...

Ha! Did you really think we were going to let you go? (We do - I personally take the winner down and release him into a canal)

Yum!

I'm a little crabby

Double/triple yum!

Time to try something new. Putting a video in this.



The video arrived yesterday, and just further confused my world that is DD's skating. Oh well. She's happy with the video, and wants to take it to camp tomorrow. That's unusual because she's usually not willing to let anyone else see the videos of any performance where she wasn't 100%.

After watching the dress in action (I'm not "allowed" to watch it live), I do believe I'm going to lengthen the skirt. Not sure if I'm going to just add a second layer underneath, or redo the one skirt entirely. Don't have much time to do it... next competition is in September, but I have a beach vacation before then! WOOHOO!

New dress and success

Sat at the hotel putting the rhinestones around the wrist flounce on this dress. Decided not to put rhinestones around the skirt since I'm not sure about the length of the skirt, and make change it - didn't want to waste the rhinestones.

Program started out rough - DD fell on first jump. It's one she can do in her sleep, but I think it was a good wakeup call. She then proceeded to land everything else in her program, and place 2nd.

Take a look at the judges placements... what was judge #1 thinking?




She still hasn't skated a clean program (no falls) since June 2004, but there's still two more this season, so she still has a chance. She's asking for a Juicy purse when she finally does it. Good luck!

Skating dresses (and associated nightmares)

DD's season is well underway. She has never made it through an entire season without outgrowing her original dress. Fingers crossed for this season - it ends in October.

Finally coming up for air. Spent 9 hours at the machine Saturday (and that was just to put the bodice together). The first attempt at the dress, in my mind, wasn't successful. For some reason my idea didn't translate as well as I had hoped. I'm not really sure why, but I HATED the skirt, and the whole thing was just so heavy.

This is the "HATED" dress. More stones were added after this picture.


All I need to do is permanently attach the skirt, and stone the whole thing. All by tomorrow at 4:30am. Sure, not a problem. Did I mention that the dog at DD's retainer last night? So we're off to 2 orthodontist appts today. Add to that that she skated this morning, and skates again this afternoon... somewhere in here I'm supposed to work, I think.

This dress got me to thinking about all my stressful home-stretches leading into competitions. Lots of rhinestoning at the hotel the night before the event.

This dress was a late night in a hotel in Charleston, SC...


This was a hotel in Aston, PA...


This was a hotel in Hagerstown, MD...


Hotel in Ardmore, PA...


Okay, there are no stones on this dress... I just love the dress! Probably my favorite dress to date. She was so little then! And skating to 101 Dalmations. Oh how I miss those days.

Phew, now that I've had a few days to recover... Buffett was AWESOME! Granted I was a bit less sober than in past years, but I do believe it's one of the better shows I've seen. It was a bit strange to not have an intermission. Not sure if he had a hot date or was just trying to get people out of the rain.

Getting there was interesting. This year we decided to be there when the parking lot opened, and to try for a spot on the grass, under the trees. As we were driving in, we threw my brother in law out of the car - if you've seen Far and Away (the Cruise/Kidman film) think of the "land grab" with the flags - and told him to get us a spot. We had to park kind of far from the grass, but we knew it would translate into an easier departure. We did it, got the ideal spot. 3 tents, a kiddie pool, and the most important structure...

I was surprised at the trouble we had from the cops. In general, I'm not a trouble maker, but get nasty with me (for no reason) and I'll get nasty right back. Granted, I know, alcohol isn't allowed, but in past years the cops have been pretty cool - just telling you to pour it into a "Solo" cup. Our items from the "no-no" list were... alcohol (just a little bit), a grill, and a port-a-potty. We got busted for the potty. When I asked why it's such a big deal, the cop responded that in past years people have thrown feces around (GROSS!). So he told us to take the potty tent down... and then said "and get rid of the alcohol". Yeah, like we were going to do THAT! So, smart A$$ that I am... I took the bucket out of the tent... it became a changing room for the kids. Dared him to come back, of course he didn't.

DD has now gone to 7 Buffett shows at Nissan. I've gotten grief over this, but usually it's a company event for us, with a lot of kids. We shelter them pretty well - no walking around for this group. I also get seats in the pavilion so she doesn't experience the lawn this young. She has an absolute blast during the show hitting the beach balls around, and then usually falls asleep 1/2 way through.






So, our Caribbean Margaritaville tour was just a warm up for the concert. DD was the driving force behind 3 Margaritavilles in 3 days (Ocho Rios, Cozumel, Georgetown).

Can't wait until next year

Riverdance

Went to see Riverdance at Wolf Trap last Thursday night. Wasn't planning on going, having already seen Riverdance twice before, but DD insisted. Her dance school was performing prior to the show and she wanted to see them. Not the greatest photo, but you can see how close we were.



Who would have thought, calling the day of the show, that we would get great seats?!? Second row, and the 2 people in front of us didn't show. Now one might think that close isn't so good, however, with DD I have found the farther back we are, the less she's going to be able to focus on the show.

I even sat there in amazement. To have that many people in sync...! We already knew that Marty Dowds was dancing lead that night. DD was excited. Last year she danced in Wolf Traps Master Class, and Marty was one of the instructors.



DD was so happy when she saw her all time favorite irish dancer, Marcus Maloney, dance out onto the stage. He was one of the motivating figures in getting her started in Irish Dance. She was just 4 when she first saw the Irish Thunder show at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. Immediately she started begging for lessons. She's been dancing ever since.




She was so little back then! So excited to actually meet a few dancers.




DD always insisted on us sitting the front row at this show. That always meant heading straight there when the gates opened. So glad she doesn't do that anymore. She'd much rather dance than sit there and watch people dance.


She currently dances for the Boyle School of Irish Dance. She had been with the O'Neill James School, but abruptly insisted on quiting. Couldn't understand it. She insisted that she hated Irish Dance. How could a child who dances every time she hears Irish music hate it? We stumbled upon Boyle and she's been there for 3 years. She loves it so much that now, suddenly, she's toying with the idea of competing. Can I handle her competing in two different activities? We'll have to see.

To cruise or not to cruise?

DD and I cruise each spring break. Nice little vacation for both of us. She gets to hang with a bunch of kids her age in the "kids club", and I can sleep in the adult pool area, or head to the casino to throw my money away. Usually come back so relaxed it's not funny. Of course then I do have to spend a couple of days waiting for my desk to stop moving.



I just heard that our favorite ship, Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas, is moving to the west coast. I'm so sad. We've sailed on her 3 of the last 4 spring breaks - she's only been sailing that long. The one "off" year we thought we'd give something new a try... horrible decision, returned to the Mariner the following year. Once again I was toying with straying. After 3 sailings on the Mariner, and 3 straight Western Caribbean itineraries, wasn't sure I wanted to do another Mariner Western Caribbean in 2008.

We discovered the Mariner because I hate to fly. With the Mariner sailing out of Port Canaveral, it's really easy to combine a cruise with a short stint at Disney World. It's worked very nicely for us. 3 nights of absolute craziness at Disney World followed by 7 nights of peaceful slumber. Can't be beat.



I realize it's a pretty pathetic thing to worry about, but I'm sad. I do believe I am going to book Mariner again next year, just because I can.