| February 2006 |
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| February was full of basketball game performances and preparing for Nationals. Mom, Dad, Robyn, and her friend Kyle came to GB on the 11th to watch me dance at both a women's and a men's game. It was nice to have them there and for Robyn to get to see what I do at a game. |
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| It was good that my family came to visit when they did, because the following week we had a huge blizzard. The GB public and private schools were cancelled, so I didn't have to go to my education course (which meets at a local middle school). Instead, I got to sleep in! Hooray for snow days!! Tons of classes on campus were cancelled too. The campus cancelled all classes at or after 4 pm, but unfortunately my professor for my 3:30 class wouldn't cancel class, so I had to get all bundled up and walk to class. It was not fun! Only a third of the class showed up too! |
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| Rebecca on her way back from finding out that her class was cancelled, and me on my way to class! |
| The snow just blew around in drifts-- you couldn't even see where the roads were. |
| UPA NATIONALS 2006 |
| On Thursday, February 23rd, our team met up at 8:30 am to leave for Minneapolis. We loaded all of our stuff--plus us-- into the navy blue, 15 passenger van-- not an easy task! We had a very looong drive. We stayed at the Hyatt hotel-- which was just a short walk from the convention center where the competition was held and the Hilton, where a lot of activities were held. In the evening, some of the girls competed in individual events such as kick, leaps, and jumps. |
| On Friday morning, Cindy and Missy competed with individual routines. Then we all rode the Light Rail and went to the Mall of America. We wore these cute green t-shirts that Missy decorated for all of us. As part of our package, we got unlimited number of points at Camp Snoopy-- so we took advantage of that! We also did a bit of shopping. |
| When we got back from the Mall, we had practice at the hotel in one of the ballrooms. After that, we all got dressed up and went to an 80's dance party, which was a college mixer, at the Hilton. I would have to say that our team looked the cutest! |
| My team: back row L to R: Carissa, Morgan, Nicci, Amanda, Cindy, Alyssa, Me, Stephanie front row: Cheri, Amanda, Brodee, Missy |
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| Saturday we had to wake up very early. We performed before 10:00 in the morning-- which is not something we are used to! We performed our "open" piece which was to the song "Toxic." We placed 4th out of 7 teams. Grandma Jan and Cathy were able to come watch my team, so it was nice to have them there. I really appreciated having them there. |
| Later in the afternoon, we performed our hip-hop/funk routine. We had these cute outfits (which we got a lot of comments on at our school! Everyone loved them there!) We also placed 4th in this category-- which was very depressing since we took 1st last year. We performed awesomely-- it just so happened that the other teams did just as well. |
| In the evening, we all dressed up and got gorgeous! We went to the banquet which is held for all of the competition participants. We were served a fancy meal (and some of the best brownies I've ever eaten in my life-- and I've had lots of brownies!!). The girls who participated in individual competitons received awards during the dinner. Carissa even took first place in the kick competition, so we were very proud of her. |
| We drove home on Sunday-- the car ride seemed much longer this time!! It was great to finally be back in GB. The weekend was a lot of fun though. I roomed with Amanda, and two of our freshman- little Amanda and Carissa. It was great to get to know them-- they were a lot of fun. I didn't unpack my stuff until Wednesday-- I think unpacking is the worst part about traveling anywhere! We just have one more basketball game to dance at now, then our season will be done. |
| My favorite girls: Cindy, Me, Amanda, Amanda, Alyssa, and Carissa |