It amazes me how fast Dance Nationals comes around each year! Here we are again! It is fun that we do this together as a Hawkins family! The kids get to spend time at the hotel and at Lagoon with their cousins and I am so grateful for the help with my kids from grandma and the aunts while I am being the dance mom. It works out so well.
Both Oakley and Laiklie danced all their individual stuff on Friday and team dances on Saturday. Laiklie did great this year. It is so fun to watch her improve with each year. She got all first places on her 5 solos, a 1st on her long duet and a 2nd on her short duet. She received the solo master award PLUS the super star award. The super star award is given to those with the highest points for the day. (Points are given with each event and then added together!) Sooo proud of her!!
Oakley did amazing on Friday with her individual events. We were blown away at how well they scored. They have scored well this year......but not THIS WELL! We were excited and after the hours and hours and hours of work she has put in lately I was so grateful it paid off!
On Saturday after team dances I ran the costumes out to the car, Ryan ran Laiklie back over to the hotel and I headed to find something for Oakley to eat while she went to ride a few rides waiting for the awards show to start. At 6:25ish while I was standing in line for my food, I got a call from Kas (our studio director) asking where Oakley was because HER AND BROOKLYN ARE GOING TO DANCE OFF!!!! What?!?!?! Oh my heck!! Kas called Oakley and Brooklyn and Erica and I ran all the way back across the parking lot to the cars to get their costumes. The girls ran and got started on fixing their hair. They had taken it out thinking there was no way in the world they were going to dance off. That is what we thought when we took the costumes to the car. The directors told Kas that somehow we had got missed on the call list and we should have been told by NOON! We were almost glad we weren't so they didn't have all day to worry about it and had great adrenaline to get them through the dance off. The doors opened at 6:40 and the show started at 7 so we ran like crazy ladies to get them ready and to the show on time.
We knew they were one of
THREE chosen to dance an
MVP Duet and as we sat and waited they read off the finalists for MVP duet and then MVP Short Duet and number 6 out of 7 was OAKLEY AND BROOKLYN!! We seriously about fell off our chairs. At this point, Kas, Erica and I were all bawling. What an exciting thing for our girls to get to dance for not only one, but
TWO MVP awards!! A once in a lifetime opportunity!! We couldn't have been more proud!!!
I love this picture of these two hugging after their short duet. They have worked their guts out trying to be ready for Nationals and this moment of dancing off twice for MVP was definitely the icing on the cake!!! These two have become best friends through these crazy years of dancing. What a great gift!
After two full days of dancing and an extremely late night at the awards show Oakley and I got up early Sunday morning to drive home (Leaving Ryan and the other kids asleep to drive home later) for Young Women's. Oakley had been asked by her YW President to speak to the YW on modesty. She was nervous all week about it, especially knowing the Stake President would be there. Some of her very best friends don't always make great choices when it comes to modesty and she was worried about hurting feelings too. She stood up there infront of all the YW and her leaders, the bishop and Stake President and did and INCREDIBLE job! I was as proud of her in that moment as I was the night before as she danced off for MVP! Oakley is amazing and I love being her mom! After YW's was over as we were headed out the Stake President grabbed both of us and pulled us aside and handed us three tickets to the Idaho Falls Temple dedication for IN THE TEMPLE!! He told me he wanted Ryan and I to take Oakley to the temple dedication AT THE TEMPLE!!! Soooooo Cool!!! I can't wait! He was obviously very impressed with Oakley that day and knew it was a hard thing for her to get up infront of her peers to talk to them about such a touchy subject. Sure love her!
