Beginning last Friday, our kids began their annual spring break.  Because we went to Disney back in January, we are staying home for the week, and the kids are attending camps at a local Rec center.  Disney in January is cheaper and less crowded (or so we thought), and I will be posting some highlights soon.

This past weekend my daughter’s dance group traveled to the Eastern Shore to perform in a competition Sunday morning.  We didn’t have to be at the location until 9am, so we could have easily gotten up and driven that morning since we only live a little more than an hour away.  Last year was the first year she competed, and we stayed in a hotel near the competition site since we had to be there as early as 8am, and didn’t want to take any chances on being late/getting lost/having car troubles, etc.  We had so much fun last year, we decided to stay over again this year. 

We left on Saturday afternoon, after my husband and son had baseball practice, and arrived at the hotel around 3pm.  Fortunately, the hotel is located about 10 minutes from a Prime Outlets shopping center, and basically across the street from a few really good seafood restaurants.  We spent the afternoon shopping, and then rounded up a few of the other dancers and moms and headed to dinner around 6:30.  The kids did really well shopping, even though we were there over three hours.  They both got to buy some books, and they each got well needed new sneakers.  They also got rewarded with treats from Harry and David, so that always helps!

For dinner, we had a party of 10.  Four moms, four dancers, my husband and son.  Not a bad ratio for either of them!  I ate a lot of fried food, as I just love crab cakes, onion rings, and hush puppies.  I don’t normally eat that poorly, but I was on vacation, and I at least started off with a garden salad.  (Who says I don’t like veggies)??  The atmosphere was totally casual and very festive since it was St. Patrick’s Day weekend, and there were multiple basketball games on for the pre-NCAA tournament. 

I think the best part of all was that we had nothing else to do!  There was absolutely no rush.  How often do you get the chance to just sit back, relax, and totally enjoy the moment without having to worry about rushing off to some other event?  The only thing we had left to do was to head back to the hotel, get ready for bed, and read/watch TV.  It was so nice not worring about what I was not getting done at home (BTW, I still have not done my taxes yet…shocker)!!!

Of course, the worrying for me began very early Sunday morning.  I woke up way before the 6am alarm, since I was afraid of oversleeping.  CC also woke up early, as she was very eager to get her game face (I mean make-up) on for the competition.  Two of the other moms had rooms on either side of ours, so we were back and forth helping each other with hair and make-up.  My friend is great with getting CC’s hair up in a tight ponytail, especially since she uses that “glue” stuff to make it all stay in place.  I helped her daughter, TW,  with make-up, since she doesn’t like to wear it.  This brings me to the big drama of the weekend…

CC’s friend, TW, had been complaining at dinner that her stomach hurt.  Her mom didn’t really pay too much attention since she thought it might just be nerves.  Well, guess what?!  She wasn’t kidding!!!  In the middle of the night TW started throwing up!!  GREAT!!  She continued to throw up after breakfast.  She even threw up in the car on the way from the hotel to the competition.  Now what?  TW’s mom was convinced that she was not going to perform, as you could just take one look at her and tell that she felt like crap.  However, what do you say to a nine year old that has just spent the past few months working hard to learn and perfect this routine that she now can not perform as part of the group.  Not to mention, the dance instructor only had about half an hour to figure out how to make the routine work without one of the dancers!!  Plus, the girls are not experienced enough to figure out how to pretend that she’s not there.  So what happened…she pulled thru and went out on stage with the rest of the team and performed.  I think everyone that knew how terrible she felt was holding their breath for her to get through the performance with out tossing her cookies on stage.  CC asked my husband and me what to do if she got sick on stage…being the smart alecks that we are, we told her not to step in it!  Nice, right?!?

I was quite impressed at how well all the girls performed and they looked great on stage.  They were not perfect, but they performed their hearts out, and had fun.  We had seen them practice the routine a number of times at the studio, but until I saw them on stage, I really could not appreciate the choreography because I was always so close and basically eye to eye with the dancers.  Once I saw it from a distance, it looked so much better.  I was a nervous wreck, and I noticed that my hand was shaking even after they got off stage.  Their performance was #14 of 34, so we had 20 more routines to wait thru before we got the results.  The girls were awarded a gold medal, and they tied for second overall high score for their age group.  Congrats, girls!!  Not bad considering they didn’t even start practicing until January, and one of the dancers was sick as a dog.  Many of the other groups in the competition had been working since last July!!

After the awards ceremony, we headed out and stopped for lunch on the way.  We arrived home about 24 hours after leaving, and it really felt like we had been gone a lot longer.  The best part about that was we didn’t have too much to unpack, and we had done most of the laundry prior to the trip.  We still had a good portion of the day to accomplish things we needed to do.  But why start then?

We had a great “mini” vacation, and I definitely think we need to take little trips like that more often.  Fortunately, my husband and I have an upcoming out of town wedding in a few weeks.  This time, we will be traveling without the kids…I have a feeling we will be spending that 24 hours a little differently this time…hmmm!