WSF Louisville 2015

Last weekend was the WSF All Star Cheerleading Competition in Louisville, KY.  This was the largest competition we have been to with Aubrey, and the teams were incredible!!  There were teams from all over the eastern U.S., like New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and all the southeastern states.

Aubrey had a mandatory practice in Louisville at 7:00 pm, so my friend Kristie checked her out of school to make sure she was there on time.  Madelyn's gymnastics team was doing a little gift exchange at the start of their practice, so I allowed her to go to that and participate.  I picked Madelyn up at Let It Shine and we got on the road about 5:30.  I've never been to Louisville, but it was a pretty easy drive - only 3 hours and no issues.

We arrived in Louisville at about 9:30 and Aubrey was just finishing up her practice.  By the time we got checked in to the hotel the girls were both starving.  I ordered some room service which didn't come until 11:00, then we went to sleep.

Saturday morning I woke up at 6:00, showered then got the girls up and ready.  Our hotel was downtown and several miles from the competition site.  However, the hotel offered free shuttles to the site and we decided that would be better than paying $10 to park.  The girls and I arrived at the convention center about an hour early.  I couldn't believe how large the place was and how many cheerleaders there were!!  For Aubrey's level, Youth 2, there were 13 teams in her division.  They also had another Youth 2 division of an additional 14 teams!!

I'm not going to lie, practice the week before was a disaster, so we didn't have very high hopes going into the competition.  At practice, all of the flyers were struggling to stay in the air and the pyramid just looked like a hot mess!  The girls met with the coaches and went for warm-ups.

When it came time for the team to preform we were BLOWN AWAY!  the girls hit everything and looked better than they ever have!  I think all the parents about lost their voices from screaming and cheering so loudly during that 3 1/2 minute routine.  It was an awesome way to start the competition!!

My friend Kelly was working at the competition, so I offered for her girls, PJ and Abby, to hang out with us all day.  PJ was on Aubrey's team last year, and Abby is on her team this year.  They are an incredibly sweet family and all the girls get along fabulously.  So we all piled on the shuttle bus and headed back to the hotel.

We stayed at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Lousiville.  Having never visited the city before, I had no idea what to expect so I just booked a room at the host hotel.  When we checked in and opened our curtains, we were overlooking the downtown Christmas tree and a ton of shops and restaurants.  There is an area calle 4th Street Live that was less than a block from our hotel.  The girls and I changed clothes and walked down to the area to find a place for lunch.  We settled on a TGI Fridays, then went back to the hotel and they changed into swimsuits.  The hotel had an indoor heated pool, and they swam and played for almost 2 hours.  We went back to the room, changed clothes and went back down to 4th Street to explore. it was a really nice area near the Christmas tree, with little shops and lots of areas for the kids to play and run.  They even had a Santa set up with free pictures.  The girls all told Santa they want a bid to Summit :)

The view from our hotel room.

Ready to go!!

Always posing!!

Telling Santa about Summit

A treat for these hard-working girls

After playing all day, we walked to dinner at a local Mexican place and then Kelly came to pick up Abby.  I was able to get the girls settled to bed, and we finally went to sleep about 9:00.  It was a fun, exhausting day!!

Sunday morning we woke up early, got dressed and checked out of the hotel.  We drove to the convention center and met the coaches and other parents.  We learned that the girls had gotten zero deductions the day before and were currently in 5th place!!!  We were super thrilled, and the girls went into their day 2 competition with more confidence and excitement than ever!!

Sweet teammates

The girls and I had been saying all day Saturday that we wished Clint was there.  He always tries to go to all the girls competitions, but having just started with Franklin PD this year, he doesn't have enough vacation time to attend everything.  I was walking with a friend Sunday morning at the competition site when she was like, "Look, there's your husband."  I couldn't believe it, but Clint got off work Saturday night, slept a few hours then drove up to Louisville to surprise us!!!  We were all SOO excited to see him!!

Aubrey's team performed even better on Sunday than they had on Saturday!!  They had another day of zero deductions and finished up the competition in 6th place out of 13 teams.  We are so incredibly proud of these girls and how hard they have worked!!  Overall, I would say that Louisville was a HUGE success!

November

Oh my goodness,  I can't believe we are well into December already! 

November was a busy month for us.  The girls had their first competitions of the season,  both in the same weekend!

Madelyn didn't score as high as she would have liked, but she did great and we are super proud.   Her highest score was a 9.2 on the balance beam, which earned a 4th place medal.

Sweet teammates

Happy girl with Daddy

Aubrey's team worked so hard and finished the competition with 0 deductions and a 3rd place finish

Thanksgiving week didn't turn out as we expected.   Clint's grandmother,  Granny, passed away.  She was such a huge part of our lives.  We miss her terribly,  but know she is rejoicing in Heaven!! 

The girls and I leave Friday for a cheer competition in Louisville,  KY.  I will try to better about updating!

Halloween

October was so busy!!  Madelyn woke up a day or two before Halloween with a bad cold, just feeling miserable.   Friday night we went to Amanda and Houston's to wait for Mimi and Poppie to get in town.  Poor Madelyn just lay on the couch.  Once they made it in, we celebrated Mimi's birthday then went home to bed. 

Saturday morning we all had brunch together then the girls and I went home to rest.  Madelyn was feeling ok with a Sudafed,  but my head was pounding.   By the time we made it home I had a full migraine and spent all afternoon throwing up before finally falling asleep.  The girls woke me up at 4:00 and we packed up for trick or treating and headed back to Amanda's.  

The evening actually was really fun.   Both Madelyn and I felt better and the rain stopped just in time for trick-or-treating.  Anyway,  another Halloween in the books!!

Premier Showcase 2015

Each year to kickoff the competition cheer season, Premier Athletics hosts a showcase in Pigeon Forge.  There are 11 (Premier gyms all over the country, from Tennessee, Kentucky, Florida and Michigan.  It's a good opportunity for the girls to get on stage to showcase their routines and get feedback from judges, without the pressure of placing.

This year we decided that Clint doesn't have enough vacation time to head to all of the girls' out of town meets, so I knew Aubrey and I would be going solo to this one.  Madelyn gets pretty bored at the all-day events, so we decided she could stay here so that she wouldn't miss gymnastics.  Friday after work Aubrey and I headed down to my friend Kristie's house to catch a ride with her and her daughter Emme, who was on Aubrey's team last year.

We packed up the van with us, Kristie's sister Michelle and her daughter, Campbell and Kristie's college aged niece.  It was quite an adventure with all those girls in one van!!  The trip seemed long, as we lost an hour going and didn't leave until later that we expected.  Kristie's family is from East TN and her parents have a place in Sevierville, not far from Pigeon Forge.  The original plan was to stay there, but about a week before we left Kristie told me that we were going to stay in her sister's motor home instead.  Aubrey was so excited she could hardly contain herself.  She had never even seen a motor home before.

We finally arrived about midnight local time, got settled in the motor home and went to sleep.  I was surprised how well we slept, but we were exhausted!!  We woke up Saturday morning and didn't have to be at the conference center until after lunch.  We hung out in the morning, relaxing and everyone showering and getting ready.  I dropped Aubrey off with her team and coach and hung out for a while.  The event was set up really nice.  Everything was very organized and ran well.  The girls warmed up and we finally were able to see them on stage.

Ready to go!!

Aubrey's team and coaches

It's so funny to me how much Aubrey lights up as soon as she steps on that stage.  This girl definitely loves to perform!!!  She hit all her stunts, and the team looked great!  We stayed a while to watch some of the other Nashville teams, then headed back to the motor home to change clothes.

 

 

 

There's a place right by the convention center called "The Island".  It's a huge area with all kinds of restaurants like Paula Deen's, Margaritaville and a few others.  They also have a ton of shops, a big arcade, rides and activities.  As part of the Showcase we received discounted tickets so we decided to head over and let the girls have a little fun.  We put our name on the wait list at a restaurant (the wait was over 2 hours!!) and went around playing games.  After dinner the kids played in the arcade, and next thing we knew it was midnight!

Aubrey, Emme and Campbell

Sunday Aubrey had to be back for warm-ups by 10:30, so we were pretty rushed in the morning. Again, the girls looked great and Aubrey was pretty happy with her performance.  We headed out of town about 4:00, and headed home.

It was a super exhausting but fun weekend.  Definitely indicative of how weekends will be from now until April!!!