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!!!
