Dance & Drill

A couple of weeks ago I spent the weekend in Yakima with Melia at one of my favorite WIAA events.

Not my favorite to shoot,( I really need better upper body strength for this event. We sit on the main floor in beach chairs. 5 hrs straight- no getting up for any reason. Melia can testify to how much Advil I had to take as my arms started to really burn after the first few hrs.), but my favorite to watch.

  If you have never been and you love dancing and music you should give this a try sometime.

    They have your more basic dance stuff that resembles cheer. They are Pom and Military. I was really surprised the first time I saw Military.

    Sometimes the pom dancers branch out a bit with fun customes and music.

 Then there is Kick. They are fun. But, by day two it's harder to impress me.

There is Dance- think a cross between ballet and modern. They are generally slow emotional things. Good but, not my bag of tea.

There is tons of Hip Hop! It is really big.  They are generally pretty fun to watch. Lots of cool costumes and moves. Some of the music is good some .....so so.

One of the schools did a military thing. about a guy going to war and dying. it was done really well. Lots of people crying in stands. Some of the dancers had gotten into it so much emotionally that they were crying as they left the floor.

And my very favorite is prop. Some prop is flag stuff which is OK. But some are like a song from a musical. Lots of props and lots going on all over.  it's just really fun to watch.

This year they did not have as many of them as they had in the past and quality was not as good over all. I think they are expensive to produce and require a very talented leader.
 One of the one's that won the 4A was not my favorite,but was extremely well done.

They end the night with a "lights out" parade of dancers. The energy in the place is incredible. Most everyone including fans and parents comes prepared with light-up items.
After the lights come back on it's award time, then everyone heads home.

 I hope I've given you a small taste of this fun event and some of you, especially with daughters might really enjoy this. Till I started shooting it I did not know it existed.

madison 3rd B-day

Madison turned 3 on March 29th. We celebrated at "Charlie's Safari" in Olympia and back at her home.

The toddler area is full of big blow-up things you can climb, slide and jump on. It was lots of fun.

Then we headed back to Madison's for some presents and cake.

Peyton tried to help Madison with her Presents.

She had a Disney Princess ice cream cake from baskin robbins.

                                          Peyton and her dad help her blow out the candles

                                   After her guests left she pulled out her new cake decorating playdoh to have alittle bit more birthday fun before bedtime!!!!!

Childrens Museum

The water area. Madison & Nate. At the end you can see Spencer who set up a water fall of sorts.

We had been to the museum before. But, I had forgotten my camera and it took all adults to TRY to keep track of kids.
  This time was better, much better. All dads came, as well as me and Grandma Connie to enjoy the wonders of the Olympia Children's Museum. If you've never been, you should go. It's like a kids big dream play house!!!
   We got there right when it opened and there were not too many other people there yet! Last time we had to compete with a elementary school that had 3 or 4 class of kids.

  Jesse and Tressa are not early risers and joined us half way through our adventure.


Parker was really enjoy the work area and his wheel barrel and rocks!!

We started out in Big boat and water and quickly  moved to the Work area.  As you can see by photos the kids, big and little, were having a grand time. and we had the area mostly to ourselves.





The miller family in work truck



Madison & Isabell had lots of fun loading rocks on to their shovels.



Ellie happy chill'n with Grandma Connie



This is the sand box area. Spencer and melia w/Parker, Isabell and Mads in back.

Isabell probably would have stayed and played in the sand all day if we hadn't made her move.



Isabell looking up at outline face and hands of her dad, in her workman outfit!



     We later moved on the stage & tree house play area. The kids LOVE this area. Isabell loves to dress up and sing for us. Madison and Peyton love to give people tickets to the show.

Isabell & Peyton singing a song together on Stage



Tressa joined Isabell and Parker had to try to get in on the fun too!



Parker in the tree house with his dad looking in.

  We then went to the food- doctor area, which I had never been to before. This place has everything.  Nate dressed Parker up as a DR and if was so cute!!!!.

 I think Melia has better photos of it. Hopefully she'll post at sometime.

Kitchen area..making us lunch??



Grandma Connie and Ellie ( 6 months)

Not sure words are needed for this fun photo taken in the toddler room.

The place is a bit tight and small. Good news is they are building a much bigger, better one.
Can't wait!! Isabell is the most in to make-believe and she really could go to one area and play for an hour and then go home. come back the next time and just play in another. The rest of the kids seemed to like change the scenery some.



Family hugs!!!!

We ended up in the toddler room. Which was relaxing, because no one could escape. I think we were all suffering from alittle over stimulation and called it quits after 2 hrs and headed out for lunch and naps!!! PS.-  No good pic's of Jesse. He had Brady duty, so was on the move most of the time.