Dance Pictures

Master Class w/ Derrick Schrader

Our studio hosted a Master Class with Derrick Schrader.  We met him at the Tremaine Convention last summer where all of the girls loved taking his class!  So he agreed to head down to Gilbert, Arizona for a great weekend!  The twins were able to learn some choreography from him for competition later this year.  They absolutely loved it!  Chloe took both the junior and senior master classes and did so great!  And Lauryn was able to take the junior master class.  She was awesome!!  I am so proud of all of my girls.  They worked so hard (12 hours working full-out the majority of the time for Sommer and Sydney) and the little girls both stood out in their class!   We are so lucky to have these type of opportunities for our girls!

Sydney, Sommer Derrick, Chloe and Lauryn

The Junior Group with Derrick (Lauryn in blue and Chloe in yellow)

Bendy girls - Lauryn and Chloe

Ouch!

It's hard to see - but Sommer is in blue and Maya is in pink - going across the floor

Derrick and the Senior Group - Sydney on the left of Derrick, Sommer on the right, Chloe in yellow

Yep.....

Orchestra Tour 2012

Hunter went with the Desert Ridge High School Symphonic Strings Orchestra to perform in some orchestra thing this past month.  Isn't it nice that I don't even know what it really was?  Great mom.  I do know that they received a Superior with Distinction rating on their performance.  They also got to eat dinner at Midevil Times and go to Disneyland.  Hunter had a blast and I'm glad that he gets to be a part of such a great group!  Here are a few pictures he sent me throughout the weekend.

Of course, he sent me no pictures of him in his tuxedo.  Come to think of it - how do I even know they performed at all?  Maybe it was just a rouse to get mom and dad to pay for a trip to California!

Baseball Game

Brian was invited by the Cancer Treatment Centers of America to throw out the first pitch at a major league spring training game. We headed out to Peoria on a rainy Sunday morning expecting the game to be rained out. But when we got to the stadium, the sun was shining. It was a beautiful day! We had shirts and jackets made for our family that were royal blue (colon cancer's color) and they had the colon cancer ribbon-star embroidered on them. The kids looked great and we were so happy to have Brian's parents and my parents come to support him!

They had Brian walk out to the home plate while they told the crowd about Brian and his fight against cancer. They then had him run the basses, with the Mariners and Rockies lining the base line. They all gave him high 5's and offered him words of encouragement. It was so incredible. Such a great moment for him! Then the National Anthem was sung and Brian took the mound for the first pitch. It was so great!

We took the kids to our seats and watched a few innings of the game. At the fourth inning Lauryn looked at her dad and asked him if we could please leave. It was a little boring for her! Brian said sure - and we all piled into the cars. As soon as we hit the freeway for home, the rain started falling down in sheets! It was so amazing how quickly the sky turned from blue and beautiful - to gray. We felt so blessed to be able to have this opportunity. We know that the sunshine and blue sky were meant for us. This was definitely a once in a lifetime event. Brian needed to be cheered on and recognized for all he is enduring and fighting for! We are so proud of him!!

Spring Break 2012

This is the first Spring Break in a long time that the Neus Family hasn't been on vacation!  Last year we went on a cruise, the year before was spent at Disneyland.  The years before that were spent up in Eagar visiting Brian's parents.  This year we decided to just enjoy being at home.  The weather is so wonderful in March.  There is really no need to go anywhere else!

We spent the week being lazy, going to movies and generally just having a relaxing time.  But by the time  Thursday came around, Brian was ready for the week to be over.  He hasn't been feeling too well lately - just really tired and sore.  So I ended up booking us a hotel room in Fountain Hills.  Still close enough to home - but away from the kids.  We sent the little girls to my sister's house, Hunter went with Grandma and Grandpa Olsen, and the twins stayed at the house to take care of the dogs.

It was a great couple of days to be alone with Brian and just relax.  We ate out, slept in and did a little shopping.  Good times!