We Are the Champions

The dust had not even settled from Josh's All-State experience before Emma and I were on a flight bound for Minnesota.  Emma is on the Star Lit Blades Synchronized Skating Team and they had an opportunity to compete in the US Figure Skating 2015 Midwest/Pacific Coast Sectionals.  (Say that fast three times. :)

These ladies were so excited and ready for the experience of a lifetime.  This is the first year they have all skated together on the same team.  They have had a few performances throughout the year and have done very well.

We arrived in Minnesota on Wednesday afternoon (January 28th) and headed straight for the ice rink for an official practice time.  This is where they have the opportunity to practice their routine twice in front of the judges.  The practice went very well, even though they had spent all morning in airports and on planes.  

After the practice, we headed to the hotel to relax for a bit.  My mom came with us, which was so much fun.  I am so glad that she was able to be with us.  We all laid down on the beds and crashed.  It felt so good to sleep after waking up so early to catch our flight.

After our naps, we headed down to a team dinner.  The excitement was in the air.  The girls made signs to put on their hotel room doors and for us, the small parent cheering section, to hold up at the competition.  Then it was off to bed to be well rested for the big day ahead.

 Luckily, the coach found some ice time at a different rink for the morning of the competition.  The girls were able to go and have a really good, long practice session to get them all warmed up.  They looked amazing in the practice.  

We went back to the hotel so everyone could get glammed up.  It was a flurry of makeup, hairspray, skating tights and dresses.  We headed to the rink and found that there was standing room only.  Since all of us parents were newbies at a competition like this, we were completely shocked.  Thankfully, the event before us ended and a whole bunch of seats cleared out.  We staked out a small section and settled in to wait for our girls turn.

There were 10 teams skating in the Open Juvenile category that our girls were in.  They were the 5th team to skate and that's when the magic happened.

They were incredible.

After the other teams skated, we sat back to wait for the results.  In the previous categories, they announced the winners starting with the team in 4th place.  So when the announcer spewed out a garbled bunch of words which sounded like "In 1st place, an independent team from Utah, the Star Lit Blades!", we were a bit confused.  Did he say 4th or did he say 1st?  We all assumed 4th place and were beyond excited.  We had come to the competition hoping to just have a good experience and to skate really well.  Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine that we would come home with a medal.  Now we thought we had a 4th place medal and we were so happy.

Then the announcer went on to announce the 2nd place winner.  Wait a second.  Shouldn't he be announcing the 3rd place winner?  Now we were really confused.  The girls all headed down to the locker room and their coach went to try and find out what the results were.
1st or 4th?  What would it be?

One of the parents received a text from her daughter in the locker room....1st place!
We were completely floored!  Tears started flowing and we were jumping up and down as much as the girls.

After a short awards ceremony, we headed over to the Mall of America to have dinner.  This place is beyond huge.  Four levels, an amusement park, bowling alley, movie theaters, an aquarium...you name it, this place has it.  We ate a quick dinner and then tried to see as much as we could in an hour.

We went back to the hotel after the mall closed and the girls went swimming.  

The following morning we went back to the rink for the official Opening Ceremonies of the competition.  Our girls competed in the non-qualifying round, so they cannot move on to the Nationals.  Next year they are hoping to compete in the qualifying rounds.  Emma was honored to be one of the girls to carry our team's banner.  She had no tardies and no missed practices the whole season.  Kudos to her taxi drivers. :)

After the opening ceremonies it was back to the Mall because we had only scratched the tiniest bit of the surface of that monstrosity.  We ate lunch and then went through the virtual Barbie Dreamhouse.  This was a 35,000 square foot replica of Barbie's house.  Now, I saw a lot of pink during my fight with cancer.  Remember my pink party?  Where my house was bathed in pink?  That was nothing compared to this.  It seriously took me an hour to start seeing other colors after we got out of that place.  The girls had a blast though and I Facetimed with Abbie and Ellie the whole time we were in there so they could experience it as well.

We had to go back to the rink so the girls could watch some of the Intermediate teams compete.  That is the level they will skate at next year.  Then we went back to the Mall.  Are you seeing a pattern emerge here?  We checked out all of the unbelievable Lego sculptures and then hit the amusement park and the American Girl doll store.  By the time we got back to the hotel, my feet were dead.  My mom and I collapsed on the bed and Emma went swimming.  Mom was even more tired then me because she had walked the mall the whole day.  We have some great family friends, the Braman family, who live in Minnesota and they were kind enough to come and watch Emma and then hung out at the mall with us for two days.  Mom and Jane had a great time catching up, but Mom's body paid for it later that night. ;)

The next morning we packed up all of our stuff (except for Emma's brand new swimsuit which was left in the bathroom and I have still not been able to get anyone from the hotel call me back...) and we headed to the airport.  We spend most of the afternoon in the air and walked through the Salt Lake airport to a crowd of people yelling and screaming at us.  It was so fun to have a welcome party for these girls and they were all surprised about it.  It was the perfect end to a completely wonderful weekend. :)  Now if only I can get Emma's swimsuit back...then the experience will be complete.

*Here is a fun little video with a few highlights from the trip.