Cheer-fully

We woke up bright and early this morning, or early anyway. Kaylee was passed out cold no matter what went on around her, so I took a picture of her on her fold-out bed here because I thought she looked sweet. Aren't they all little angels when they are sleeping? ;)

Being the thrifty people we were trying to be on this trip, Steve noticed that our hotel had a breakfast. Originally we were going to pick up a quick McDonald's or something, but decided if they were going to provide free breakfast, we would take advantage of it after all. So we go down, get our plates, and a woman there brings us drinks, which in our early morning slow state, we thought was very nice. Come to find out, that wasn't a "continental breakfast on the house". It was $10/person. Once we figured that out, we laughed-I mean, what else are you going to do?? I can't even eat much for breakfast early in the morning, and Kaylee didn't either. But the waitress noticed and gave me and Kaylee both a "child's buffet" at a discounted rate, saving us about $10 in the end, so that was really nice of her. It was just rather ironic that we only ate breakfast there because we thought it was free food and it ended up costing us more than a normal breakfast. Oh well, at least we got a $20 Target card for staying at that hotel, which I thought was different but good. :)

So we drove on downtown to the Indy Convention Center where the gymnastics and cheer competitions were being held, and we made it in good time. The halls were packed with booths and displays to entrap young girls (well, their parents anyway) with clothes, toys, all sorts of stuff. Kaylee had fun going up and down the escalator, and she and several of the other girls stood in the entryway of one of the rooms and watched gymnastics for awhile. Kaylee is on the left in the photo. When it was their time to go, they went off to practice while we hiked through to get to the competition room and get a decent seat. It was about an hour later that the competitions started. Kaylee is in an "exhibition only" group, as were the other groups that performed around her time frame. I have the same observations as I did last year. There were some very young girls (way younger than Kaylee) in cheer outfits with their whole abdomen exposed, with eyeliner and mascara and eyeshadow and eye glitter and lipstick. I just...I just don't like that. Most were in good taste just having fun, but in everything I suppose there are those who just take it too far.

Kaylee and her group, the Hot Shots, did a terrific job. They were right on, their lifts went perfectly, and they were the best team that had gone up to that point. Kaylee was concentrating so hard, sometimes she forgets to smile. :) One woman asked her if she was nervous, and she just looked like that was a silly question and said "No." Of all the things she's done in public, I don't think I've ever heard her express nervousness that I can recall. So they went out there and did great and had fun. Steve sat up in the stands and shot video, and I stayed on the floor and took photos. There is no flash photography allowed, and they are constantly in motion, and this is indoors, so most of my photos are a little blurry I'm afraid, but you get the general idea. :)

After she performed, we picked her back up in the main area and wandered around the Circle Center Mall, stopped at the food court for a Cinabon "lunch", walked around the "Gerbil tubes" as Kaylee calls some of the walkways in between buildings, and just killed time until the awards ceremony. Last year we didn't stay for the awards ceremony, and I don't think I would again next year either, even though it was kind of fun. The stands were packed out, the floor was full of cheerleaders, and they put up some music and had dancing down on the floor. It was riotous, and the girls were having a blast. I was down there with Kaylee, they threw beads out into the midst of the girls, and they did several "group dance/line dance" songs. They even did the "train", with hundreds of girls winding around in a massive train. I held my camera up in the air and pointed it down to try to get some perspective on the crowd, but it was big. The girls got their trophy, I took a couple of pictures of some of the girls with it, and we finally wound our way out of there. By the time we left, we were all really getting wiped out and ready to be on our way home. It was a busy, loud day that started early and lasted a long time, but cheer is officially over, at least for awhile.

Kaylee told me she wants to try out for the "All Stars", which is the competition team, now that she can do a round off and is in level two gymnastics. I told her that no matter what, she can not do that team, because it's just not financially or time-wise feasible right now. She said that she wanted to try out anyway, and when both Steve and I separately told her she couldn't perform anyway, she said "I know, I understand. I just want to see if I can do it, if I can make it in." Steve asked her if she would be sad if she didn't get in, and she thought for a second and said "Oh, probably." She ended up just reaffirming that she just wants to try out anyway just to see how she does. Well, okay. I can't argue with that. Go for it. :)

We got home late this afternoon to a couple of happy kitties, (mostly) unpacked, and Kaylee wanted to play Wii Cheer, so I set that up for her too. I came running into the room to her screaming...she beat the Wii Cheer for the first time tonight, and not too long after that she beat another routine too. She has been working on that since she got it for Christmas, had "failed" every single routine, and just today passed two. From then on out, I couldn't get her off the Wii, she insisted on trying again and again on two of the last "stages" she needed to beat, but couldn't yet. Finally she got really mad, and I told her to remember what she'd accomplished and that she didn't do it right away. She just gets her mind on something and it's hard to get her off of it until she gets it done. This is actually not a bad skill to have in life...

You can see the pictures from the cheer competition HERE. I'll move them to Kaylee's site once I can get in there again, but this will work for now. It was a busy, slightly tiring, interesting weekend!