Nervous, but excited

I'm headed to Taiwan this summer to attend the Global daCi/WDA Dance Summit 2012.  Whoa.

And the schedule is out.  At this link, click on the Presentations at 11:15.  Bottom of the yellow box, Section 38... What?!

I officially have serious butterflies (not to mention serious work to do...)

I'm so excited!  And equally nervous! Like good ole Troy in High School Musical 4!

Claw-Foot the Mighty Attends a Pool Party

This weekend is Nationals for my studio competition teams.  All of the solos were performed yesterday and the groups will perform today and tomorrow.  I worked with three teams this year, choreographing and cleaning their lyrical dances.  The girls worked hard this year and it is amazing to see how far they have come and how much they have grown!

So, in celebration of a year of hard work, we had a pool party on Monday.  Amazingly, nobody was injured in all the craziness.

It was a pretty good day for a pool party.  It was only hot enough to sweat small circles under my arms instead of soaking my entire shirt.  That's a good day.

There aren't too many things cuter than 9 year olds in goggles.... Except maybe 3 year olds in goggles... but that's it.

The girls had a lot of fun jumping off the diving board.  Can you tell they're dancers?  We clearly need to work on pointing our feet (not our toes) a bit more next year... I'm not a big fan of "pointing toes" because in reality, if you point just your toes and not your whole foot... well... eww... That's what I call claw-foot.... which is also a good name for a bubble... or a turtle... Claw-Foot the Mighty.  I like it.

Woot to Pat Riddle Dancers and best of luck this weekend at Stage One Nationals!

Shadow Dance

Yesterday was the last day of dance classes before the recital.  I can't believe I've been working with these girls for a whole year!  I brought my camera and we took lots of pictures.  It was pretty dark in the studio and as I am learning, bad lighting+action shots+beginner behind the camera = not so good shots.  

We did get some pretty cool shots of my seniors out behind the studio.  The sun was setting and it created great shadows on the wall!

These are a few of the good ones.  I bumped up the contrast and then played with different tinting effects.

Someday we will probably invest in Photoshop or even just Photoshop Elements.  But for now, Picasa works really well for us.  Picasa is Google's free photo editing software and it does a lot of basic edits such as cropping, contrast, color, etc.  

My sister-in-law Jill also told me about Picnik, a website that has a free version of its editing program.  From the little bit that I have used it, it seems to offer a lot of features that Picasa can't do.  However, the free version is a bit limiting and I like that Picasa is a separate program that works outside of your web browser.

The good news?  Google has acquired Picnik and I'm hoping that some of the features from Picnik will be included in the next version of Picasa.

Woot for cool pictures!

On the Upswing...

Good things are happening-- we have been so blessed lately!

1. Grant starts his new job tomorrow! We are very excited to have a job and a regular income, even if not excited to end our six months of free time...

2. Yesterday was the first competition for my studio girls! They did so well and danced better and with more heart than I have ever seen! To top it all off, each team placed with their lyrical dances! Minis got 2nd overall, Juniors 1st overall, and Seniors 3rd overall (in their respective categories). I'm so proud!

3. I made a fondant cake! It turned out pretty well for my first one. I made a few mistakes that I'll fix next time around but overall I'm pleased. It is a half smiley face, half frowny face for my school presentation tomorrow on "Dance as Emotion."

I made my fondant way too hard and it was extremely difficult to work with... better next time.

And, in case good things aren't happening in your life, watch this clip and it can be your one good thing. We're watching this movie right now for the... 24th time...

STEVE!

Expansion

Yesterday and Monday I had my end of the year shows for my company, "Expansion." I had so many supporters there and it felt good to show everyone what we've been working on for so long. It was a bittersweet moment for me and the other four girls I dance with. Most of us have danced together for two years (some for more) and after this we're all going separate ways. I have grown SO much dancing on this company not to mention the wonderful friends I have made and opportunities I have had. It will be hard to find a venue like this no matter where Grant and I go.

Marge and John came as well as Grant who brought me the most beautiful red roses!

Linds came and brought Taylor. What a good, supportive fiance he is!

Chelsea came too! She was on O2 with us last year.

Bailee and me-- she keeps me sane :)

The whole company: Bailee, me, Nacole, Bayli, and Kaitlyn. What a wonderful year and show!

So Much Fun, So Few Pictures...

We've been up to a lot in the last month! Both of Grant's parents came to visit, we went to Boise for a weekend, Grant got a new job, we went to the Draper temple open house, we had a painting party at my aunt Gina's, I went to a dance workshop, Grant whooped our Bishop in raquetball, I had a freshman hall reunion, and I wrote WAY too many papers. However, we don't have pictures of any of these things... (though I suppose writing papers is not worthy of pictures anyway).

However we do have a few pictures of other things that have happened so here they are:

Hermana Malena came to visit! She is a lady from Grant's mission and was in the States visiting her kids. Luckily she drove up from Vegas for a day to see us.

They went to go visit Elder Wood as well. I didn't attend this little trip because I had no idea what anyone was saying... Hermana Malena didn't speak English...

We went to visit Gina and brand new Bridgette in the hospital! She was a perfect little baby, complete with bird legs and skinny little fingers!She was just over 6 pounds, a tiny little thing! Holding a perfect little baby made me realize just how important (and therefore a bit frightening :)) parenting will be.We've been spending a lot of time with our friends, the Garners and the Nebekers lately. This is a picture of the men after their "Saltine Challenge." Zach is moving to Boise soon and the rest of us will be leaving the Nebekers behind at semester so we've gotta get in all the fun we can!

Coming soon: Tanner Ceramics!!

We're still here!!

Although our blog does not show it, we, the Tanners are still alive and kickin it! We actually have quite a few exciting things to blog about! However with recent computer issues... (unfortunately self-inflicted) and our busy transition back to school and work we just haven't gotten around to it yet. But in case you've missed our faces, here's a little somethin somethin :)

Apparently the entertainment bug has caught on because...

Grant decided to jump on the bandwagon... Here's American Fever-- 10 million albums sold and tours in China, Japan and Lithuania!! Wahoo! Go Grantie!!

Okay... we'll come up with real news next time....