So I thought I could dance...

Once upon a time, I was a dancer. Actually from the time I was four up until I was 16, I was in dance lessons. I started out in Jeannie's Drill looking like this:

Not sure why I wasn't looking at the camera but started out pretty cute right?

Then by the time I was 16, I looked like this:

What the world was I thinking? I mean really, this is pretty embarrassing. Two questions, why did I ever think it was ok to wear white spandex? Second question: Why did I think it was a good idea to hug my dance teacher like that? A little too close for comfort I think.

In between those years, I looked like this:

One of the highlights from my dancing years... When I was eight, I performed at Lagoon. In addition to the team dances we did, I also performed a dance that I had choreographed myself. I ended up the "Queen Dancer" in my division. I'm not sure if it was the cartwheel into a split ending that got me the first place prize or if it was the fact that I was the only girl dancing in my team uniform for my single performance. I've always wondered if they felt bad for me because they thought we couldn't afford another uniform. In reality it was because neither my mom nor I knew I was supposed to wear a separate outfit than I wore in the team dance. Either way, I walked away a proud dancer that day.

These two are my favorites out of all of the pictures for a number of reasons. In the fisrt picture you can clearly see my wall of bangs. Thanks to Rave aerosol hairspray, I was able to get this affect happening. In the second picture, it might be a little hard to see but I've got a major padded bra. So if you were looking closely at this picture you would see the lumps from a unfulfilled padded bra underneath a super tight dance uniform. I'm sure there are a million other things we could pick apart in these pictures but let's leave it at those two, shall we?

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Anyway... like I said, I took dance for 12 years. Now that I'm a mom, Tyler and I dance with Owen all the time. One of Owen's favorite activities is to have me turn the IPOD up super loud after breakfast and then we dance around the kitchen. So, you would think I would have some dance moves up my sleeve but when my ten year old nephew asked me and Owen if we wanted to turn on some music and dance last week and then proceeded to tell me that he didn't know how to dance, I had nothing to show him. Instead I had to call Tyler up to do the worm for him so he would be impressed. My parents spent countless dollars on dance lessons for me and I couldn't come up with anything other than the roger rabbit or the running man to show him.

This is me and Tyler trying to show Carter our dance moves... as you can see, he may not be super impressed.
Please Em and Tiff (yes, I'm calling you out in my blog right now, oh and sorry if you didn't want these pictures out in the blogosphere for all to see... love you!) remind me what we learned all those years in dance... I'm sure there was something Kelly taught us that I could pass on to the next generation...