The human body is quite amazing.
Not only can it come to grips and survive two children graduating and leaving home in rapid succession (I, personally, am still working with that one, but I know it’s possible:)…more on that soon), but it can also twist and turn and move in astounding ways when trained and practiced over and over and over again.
Claire had her last Flips performance about a week ago…at least her last for a while.  And I tell you, that performance always makes me tear up it’s so good.  Claire’s done this awesome program for a few years now and has loved it so much.  
Now it’s on to junior high and club soccer and track and she won’t have time to be in the performance next year.  So she sure sparkled through this one and made it her best.

We were so happy my mom could come be there for the big day.

…and Miss Grace who we miss performing in that great show with her sister (she gave it up a few years back when cheerleading took over).

These kids practice their hearts out for the big day.

(That picture up there is just here because I think Dave is handsome.  And I get to be married to him.)

 Check out that swirl of activity!

 …and the amazing moves these girls are doing.

 So much motion up on one stage.

 These two, above and below, are Claire.

And they are extra special this year after kind of a rough road this last year.  She had this weird mental block come over her and suddenly got too nervous to do a lot of the things that were so natural for her the year before.

It was crazy.

It seemed that there was nothing she could do could will her mind into pushing her body into them…one morning she couldn’t even do a back handspring, which kind of freaked her out since she’s been doing those for years.

We have this family friend who helped her so much, and she kept practicing her heart out.  So it was an extra big deal when she threw everything perfectly on the big day with a huge smile stretched across her face.

 Love that spunky girl.

Here’s a video of her class’s number:
Because they are a company class, they were in the opening and closing numbers as well.

Check out all those kids on one stage doing amazing things!

Here’s a clip of part of one of the dances…wish I had grabbed my camera at the time they did ten standing back handsprings in a row.  It was amazing.

I love Theodore Roosevelt’s quote about being “in the arena.”

Claire was definitely there this year…sometimes her face “marred by dust and sweat and blood” (ok, not blood, but a lot of dust and tears and sweat) when she arrived home from a tough night of trying to force her body to do something her mind wasn’t letting her do.

But she came out triumphant and we are so proud of her!

Go Claire!

Similar Posts

20 Comments

  1. Shawni, this is oh-so-random, but I'm a tall girl like you and have the hardest time finding cute knee-length skirts. Where oh where do you get so many of yours?

    1. Sometimes I just luck out at old navy, gap, random places that have extra long sizes. That skirt is from Gap…if you look at long sizes on the internet they sometimes have great sales. Elle and I always need long so we help each other keep an eye out since we both hate shopping.

  2. So fun to see! Brings back memories of Nathan and his sister Nicole. Nathan is an amazing tumbler and I could land a double full! He sent me a picture a few weeks ago where he was in the middle of a black tuck on the beach. It's amazing what the human body can do! Such a fun performance to see. Thanks for sharing!

  3. Well done Claire. My nine year old, Grace is a gymnast, she has trained four days a week since she was five and she had the going backwards thing last year. We read a lot about it trying to help her and found out that it's a really common thing. They travel backwards quite happily four years and then suddenly they can't. We spent hours with the coach and in the garden and there were so many tears because she wanted to do it. Apparently it's a totally subconscious thing, so even reward doesn't work, if they could do it, then they would. We are over it four now and hoping it doesn't rear its ugly head again. I'm so pleased that Claire overcame her fear and went out on top Jo x

  4. I love peeking in on your lovely blog. You have a beautiful family! I just wanted to thank you for the "arena" quote–incredibly timely for me today!

  5. Me too! I miss seeing your blog pop up on my reader! I have kids just younger than your oldest two- so I love to read what your life is like as I prepare to go through the same stages! Hope your having a great summer!

  6. Hi guys! Thanks for checking in on me, I'm here, just trying to soak up my girl before she starts college in a couple days. So much to share when I can! I've been loving having a little break as we've been far from internet much of the time, but I'm missing my blogging outlet so hopefully this week I will start to unravel documenting life lately. Thanks for the nice emails and comments!
    Love, Shawni

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *