Irish dancing Nationals

Curly qualified to dance in Irish Dancing National Championships back in November.  Nationals are always held the week of July 4th.  This year the annual competition is held in New Orleans.  Curly was scheduled to dance on July 9th.  

Our original plan included taking the entire family to New Orleans . . . in our big 12 -seater, Chevy express van.  Fun.  As the date approached, Coach informed me that it would be almost impossible for him to be away from his clinic for very long.  We had hoped to do a little sight seeing, since we have no plans to return to New Orleans any time soon.  I did some checking, and realized that a few days of touring in addition to the one day devoted to dancing would be sufficient.  

Next we gave the two oldest boys the option of joining us or staying home.  They both opted to remain home.  I suspect the thought of being stuck in a hotel ballroom for an entire day watching Irish dancing sealed the deal there.  

So, we bagged our road-trip idea, and booked flights for the youngest 4 kids and Coach and I.  

Flying sure beats driving!!!

Kids checking out the view from our hotel room in New Orleans.  Fortunately, we did have time to leave the hotel and explore a little. 

It's hard for me to post anything about Irish dancing for a few reasons.  I have lots to say on the subject, so it's difficult to limit myself.  If I assume that my readers know very little about Irish dancing, then where to begin?  There's just lots involved here.  There are many things I like about this expensive past time, but  . . . and I dropped a clue there with 'expensive' -but you probably caught that. . .  then there are loads of reasons why it drives me nuts.  

I love the friendships the kids have developed.  They've certainly learned to be resilient, to be good losers, and on the happy occasion - to be a gracious winner.  Ah, but time and money are always in short supply and Irish dancing gobbles up both (rarely leaving a surplus of either in its wake).  

The big competitions, like Nationals - well, really most competitions in general, gnaw away at my nerves.  I've been a 'dance mom' for so long, you'd think that I would be more relaxed by now.  Nope.  I've been around the block enough to know just how much can go wrong. 

Our experience in New Orleans was no different.  Coach shook his head at me when I groaned about how little sleep I got the night before the dancing.  I'm envious of his ability to relax thru this whole stressful process.   

Like I said, writing about Irish dancing can get lengthy, so I will explain the events in New Orleans in a later post.