Pink Lady: 2017 AYC National Cheer Competition

What a ride it has been. Diana started cheering at ECE when she was 4. She started with the Windham Wolverines when she was 5 and it has been such a ride! It has been filled with excitement, lots of hard work, tears, laughs, joys and struggles. This may be the end of cheer for Diana....she has lots of thinking to do but if this is the end...what a way to go out!

We just got back from Florida where she and her team competed in the 2017 AYC Cheer Nationals. It was an amazing experience and one that she and I will remember forever.

It was such a struggle for us to get here but it was truly meant to be. We got to spend some QT together and share some wonderful memories with friends and fellow Wolverines coaches and board members. Here is a little look at what our week looked like....

Wednesday

After getting a half of day of work in, Rob raced us along with Lea and Sam to the Providence RI airport. We flew out of there instead of Boston as we saved over $300! Snapped a few pics showing our excitement (and nervousness!)

We got in late on Wednesday so we got changed for bed and crashed AND I had to get a pic of Lea in her Mickey PJ's...she absolutely kills me!

Thursday

The next morning was the most challenging to get through. We had lots of lines to face and lots of registration to complete. We had to do team check in and registration and so many pictures. The girls did so well being patient! After that, we got a practice in as well as a team review with one of the judges.

After the tough part, we started toasting the fact that we made it to nationals! Woohoo!

and some more festive pics at our hotel- The Omni- I highly recommend this hotel/resort at Championsgate. It was so beautiful....the food was incredible and the service impeccable. I was very impressed and consider it one of the best places I have ever stayed- grateful to be able to have been there.

That afternoon, we had a little free time before we got ready to head to Universal.

The girls were so excited to hit the wave pool. They actually ran between the wave pool, the large pool with a water slide and the lazy river...they had an absolute ball!

That night, we headed to Universal and had so much fun. We started with dinner at The Cowfish which was amazing!

and then hit some rides...I loved the Jimmy Fallon ride...he is one of my faves anyway and the ride just brought him to life. After that, some of us went over to the Simpsons ride and I really got ill on that ride....even when I closed my eyes, I felt so sick...I even started sweating..it was not pretty...we can laugh about it now but EEK!! Ha ha!!

After more rides for the kids, we tried to hit Harry Potter BUT the ride got stuck with people on it for about an hour and they shut it down for the night- so scary!! We did a few more rides and decided to end the night with the Despicable Me ride. We were howling because Lea and I had the same reaction on the Simpsons ride and decided to stick to the stationary seats on the Minion ride...along with some other friends. I snapped a pic of us "elderly ladies" doing our thing....hysterical!

The kids loved it and afterwards we got to take our pic with a minion too- so cute!

Friday

This was our free day and we lived it up. We soaked up so much sun and pool time during the day....we all had a ball!

Then some of us headed to Fort Wilderness Lodge for a quick bite and to grab the bus to Magic Kingdom as that night was Mickey's Christmas Party...it was everything we had imagined and more. Magic Kingdom is still my favorite place and it was truly magical.

First, at Fort Wilderness (so beautifully decorated)

and then at Magic Kingdom. Mickey's Christmas Party entailed different treat stops throughout the park. We looked for the inflatable candy canes and when we found one, we stopped and the kids got cookies and eggnog and snow cones....so much fun!

We had to get ears of course ;)

and Lea bought us the light necklaces back at home and we brought them with us- thank God we did- EVERYONE had them on! :)

Inside my favorite ride- Ariel's Grotto

and my favorite part....the castle...all lit up with icicle lights...even MORE magical...insert heart eyes emoji here!

We ended our night with ice cream at the Soda Shop on Main St USA.

Saturday

It was finally competition day and the girls were ready! Tired...but ready! We met in the lobby and all hopped on the bus which Diana proclaimed, "this looks just like Dance Moms!" oops ;)

Snapped a team pic before boarding.....

and when we got there, we checked in and then headed to stretching and warmups. They had a great photo booth for the girls to play around with too :)

The girls ROCKED the mat...simply ROCKED it! We were so proud. I didn't get a video from the Saturday performance. The top 5 teams would advance to Super Sunday and guess what? Though we had to wait for about two hours to get the results, they made it- they scored 2nd! Although the wait was torture, they were so happy with their results!

That afternoon, we headed back to the hotel for a late lunch and then headed back to Universal so we could finally hit the Chocolate Emporium that Lea insisted on. It was an epic evening...filled with so many laughs and shenanigans....we will never forget it!

The Chocolate Emporium is an incredible restaurant with delicious food and drinks AND mouth watering and creative shakes for dessert..we completely indulged!

Sunday

One last day to shine. The girls gave it their all- they rocked the mat again but came up short. They lost by .2 of a point! Heartbreaking! So close! We were still so proud of all of their work and all they accomplished this season. One of the moms got a video of Sunday's performance...check it out....