Happy Birthday Courtney - thanks for the memories!

Courtney turns 20 today!

Look at that sweet face. Was she not just the cutest thing on earth?



I just love everything about Courtney. It has been so much fun watching her grow and progress throughout the years. Courtney would have been a great athlete if she had chosen that route. She has always been naturally strong and lean with lots of muscle.





What has been fun about Courtney is that she has been involved in a few activities that I was not in charge of so I got to be just a mom and not a coach or a director. And they were activities that I really didn't know anything about so all I could do was keep my mouth shut and cheer for her.

One of the activities she did was gymnastics. I never dreamed that any of my children would be good at gymnastics because genetically we are tall and not very flexible. I was the one who signed my kids up for gymnastics when they were little in the hope that it would help with flexibility. I fully expected nothing more than mediocrity from them in this area. Imagine my surprise when they wanted Courtney on the team! Seriously, one of my kids?

She only did it for a couple of years because she got too busy with dance after that, but it was so much fun just to be a parent in the stands. I was so proud of her and everything she did amazed me. I didn't know enough about gymnastics to be able to give much advice so I just sat and enjoyed watching her do it. What a treat! (for her too, I'm sure!!)

For some reason, I couldn't find any of her gymnastics pictures except this little group shot. Courtney is 4th from the back.



Then we were back to me being teacher/director/mom which is still pretty fun but for my girls it means Mom constantly telling them that they are doing something wrong (in a variety of areas) and/or always telling them they can do better. "Mom - the coach" is definitely harder to please than "Mom - the parent who knows nothing about the sport"!



Even so, I enjoyed so many years watching Courtney dance and she often amazed me even when I knew the proper way it should be done.





Courtney is like a team's silent weapon. She is quiet and not at all boastful, about any of her skills. She just silently does a superb job.





The next treat that Courtney gave me was ballroom. Another opportunity I get to just sit and be a mom. Ballroom is a whole other form of dance and I know very little about proper ballroom technique (other than what I learn from watching Dancing with the Stars!) So I just get to sit and do nothing but enjoy watching her twirl around the floor. It's so much fun!

She first got bit by the ballroom bug when she was at BYU Clogging Camp as a sophomore and they watched a performance by the Ballroom Camp. She came home and told me all about it with her eyes full of awe and said that she wanted to do ballroom so bad. I tried a couple of different times to get her some ballroom training. We had her signed up to go to the BYU Ballroom Camp but it turned out that the state junior miss program was at the same time. She knew that if she won Moses Lake Junior Miss that it would mean she would have to pull out from ballroom camp and so it was definitely a bittersweet victory. I also had her signed up for a ballroom camp in Seattle and they ended up canceling that one. It seemed that ballroom was not in Courtney's future.



Well, she went down to BYU and started taking ballroom classes. She didn't start at the bottom, though. She went straight for the mid-level classes and, didn't necessarily lie, but was evasive if she was ever asked about the prereq's. No one ever suspected she hadn't taken the prerequisite levels but she often had to "fake it til you make it." She was confident that she could pick it up and she was just in such a hurry to progress. (By the way, did I mention that BYU has one of the best, if not the best, ballroom program in the nation? Yeah, we're not talking about small potatoes here! She is worming her way into classes with kids who have been doing ballroom since they were in elementary school!!)



A few weeks ago Courtney found out that she made it onto the BYU Back-Up Tour Team! I'm still not sure exactly what she gets to do on this team but I do know that it's an honor to be chosen. The Tour Team is headed to Blackpool England to compete in a couple of weeks. They get to go there every three years.



I am just so proud of her. She just set her mind to it, worked hard and made it happen. I am so looking forward to watching Courtney dance again next year as just a mom who is impressed by everything she does! Who says middle children are born losers? (Oh, that may only have been David. Forget I mentioned that.)

Happy Birthday, Courtney!