Skate Dallas

Saturday, June 7, 2025

Investing in your child is always a good idea, but I had no idea what a good idea it was until we got here.  We arrived on Friday afternoon with time to check into the hotel, see the arena and wander the area a little bit.  The arena was AMAZING.  Even more than I thought it would be.  For starters, it was way bigger than I pictured and there was no hockey plexiglass!  And they had covered all the boards with black drape to make it look nice and they elevated the judges up pretty high too.  So cool!

   

Then on Saturday morning, we slept in a bit, grabbed some breakfast in the hotel and headed over to the arena for practice ice on their small rink.  After practice we watched a little bit and I learned that at this competition people throw "tossies" - little stuffed animals - to the skaters when they finish.  Not all skaters got them, but some did.  Well, that was all i needed to see.  Next stop for me was some of the little vendors to buy a tossie of my own for my favorite skater.

Emily skated better than we could have hoped!  She hit everything - even the camel spin she got dinged on a little bit on at Cardinal.  I was so hopeful that her score would be at least what she got at Cardinal.  That is what she needed to move up in the ranks enough to hopefully qualify.

AND I got to throw my tossie...but much to my surprise and Emily's too, mine was not the only one on the ice!  Another group of spectators threw one to her...and a fellow skater mom threw one to me too!  What an amazing experience and all of that before the scores even came up.  But when the scores did come up Emily improved her score by almost another full point - 59.17!

   

Daniel and I had been scouting scores all weekend from the other competitions and trying to fit them into the existing scores for the series and we were pretty sure Emily's score was enough to qualify - #7 in the east (first one to qualify after the top 6 in each section)!  I cannot even explain how excited we were!  But - I wanted to see the official placement on the USFS website and that actually did not come until the following Tuesday...and we had to wait for the formal invitations until June 12.

Oh!  And Emily came in second and got the coolest medal - and they even had a little medal ceremony which has become very uncommon in competitions we usually attend so that was super special too.  I just can't say enough how amazing this weekend was!  So glad we invested in this opportunity!

   

   

Cardinal Classic

Saturday, May 31, 2025

Emily started summer vacation with more skating.  This time we were off to the Cardinal Classic in Washington DC.  She last skated here a couple of years ago and it didn't go that great, but she was very excited to try again.  This is Excel series competition number 3 and she really needed to increase her score if she was going to have a shot to qualify for Nationals in Colorado Springs.  She has been skating great at home so we were very hopeful.  She got to sleep in a bit before skating which works great for her.  Then she had plenty of time to warm up.  This year, I also put a good luck message to her in the program.  I mean, why not?

      

They had a lovely tribute table for all the skaters killed in the plane crash back in January after the national high performance development camp.

Anyway, Emily skated GREAT!  She hit all of her elements and got good levels on her spins and finished with a 58.15!  That is the kind of score she needed!  We were so excited!

   

   

   

   

Her score wasn't enough to win, but she came in third (although the girl one spot ahead of her in second was on there by .2 of a point and the girl who won only won by less than 2 points).  Emily was thrilled to place and she LOVED their medals.  Sparkly with a cardinal on it.  Way more special looking than some of the ones she has earned over the years.

      

    

What an amazing weekend we had!  Next stop - Dallas!  Let's go Emily!

Last Day of Junior Year

Wednesday, May 28, 2025

I can't believe junior year has come and gone already.  It all went so fast...although Emily says it wasn't that fast.  There was a crushing amount of work this year between all the honors and AP classes plus all the college research, college visits, SAT tests and more.  But, she pulled out another 5.0 and is looking forward to seeing if that will advance her class rank at all.  She was #12 out of 303 in the winter.  She'll get new rank in the fall and that one will be the last one before she applies to college.  Goodness.  I can't even believe I just wrote that.

I'm also adding some pics here for a few of our end of school activities.  Emily got to participate in the National Honor Society Induction just before we left for the Penn State tour.  She really loved her new yellow dress.

      

Penn State Tour

Friday, May 23, 2025

We were up and out pretty early for our admissions office presentation and tour.  We had to park a pretty long way from the admissions office, but luckily we left early and had lots of time.  Also luckily it was not raining!  The session was really interesting.  I was shocked that they had almost no essays because I guess when you are that big, you just don't have time to read them all. 

   

The dorm room they showed us had two sides - one side was the more traditional room with a lower bed and the newer set up with a lofted bed.  Emily seemed to like the lofted side a little better.  I kind of did too since you got some storage under the bed and I liked the desk set up with some vertical storage.

   

It was kind of chilly and a little rainy on our tour, but it really is a nice campus and the student center was so nice!  We had lunch in one of the cafeterias (which did not do a good job of showcasing eating on campus) but it was ok.  Since the students were all gone for the year already the cool places with all the food court style options were all closed.  Note to self - do not stay on campus when school is out.

   

   

   

We had a very nice visit.  I think she left with a positive impression and would definitely consider going if she gets in.  So, it was definitely worth the trip.

Penn State Visit

Thursday, May 22, 2025

This weekend we were off to tour Penn State in State College (University Park), Pennsylvania.  We were very excited to compare the campus to U Mich and also CU Boulder.  We arrived late afternoon on Thursday and headed straight to the ice rink.  They have a very nice facility with two sheets of ice - including one that is arena style.

     

Then we wandered around the downtown area a little bit and found a couple of great campus shops and then grabbed dinner in a (kind of sketchy) little Asian place.  We also found the honors college.

   

   

Then we were off to check into the campus hotel - Nittany Lion Inn - and relax a bit.  And oh wow, what a nice place it was!

   

   

We had a very nice stay but the very next morning we were up and out early for our big tour!  Man these days go so fast!