Picking Up Where She Left Off...

Once upon a time, there was a cute little ballerina who loved to dance...

but, alas, her need for sleep (and a little sneezing fit one day that got her kicked out of her dance class) meant that her preschool dancing career was quite short.   

True story.

Shortly after that experience came the "CRAZY years" for our family and we Goolds don't do crazy lightly.   First it was Ellie starting to have seizures, and with that all the crappy side effects of the anti-seizure medications that sucked the life out of her.  Then it was Spence's cancer diagnosis, and then some more related craziness that sucked the life out of us.  Then came some PTSD/mild depression for me, and with that an unhealthy lifestyle that resulted in gaining lots of weight really quickly.    Throw in a  time-consuming calling that kept me busy as can be, but also gave me purpose and  just barely on the right side of sanity, and then the inspiration to start homeschooling the kids...and maybe you can start to sense that keeping the kids involved in lots of activities took a back seat for a few years.     

   Ellie did try some new activities here and there (like soccer, voice lessons, art classes, running, etc), but she never really loved any of them and we were stretched too thin to really encourage her to stick with any of them.  In fact, we were frankly relieved when the kids forgot to ask us to sign them up for something, because it meant that we had one fewer thing on our schedule.   

Fast forward a couple of years and we started to emerge from the fog.   I got healthy again...physically and mentally.  Spence moved out.  I got released from my busy calling.  Cami went on a mission.  We developed new healthy habits as a family.

(not necessarily in that order)

Somewhere in there Ellie decided she really wanted to try dance classes again.  

  A couple of years ago, my foggy PTSD enshrouded brain wouldn't have even considered it at all.   I worried that she was too old to start and the 1/2 hour drive each direction wouldn't really be doable with all the other things we had going on.   But with my life in a better place, I decided to let her try it for a year and see how she liked it.  

How did a 12-year-old preschool dance class dropout enjoy being in a class of 8-year-olds?   

She absolutely loved it!  

She was the "big sister' of the class and they all adored her, and I think she rather enjoyed that role too!  

And what do you know?   She really, really liked dancing too.   

And she's good at it.  

Now sights like these aren't uncommon at our house....

You know, just tying her shoes while doing the splits.  

Or practicing them against a wall....

Or trying out different contortions on the living room rug...

Or choreographing her own dances... 

And these kind of poses aren't just for home.  They're now her favorite new way to pose on vacation too!   

A backbend at the ocean's edge.

Splits at the ocean's edge...

Splits at a beautiful overlook along the Pacific Coast Highway...

Splits in a tree...

Leg extensions at the Golden Gate Bridge...

Leg extensions at the park in California and a sea lion pose with the sea lions...

And a backbend at Joshua Tree National Park 

Dancing is now a part of her life...and I'm pretty sure it would take way more than a sneezing fit to keep her away now!  

 (these pictures were from our 2017 Christmas card)😂