Dance Festival

 My baby boy is now a sophomore. I just keep getting closer and closer to the empty nest which I'm in no hurry to reach. I wish I could slow down time. His first day of school was yesterday. This was his photo when he got home. There was no time in the morning for pictures, with early morning seminary starting the first day also.

 School so far is hard. AP classes, hard classes, lots of homework. Yesterday he wasn't super happy about it all. I just listened with sympathy. I don't wish I was back in high school At ALL.

However, today was a new day. Its still hard. He still has lots of homework, but already he's starting to enjoy what he's learning. He's like this. In particular he was like this about the dance festival for two stakes in our area. They started practices in April. By June he hated it. By July he was complaining bitterly and didn't know why he was the only one in our ward doing it. Then he found out three other boys were doing it. As it turned out, there were really eight youth in our ward participating, but not many out of all the boys and girls. I don't always insist my children participate in things, but this time I just really felt I should insist he finish this. So, the last two weeks there were intense practices - four hour long kinds - eat dinner before you come. He realized he didn't know the swing dance very well, so he'd come home and use me as his partner. Clearing the chairs out of my bedroom, we put on you tube with the directions and music and learned his part. I was sweating after a half hour of "dance practice." He wanted to do it every day. I could tell he was starting to like it. Then the day of the festival came. He was at the event center by 9am even though the shows weren't until 4pm or 8pm. We attended the last one of the evening. And it was WONDERFUL! The theme was Come Unto Christ, and they expressed it through song, videos of the youth, and their dances. The Spirit was strong, and best of all, My son LOVED it. He was so glad he'd participated. He realized he really does like to dance. Hopefully you can spot him in the photos below. He's the tall one, usually in the back. In the couples dance he's wearing a turquoise T-shirt. I love his smile I was able to capture on film.

 The Western Dance of just young men.

 The Swing dance to "Happy." It was so fun as four different groups came on and off stage doing different types of swing dancing.

The all young men light dance. The lights later went out, and their glow sticks were all you could see. It was very cool but didn't photograph very well.

At the every end, they all sang together with all their hearts. It was moving and beautiful to see the youth unified and glowing with the Spirit. These are the memories of growing up he will always remember. The big events really are big events, and I'm glad he got to participate.