California Dreamin'

As if I haven't tortured Eddie enough in the last month, last night he took me to the "Inland Empire Dance Festival." It was held at University of Redlands stadium. It was a wee bit smaller than the Rose Bowl! There were lots of people there and lots of youth having the time of their life. Let's see the positive things: It was a great experience for the youth to be in a dance festival and to be together with so many other kids their own age with the same beliefs and doing something positive! The entry was fun to watch as they all came running into the "stadium" from the two, I guess, end zones. I liked that they all changed into red, white or blue shirts for the "finale" and made a huge flag, minus the stars! They also had 232 American flags and the missionaries got to carry in the state flags and they enjoyed that! There was actually a plane or something that was filming from above that would give aireal shots on the "jumbo tron" during the grand entrance and finale. During the entrance it was still light outside and we thought God was filming it! During the finale there was actually a little light in the sky, which had to be a plane filming it. I probably enjoyed the Disney Medley the best. It had the most props. They danced to "Once Upon a Dream" "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Colors of the Wind." The dance after that was probably the best as far as straight lines and actual precision moves that were almost all in sync. It was "Oye Come Va" The deacons who did the "Get 'Cha Head in the Game" with Basketballs, did have a cool snake like roll and considering they were deacons, they did very well. The dances before that were all over the place. I'm glad that they were having a great time. That was the main point!

Eddie enjoyed, mildly, the little girl dancing from the Tongan Cucamonga Ward and the fireworks. He spent the first part of the night giving me the "you owe me big time for this" look.

We were out of Redlands in record time!

As a 3 time Dance Festival veteran I know the fun the youth experienced this past weekend. I

can also honestly say we were very spoiled with the experiences we had in the 70's and 80's. I'm glad the youth of the Inland Empire got to experience a portion of what I did! It's all good!