This summer Ally made a big jump to the intermediate summer ballet class. She really wanted to dance with Kimmy--and since Jackie okay'd it, I thought why not?

What I didn't expect was this kid to go from hating ballet to absolutely loving it! She has had an absolute blast all summer long taking ballet, pointe (but off-pointe), jazz, yoga, pilates, modern, and character. She has also had the opportunity to meet some of my very old friends (not old as in age, but old as in I have known them forever!). YiQi Cheng was my ballet teacher while I was at the University of Utah (as a teenager), and then at BYU. I love that woman! YiQi was very impressed with Ally, and her cousin Kimmy. Ally also had the opportunity to take modern from Nichole Ortega--someone I have known and adored for almost 30 years--ahhh!

I am just really glad that she had the opportunity to see why I love dance so much. And now, she does too. She is even only an inch away from getting her splits--an improvement of like 3 inches!

Manda has really enjoyed her ballet class too. But truthfully, we have really had fun on our Mommy/Manda dates while Ally was in ballet class. We have done a bunch of little activities like shop, go to the library, have lunch out etc. She is such a blast to be around!

So taking advantage of a moment when YiQi asked me to come in and watch, I took a couple of photos of my daughter and one of my mentors. So fun!