Stake Dance (and Also, Ryder & Nora)

Speaking of stake dances...  it was also Ryder's first dance!!!  This sort of blows my mind, since he just turned 13 back in November, but the new church policy is that you get to do stuff the year you turn the correct age, so since he turns 14 this year (albeit not until Thanksgiving), he's eligible to go to the dances now.  So crazy!!!

Anyway, to go along with the Hollywood theme, he wore his suit and tie, which I love.  (There was talk of him wearing his top hat, but he didn't.  It would have been cool, but I don't really blame him for not bothering.)  He was so brave and asked several girls to dance!  I was totally impressed.

Here he is dancing with Marianne from our ward and wearing Wylan's cowboy hat...?

And dancing with Nora Cramer, which makes me happy

I should explain a bit: Ryder and Nora have literally known each other since they were babies:

Here they are holding hands

At a ward Halloween party

This is my favorite picture-- they look like they're having the best time at this birthday party

At a splash pad in Charlottesville

So, yeah.  They're so cute together.  Once Ryder gets taller than her again, they could totally be a thing!  😆

Back to the dance.  Originally, of my three oldest kids, only Ryder was going to be going.  A few people asked if their kids could ride with us, but we were kind of hoping someone else could drive!  Our neighbors, the Blacks*, offered to take everyone and I thought we were off the hook until Kendra's drumline competition got canceled and I realized they didn't have room in their minivan for her.  So now I was back to driving!  

More and more kids kept needing rides, and suddenly even our van was filled!  Which is actually pretty great.  But I was worried that Bentley would decide to go, too (he was working an 8-hour shift beforehand and figured he'd be too tired to bother), and then I'd have to tell him I didn't have room in the car for my own son!  So we asked the Blacks to be on standby in case we needed another driver.

Trying to get a bunch of teenagers to commit to going to a stake dance is ridiculous.  The number of times my head count changed for this was insane.  But finally we had everyone rounded up and about to climb in the van.  Will Black was idling his minivan waiting for us.  I hadn't noticed that Wylan was missing (apparently he'd gotten a ride with another family) so I had one extra seat.  And then Aaron asked if he could step inside our house for a minute.  I figured he just wanted to use the bathroom before we drove to Waynesboro, but he'd actually gone in to find Bentley and beg him to come.  Aaron accomplished what I could not, and with Wylan not there, we had one seat left for my kid.  And now I had a van full of teens in high spirits and all my oldest kids.  What could be more fun?

I met up with Sarah at the dance, we looked around and decided they had plenty of adults there to chaperone, so we headed out to Five Guys for milkshakes and fries.  (I guess that's more fun than my van full of teens!)  

It was a really great night.  I know my life is kind of nuts, but I wouldn't trade it for anything!

*I feel the need to clarify here that their last name is Black.  I am NOT describing their skin tone!!!  But every time we talk about them it sounds like we're totally racist.  It's really bad.  Like, they-should-probably-just-change-their-name bad...!!!