Cuyahoga Falls Riverfront Irish Festival

This post is a little overdue, but here are some clips of Abby dancing at the Cuyahoga Falls Riverfront Irish Festival a couple weekends ago.

A Weekend in Louisville

This weekend we traveled to Louisville, KY so that Abby could dance in the 17th Annual Louisville Feis competition; and for some family "Father's Day" fun. On the way down on Friday, we stopped at the Tanger Outlet Mall in Jefferson, OH. After that, we proceeded to our hotel in downtown Louisville where we then walked to a cool restaurant located adjacent to the minor league baseball stadium for dinner. On the way back we enjoyed the tail-end (no pun intended) of the annual Gay Pride parade in Louisville. After that, dad enjoyed a quick shot of moonshine at Hillbilly Tea cafe. On Saturday, while Abby and mom waited for the dance competition to start, dad and Andrew went to the Barton 1792 bourbon distillery for a quick tour (and some samples for dad). We even made it back in time to watch Abby dance to a 2nd place finish in her competition. That evening we spent at the Churchill Downs race tracks (we didn't win much), but had a great time nonetheless. On the home on Sunday we stopped a crazy marketplace in Cincinnati called Jungle Jim's International Market - which is more than 200,000 square feet of shopping space and has over 150,000 food and beverage products from around the world. The highlight reel below contains some pictures and a video clips from our weekend.

TMSA Conference

As I wrote about on The PartnerShip Connection Blog last week, I again attended the Transportation Marketing & Sales Association (TMSA) Annual Conference & Expo. This year it was held in Ponte Verda Beach, FL. The weather was hot and the conference was insightful. However, one of the highlights was a networking event on the first day held at TPC Sawgrass - location of this year's PGA Championship. The short video clip below shows a few highlights from the event, including my tee shot -- which landed a couple feet from the hole -- on the notorious par-3, 17th hole, which features an island green.

Andrew Graduates 8th Grade

Today Andrew officially graduated from middle school and will be heading for high school as a freshman. He will also be joining his senior sister - meaning both Andrew and Abby will be attending the same school again for the first time since 2005. Here are a few pictures of Andrew and some of his fellow graduates; and a video clip of Andrew crossing over to high school.

Sam & Audrey Get Married

This past Memorial Day weekend the Hollywood Four traveled to High Point, NC to celebrate Sam & Audrey's wedding day. Along the way, we stopped in Charleston, WV for a West Virginia Power minor league baseball game; and then dad went to a Greensboro Grasshoppers minor league baseball game the next night. Of course, the highlight of the weekend was the wedding on Sunday. Here are some photographic highlights from the weekend's festivities.

O'Hare Year-End Dance Revue

I am little tardy posting this, but here is some footage of the O'Hare School of Irish Dance - Ohio year-end dance revue that took place a couple weeks ago (footage from Karen).

Abby Going to Ireland?

This past week I was surprised to learn that Abby, on her own and unbeknownst to me or Karen, submitted an application and video reel to an Ireland-based dance camp/musical show production called "Take The Floor." Take The Floor, in association with Riverdance, is a dance show that brings together 60 Irish dancers from across the world, a popular traditional band called Beoga, and a creative dance/choreography team for 10 days of intense show rehearsal, and 5 days of live show performances at The Helix in Dublin, Ireland. Anyways, Abby told us about her application because she, and two of her dancing friends, received acceptance to the school/show (one of them did it last year). Apparently there were 500 applicants this year from around the world (and at least one of her dancing friends was not accepted, unfortunately). We still need to look into the program a bit more, and check on flight costs, but it seems like an opportunity for a great, lifetime experience for Abby. Here is a short trailer for last year's show, as well as clip below it of the actual performance.