Zumba Convention 2012 Wrap-Up Part 1

My mind is overflowing with so much Zumba love, knowledge and a ridiculous amount of crazy mixed up emotions.

Let's start with Wednesday, shall we?

Sarah and I flew down to Orlando Wednesday afternoon.  I was a huge ball of stress before we left.  I was worried I would forget something big or something would go horribly wrong.  Luckily... everything went really smoothly! The flight there was a bit bumpy but we wound up meeting two really nice fellow Zumba instructors on the plane and one of them was our knight in shining armor and let us tag along with his car service to get to the Peabody to check in to convention.  
Wednesday evening we finally got to the condo and met our roommates.  We won the lottery in terms of awesome roommates.  Jenn, Veronica, Christina and Courtney were just about the best roomies we could have hoped for.  Sarah and I spent a lot of time with Jenn and Veronica and I feel like we've known them forever at this point.  <3
We had dinner at a place called Lime and shopped at Walmart for stuff for the room and portable snacks for the convention before meeting up with our choreography team for the Original Movement choreography contest to rehearse.  The whole crew is just made of awesome. 

Thursday morning the insanity started.  We got to the convention center early to try to check out the shops before the opening panel and we failed.  The lines were SOOOOOOO long.  Sarah and I did run over to the Remix/new shop because everyone was at the outlet and we thought we might get to check out the store before the opening ceremonies... we just missed getting in.  But since we were in like the first 20 people left in line they signed our ID and let us come back and go in first after they reopened at 1pm.

The opening ceremony panel was jut awe inspiring.  The look back over the last year in Zumba was just amazing.  So much has happened for Zumba Fitness in the last year and so much more is coming.  I'm so blessed to be a part of the Zumba family!!  The keynote speaker for the year was the hilarious and amazing Kathy Najimy.

The years recipients of the community service award made me cry.  The love and compassion those ZIN members from Georgia showed to their fellow ZIN in trouble just reminded me why I love the community aspect of Zumba.  My heart was just overflowing with awe over what they did.

I bailed out of the session early because I was feeling a little claustrophobic and apparently missed the Rockettes and Beto in the session.  AHHH!

Before our first workshop, Sarah and I were able to hit the new Zumba shop where I bought two shirts, two pairs of pants and some jingle bracelets.  I was SHOCKED that the pants fit. SHOCKED.  I kind of went insane shopping after this face and that was not my first trip to the store.. I bought so much stuff! SO MUCH STUFF!!!

The first workshop we had was Hip-notic Bellydance and the presenter was awesome.  We left there with knowledge of moves and the history of belly dance and two new routines we can pretty much immediately teach in class.  I only found one of the songs but the presenter is supposed to email everyone the choreo notes and the song names so I'll have another one soon!

Thursday night was the Party In Pink Fitness Concert.  Paulina Rubio, Vanilla Ice, Mara, DADDY FREAKING YANKEE.  It was an amazing concert highlighted by awe inspiring choreography and two stages full of incredible dancers showing their mad dance skills.  I was overwhelmed by that many ZIN in one place.  There were people nearly fighting over spots to get closer to the stage.  Kind of crazy but a total blast.   

It was so hard to go to sleep Thursday night.  I was flying super high on life and my body didn't want to let me sleep.  When I did though, it was the deepest sleep ever.  I haven't been that exhausted in a long time... and I don't want to do it again any time soon.

Tomorrow... part 2 - the rest of the convention. After that... a long post about the convention and body image.

My eyes are drooping... it's time to go to bed now! More to come!!!

Zumbathon: Party in Pink

Today has been an AMAZING day! This morning was the big day.  The Wilson YMCA Party in Pink Zumbathon.  Three hours of heart pumping, sweat drippin' fun for a great cause!

That's me! Shaking it!

There I am! All 330 pounds of me.  Somewhere between hour 2.5 and 3 of fun.  Sarah and I closed the day out with our intense cardio set.  I wasn't sure we'd survive it... we danced a LOT!

That's what I looked like... but this what I felt like...

I totally see the resemblance!

The day started out with a a bunch of fun photo ops on the PiP red carpet.

The instructors pre-sweat

Aren't we a group? Every one of those ladies is a joy to know and work with.  I was honored to dance with them today.

Our dance studio crew

The faces of Zumba at the dance studio where I teach. These ladies have become not only my students but my teachers, my friends and my family!

The dance studio crew loving on their man.

Of course, we had to love on Matt since he hid during the first photo.  The studio gals and their Zumba man.

What's Zumba without a little booty bling?

More studio crew love.  Showing off our best side!

I could not be more proud of all the hard work the dear Mrs. Fatass put in to getting this event set up and off the ground for us.  I'm honored to have met her and am always awed by her sheer awesomeness!

Tomorrow is my first day of absolutely nothing in 3 weeks or so and I plan on enjoying it fully in my bed being a lump!

Happy weekend all!