3rd in STATE!!!!

Yesterday the drill team competed at the State Drill Competition held at UVU against the top 16 Drill teams in the State of Utah. I sat through all 7 hours of the competition and I can tell you that every team and dance was great. There were not many mistakes made by any one. I would have hated to be a judge at this competition!
The girls did such a great job and danced better than I have ever seen them dance!
McKenzie did a great job and was perfect in every dance.
I watch her so closely, and I am her worst critic, so I am not being bias when I say she was perfect. (She knows I would be the first to say that she wasn't!)
Heres how they did......
3rd in Military
1st in their Dance Routine
( Which was absolutely amazing. I love this dance. It is so energizing and fun to watch)
3rd in their Kick Routine.
They tied for 2nd place overall.
It went to a tie breaker using judges rankings and they lost that 8 to 7.
So they lost second place by 1 judges stinken ranking.
So they received 3rd place overall,
which is better than last year which was their goal,
but it was a little disappointing because it was so close.
I felt a little teary towards the end of the competition
knowing that it was the last time I will see McKenzie compete! :(
She will still do some half times.
And her Recital will be February 26th.
Then she will be Dancing in New York in March,
but it wont be the same as the competitions, which are so competitive and intense,
they are so fun to watch.
It will just be hard as this part of our lives with her winds down!!
I will miss it!
I know she is pretty exhausted now, but I am sure she will miss it too!

The not so serious side of the girls! I think there is a bit of relief that State is over!

McKenzie and Abbey!

McKenzie with Megan Hansen her coach.
Megan has been the Coach since McKenzies first year.
She has done a great job with these girls, especially since she is so young.
She went to school with Bobby and is just 22!

Congratulations McKenzie and the Lone Peak Chevaliers!
2010 Region Champions and 3rd in the State!

Puzzle Obcession

NEW YORK CITY

Lately, I have had this thing about doing puzzles. For some reason it relaxes me. I set them up in the dining room and when ever anyone feels like it they can go in and work on them. Usually it is just Noah and I. Last night I finally finished a puzzle of New York. It was so hard. I have been working on it for nearly 2 weeks. James was convinced it would never get finished because it has so many buildings and things that all look the same. But I finished!!!!!! I try to find puzzles of places we have been, or that mean something to us. I am going to figure out away to mount them so I don't have to take them apart. So if anyone has any ideas, let me know.
I got into puzzles right after Christmas.
At a family party we had gotten a puzzle called, "Alpine Christmas". I was bored one Sunday and so I started putting it together. 8 hours later, at 1:00 in the morning I finished, all accept 1 piece that I could not find. I was so frustrated. I thought James had taken it to be funny. I found it the next morning on the puzzle, it had blended in and I couldn't see it. I was so thrilled with the puzzle and it was really beautiful! On New Years day, Summer and Scott came over. They were not here more than 2 minutes when one of the kids came in and said, "uh, mom, your puzzle got broken." We all thought it was Bridger, and I walked into the room thinking it would be just a few pieces taken off. Oh No! It was everywhere! Hard to get mad at a baby. Then Dakota proudly announced that it wasn't Bridger who broke the puzzle. It was him!!! He was so proud of himself too! I tried not to cry as I put all of the pieces back in the box and thought about my 8 hours of work! I haven't even tried to put that puzzle back together. It just isn't as thrilling the 2nd time! Any way, Noah and I and occasionally the other kids have had fun doing puzzles when ever we have a spare moment or need to relax a little.

Yellow Stone
(this one was a little hard too!)

LAKE POWELL

NOAH'S ARK

We had to do this one of course in honor of Noah. We had to laugh though because there are dinosaurs on it and a polar bear drinking a coke!

It is hard to tell in the pictures but the pieces are small and each has 500 pieces!
We are now getting ready to do a puzzle of Salt Lake City!!!!

Hunter

Hunter has been complaining that I only blog about McKenzie
so I decided to add some pictures of Hunter
from his basketball game on Saturday. His team has won every game.
In Hunters words they "OWN" every game.
Hunter is the white team and his Jersey # is 3!

Super Bowl - Colts vs. Vikings

Before the game, trying to be serious!

Hunter is very Happy!! Daniel (and a few others) are a little disappointed.
It was a good game though clear to the bitter end.
The Vikings just made a few too many mistakes.
I am not even going to go into my feelings about how unfair the overtime system is in the NFL!

Well, onto the Super Bowl.
I am going to be cheering for the Colts and Austin Collie.
I already informed Hunter of this and we are good!

Congratulations Hunter on the big Saints win!
I guess you have NFL bragging rights!
Just don't forget who dominates in College Football!!!!!!
Those bragging rights belong to Daniel and BYU!!!!
I guess you guys are even!

Noah before the game! It is as if he knew the outcome before it started!

I had to leave during the game.
I came home to find everyone heavily involved in the game,
and Bridger sitting in a kitchen drawer eating monopoly money!
I am sure he is pooping it today!

Vikings or Saints???

In our family everyone has their favorite NFL Team. Bobby is a Giants fan. Daniel loves the Vikings. Hunter is a huge Saints fan, and Noah is a devoted Dolphins fan even when they are really bad. Everyone likes the Colts (I love Austin Collie), unless they are playing their team. This all brings me to today! The day I have been dreading all season. The Vikings (Daniel) and the Saints (Hunter) are playing each other for a chance to go to the Super Bowl. Even though I know what team I want to win, (did I mention that I love Football? My favorite sport!) I can't say. I am keeping my mouth shut on this one. As a mother it is like choosing which son you like more. Hunter keeps asking me, and it reminds me of when they were little and he liked the Hulk and Daniel liked Spiderman and they would ask who I liked better. I knew what they really wanted to know is which one of them I liked better? I never answered that question either. ( I actually liked the Hulk better.) As for the game today, I will be watching it in silence, ready to console the son whose team does not win. Secretly I will be either happy, or also consoling myself!!! It is hard being a mom sometimes!!! The good news is that somebodies team is going to the Super Bowl this year!!! Probably playing the Colts and my beloved Austin Collie! Then who will I cheer for??? Does it never end????

2010 Region Champions!!!

Tuesday night was the Region 4 Drill Team Competition and our girls won!!!!! They did an amazing job and danced their hearts out. They actually beat the #1 team in the state to win this competition. I still can hardly believe it. I know it seems dumb to be this excited over a Region Championship, but I have been so excited I can hardly sleep!! I know! I am weird! But let me try to explain......this year Lone Peak was changed to a different Region. We are now in the toughest Region in the state. Not just in Drill Team but in everything from Football to Basketball to Baseball, everything, you name it. The top teams in sports in the state of Utah are in this Region. Hill Crest High School has always had the top drill team in the state. For as long as I can remember. They took State last year, and this year took first in every dance they competed in. Lone Peak has never beaten them. Never! Brighton High School is in our Region, last year they were 3rd in state and we were 4th. So the top 3 drill teams in the state were in our region. So far this year we always seemed to place right behind Brighton in our dances. There are also 4 other very good teams in our Region, Alta, Jordan, Pleasant Grove and American Fork. It is just one tough Region! We have not been excited about having to compete in it. I would not say that we came in as an under dog, but we most certainly were not expected to win. I think the girls believed they could win, but as a mom who has sat through competition after competition I wasn't so sure. I was hoping for a 2nd or a 3rd, just a chance to compete for state really. As the competition began it became apparent that some of these other schools thought they had it in the bag or something.........Lone Peak came out on Fire!!!! I have never seen them dance so good!!! It was a close competition but in the end our girls were crowned the Region Champions, much to the shock of HillCrest the reigning state champions! It was so unexpected, which made it that much more exciting. I am so happy for Mckenzie and the rest of the senior girls that they were able to pull this off their senior year! Wow!!! Not only can our girls dance but we have smart girls too! When they announced the All Region Academic awards that are given out to all the drill girls that have a 3.75 GPA or above, Lone Peak had 13 of their 18 girls get that award, including McKenzie. What is amazing is that most of those 13 girls actually have 4.0 GPA's (including McKenzie) Most schools only have 6 or 7 girls get the award. Hill Crest only had 2! McKenzie also received another award that is handed out to 3 girls from each School, it was for being an Outstanding drill Team Member for at least 2 years and is voted on by their team mates. That was a nice Honor for her to be recognized by her team mates! I am so very proud of these girls. They work so hard and to win Region when you weren't really expecting it is a feeling that can't be described in words!! State Competition in coming up next week on January 29th. They will be competing against all of the top 4 teams in every Region. It will be tough, but I think they will do well. McKenzie said they watched their tapes in practice and still see lots they can improve on, so they will continue to work hard to get ready. I was too nervous at the competition to take pictures, so these are just a couple that I took after..............

Bobby and Autumn both came to support Mckenzie! Bobby got pretty excited and was really impressed with their dancing. He had never been to a competition of this magnitude before. Autumn came late because of work, but was able to see their last dance and stay for awards. Summer came also, but had to leave before awards.

Below is a picture with Nikki Ashton. She was Summers Drill coach and comes back and works with the Drill team doing Choreography and cleaning. She also runs the Drill camps that they attend during the summer.

I thought I would put some pictures in of the Drill team when they don't have their hair pulled back and all the gobs of make up on that they have to wear to compete. They are all beautiful girls!!

These are the Seniors. These girls have danced together for years! Even before they were on the Drill team! As you can see, they enjoy each other very much. McKenzie has said one of the best things about being on drill is that you have 17 Best Freinds!!!!

Bridger and Dakota

On Sunday Bridger was on the counter sticking the whole top of a bottle of Propel in his mouth. It looked so funny I was trying to get a picture. I didn't get a very good picture because he fell and knocked the bottle into his front teeth, but I did get some pictures of a very sad little boy! I guess it is not very nice for grandma to laugh when he is hurt, but his sad little faces are so cute!!! For the record, he still has his two front teeth!!!!

A kiss from mom always seems to help!

The opposite of Bridger's sadness was Dakota's pure joy in his Fruit Roll Ups. He asked me if he could take one home with him! This is his idea of ONE!!!!!!!!!!!! These guys are so cute. They keep us laughing!

McKenzie going to Preference

Saturday was Preference at Lone Peak. It is a girls choice Formal which the Drill team always attends together. McKenzie looked so pretty. I loved her dress. It is the first dress I have ever bought for her for a dance. She has always just worn one of Autumn's dresses or one of a friends dresses that she has liked. I guess they only get worn once so it is no big deal, but I felt this year she needed her own dress. I even had to talk her into it, but she was happy with what we found. She went with Chase Beckstead. For dinner they all chartered a bus and went up to Sundance and then went to Utah Valley University for the dance. She said it was really fun. This was kind of a big deal for the Drill Team this year because none of them will be going to Prom this year because they will all be in New York Dancing when Prom is. Bummer they won't be going to Prom their Senior year. But Really, New York or Prom! I'd take New York any day!!!!!

It was alittle bit cold!

McKenzie and Abbey! I thought this was a cute picture of the two of them.

The 6 Senior Drill Team Members!

All 18 girls!

Getting on the bus to head up to Sundance!!!

Dakota's Grandma

I just wanted to quickly write about something funny that happened today when I went to pick up Dakota from pre school for Summer. Bridger was sleeping and because Summer didn't want to wake him, (he only takes one nap a day, doesn't matter how long it is, only one nap) and because I was out she asked me if I would pick him up. So I went to his class and told the teacher I was his Grandma and would be picking him up. She asked me if I was on the list of people who could pick him up and I said I was sure that I was. She then went to Dakota and asked him if I was his grandma, he told her "No" and then started crying. She said do you know your Grandma's name and he told her it was "Grandma". She then took me out to the front desk to check that I was on the list before she would let me take him. I was laughing the whole time and Dakota was crying!!!! He did come with me. I won him over by giving him a new Hot Wheel and taking him to Mc Donalds! Not sure why he told them I wasn't his Grandma! I just thought it was so funny and cute!