Dancing Queen !!!!

This past Saturday McKenzie had a drill team competition. She is in her 3rd year on the Lone Peak Drill team. For those of you who don't know, Drill Team is huge in Utah and the competition is fierce. This was her last regular competition that she competes in before Region next week and then State at the end of the month. We will be going to New York in March for her to Dance there, and then we are done with Dance in our lives until we get granddaughters. I am so sad!!!! I have loved watching her dance all these years. She has danced since she was 3 years old. It has been her life basically. She dances in a studio about 6 hours a week and goes to drill at 6 a.m. every morning, including the summer and they practice 3 hours as well as Tuesday and Thursday evenings for 4 hours each! I seriously don't know what she will do with herself when it is over. I am trying to talk her into dancing in college, but she says she is done. I think she is just exhausted, because I know she loves it!!! Any way, they did pretty good at the competition. Still have some kinks to work out before Region and State though. There were 14 teams in her division at this competition and the competition was tough.......
Here is their placement in their dances -
Officers Dance - 1st place
Lyrical- 1st place
Hip Hop - 4th place
Military - 4th place
Dance - 3rd place
Kick - 2nd place

Every dance they made a couple mistakes, so if they work on those they should do well at Region and State. They are one of the top drill teams in the state. Last year they finished 4th in state overall which is huge! They would like to do better this year, but the competition this year is even bigger, so we will see how they do. I will really miss having girls involved in dance and cheer and all the things that my girls have done. (Summer also did drill team and Autumn did years of cheerleading, as well as Competition Cheer) It is going to be sad!!!!
I have included some pictures from the competition, although it is hard to take still photo's of dance, and I am still trying to figure out my camera and how to get rid of the red eye and stuff. I figured the easiest thing to do is just change them to black and white. Also, keep in mind, drill team is about more than dance, it is also about facial expressions and presentation, which makes for some comical still pictures. Enjoy!!!!

McKenzie is the one being lifted!

These are the faces I was talking about. The one below is so funny. McKenzie is in the back, Sarah is in the front. Talk about big mouths! I think I can see their tonsils!!!

This is their hip hop dance. It is fun to watch, but never does as well as they would like just because they aren't true hip hoppers. You gotta go to L.A. to find those.

After the Competition they were pleased with the results. They didn't expect to do as well as they did because one girl could not be there because of a family funeral. Instead of filling her place they just left a hole, which was obvious, but I guess the judges still liked what they saw!!
Congratulations McKenzie and Good Luck at Region and State!