State Marching Festival

What a crazy week and weekend we had. On Monday Evan found out that the football team (who made it into the State playoffs) was playing Northwest Christian High School (Phoenix) in their first playoff game on Friday night. The school administration had already informed Evan that they wanted the band to attend the game. Evan talked with the administrators more and they came to the conclusion that if it was not too expensive the band could rent hotel rooms and be only 20 minutes away from the site of the State Marching Festival, which took place on Saturday.

Evan spent time researching the many different hotels in the area to get the best price and the best location. He also wanted hotels that had breakfast served in the morning. Finally he found one that fit all the criteria needed. The price was low enough and the location was great. We then had to plan what we were going to do with the dogs for those two days we would be gone. Our only solution was to take them to my parents house. I am so grateful to have that option. Our dogs love my parents. We packed the dogs into the Santa Fe and headed to Globe on Thursday night.

Evan packed when we got back from Globe but I wanted to wait until Friday. I got off early and barely had everything done by the time we left Kearny at 4:00 and headed to the football game. The game was great. It had us on our toes the entire time. The officials were some of the worst so far this season. I am not just saying that for calls against our team but for the other team too. The game ran into overtime. In the end we had a heartbreaking loss of 27-28, with a missed kick for the extra point.

We had to wait for one of the football players because he was our electric bass guitar player. We didn't get to stop for dinner before the game and everyone needed to eat. Evan had promised the band a trip to In N Out burger. Not my favorite meal but it satisfied my hunger. Now it was on to the hotel for the night.

After realizing the storage compartments under the bus did not have locks we knew we would have to take all the instruments and the bass guitar's huge amp into the rooms with us. NOBODY liked that idea but there was absolutely nothing better to do. Evan went to check in while everyone else stayed on the bus to wait. Finally twenty minutes later (at about 12:45 a.m.) we were able to get the kids off the bus and unloading. Evan and I had a room to ourselves but before we could get into the room the front desk clerk said there was a problem. We waited while she spoke to the manager. She had a very worried look on her face and I was starting to get worried. I thought maybe they had given out our room and there were not rooms left. I was thinking "Oh, great I am going to sleep on floor". She finally got off the phone and informed us that something had happened to the room we were assigned. She looked very worried now. She said they could give us another room but she was afraid there was only one room left and it only had a king size bed in it. I laughed out loud. I then informed the clerk that Evan and I were married and one bed was fine. She looked soooo relieved. We taped the kids in their rooms and finally got to bed at about two in the morning. This is getting to be a long blog but bear with me a little bit longer.

I did not want to get up when the alarm went off at 6:30 a.m. Evan and I had to get up and dress so we could make sure all the kids were attempting to get out of bed. Our phone rang at 6:45; it was one of the flag sponsors. She had gone to get breakfast and was informed that they did not have a breakfast but they did have a coffee machine if she would like some coffee. We then had to scramble to get the kids ready, the bus loaded, and check out of the hotel in time to take the kids to breakfast.

We made it to the State Marching Festival site with moments to spare. The band and flags put on a great show. We were very pleased with the final performance of the year. When the results were announced we were excited to have received a score of EXCELLENT. This only being Evan's second year with the band I was very proud of what he has done with it. Everyone was exhausted so needless to say the ride home was a very quiet one. Below are pictures I took after I woke up. All in all a great weekend.

EAC BAND DAY

On Saturday the Ray High School Marching Band went to Eastern Arizona College in Thatcher, AZ for a marching festival. We had to leave Kearny at 5:30 am so we would make it in time for our warm ups at 8:30. We made it just in time. We had a few mishaps along the way. Evan forgot to print out two of the bass guitarist's music and had to go home to print it out. We forgot the bass guitarist's folder with the remaining song in it. We forgot to get the uniform and instrument for one of the band members we were going to be picking up in Winkelman on the way to Globe. Luckily we had the flag sponsors taking their own vehicle go back to the school and pick up the uniform and instrument. A student was late thirty minutes and had to be woken up by another student, who is related to her.
When we finally arrived we only had seven minutes to warm up and then head to the field to perform. The kids did a great job. It was the best performance so far this year. We were excited to learn that we received a rating of SUPERIOR. Superior is the highest rating you can get at a marching festival. We also received a caption for Marching. A caption is basically the band that did the best at something. Getting a superior put into the State Marching Festival. So this coming up Saturday we will be going to Glendale to compete with all the 1A, 2A, and 3A division 4 bands who received an excellent or higher in a state qualifying marching festival. It will be another long but fun day. I only hope I remember the sunscreen this time. Evan, I, and most of the band all had one side of our faces sunburned. Here are some pictures of the trophy for the caption in marching and the plaque for Superior.

Halloween!!!

Evan and I had a great time dressing up the dogs for Halloween. We wanted to dress the dogs up last year but never got around to buying the costumes. I had the costumes ordered in September. Copper was suppose to be Spiderman but when the costume was tried on it was way to wide for him. Spike, my mom's Pug, was suppose to be a pumpkin and we ended up swapping Copper and Spike's costumes. Here are several of the great pictures we were able to get.


The costumes didn't stay on long but we were able to at least get some pictures. We took the dogs to Globe to visit my mom and we put their costumes back on to show her. They had a fun night playing with my mom's dogs while we went to Holyween, a safe alternative (for small children) to trick or treating door to door, at Trinity Baptist Church. At Holyween the kids get to go to many different booths and play games to win prizes and candy. There were two jumping castle and free food. I was able to see my nieces and nephew in their costumes. Ashley was a doctor. Jenna was a witch. Aaron was a skeleton. My dad, who was helping with security for the night, decided to get in on the fun and put on Jenna's witch hat for a laugh.