Mt. Timpanogos Competition

Saturday, October 24, 2015

This was M&M's last local competition before the St. George trip and state competition. DH and I were both able to help at this one. This was DH's first and last time chaperoning for M&M's marching band - he usually stayed home to watch the younger kids while I chaperoned. Now that the kids are getting older though, we are able to leave them to watch each other which is nice!

This is one of the competitions that I have always chaperoned for. It is nice because it is fairly close and doesn't take up the whole day! Luke's band didn't compete at this competition because another band was doing the same show and they apparently had picked the show first so that excluded Luke's band from competing.

The lighting was horrible for trying to take pictures on the sidelines with my little point and shoot camera, so none of them turned out. This is one competition where they take a group picture afterwards. So here is my best attempt at the group shot:

M&M is on the back row - far right person

M&M as the band president got to stand in front of the band and call them to attention during the awards ceremony - since the drum majors were all on the field for the awards. If I remember correctly, M&M's band did not place at all at this competition. They ended up in 4th by just a fraction of a point...

Davis Cup Invitational

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

I went up to Kaysville to help with Luke's band for the Davis Cup Invitational. I met the band up there so that I could stay and watch M&M's performance later in the evening. Blondie went on a field trip for her orchestra class to shadow the marching band during the competition. They rode up on school buses and followed the band around and were able to go up into the stands to watch them perform. Afterwards they stayed and watched some of the other groups before they left. I was able to get permission to have Blondie stay with me instead of returning with the rest of the students. Unfortunately Blondie's nose started bleeding for some reason while we were in the stands and it just kept bleeding and bleeding... At one point I had to go back to our car to get a tissue box for her! Poor girl!

Luke's band got 2nd place and took the visual caption. M&M's band got 2nd place again too - which they were really excited about! They also took the percussion caption.

The props for Luke's band that we had to wheel around to the field and off again. They were very big and took several people to push/pull them. They looked really cool on the field.

Wasatch Front Invitational

Saturday, October 3, 2015

This competition was held at Luke's high school. Both Luke's and M&M's bands were competing. I volunteered to help with Luke's band and DH brought the younger kids over to watch both of their bands. My parents came as well. After I was done helping Luke's band I was able to go up into the stands to watch M&M's band. Apparently we didn't take any pictures of Luke's band at this competition. DH was video taping it and I was on the sidelines helping out the band. Luke's band was one of the few groups that it actually rained on! It was cloudy before they performed and then it rained during the first part of their show and then afterwards the sun came out and it was nice weather after that!

M&M's band got 2nd place (out of 2 bands). It was nice for them to actually place but it will be nicer to see if they are still able to place when there are more bands!

M&M had to carry on one of the side props this year.

M&M is just to the left of the person with the baritone that you can see.

M&M with her baritone - front and center!

The skies looked awesome after the storm that went thru during Luke's band.

M&M is the front person in the line just to the left of the 50 yd line.

M&M is the left-most person in this block.

Nebo Competition

Saturday, September 26, 2015

I went with Luke's band to Payson for the Nebo marching band competition. (M&M's band did not compete at this one - they had an all day clean-up rehearsal instead.) Luke's band is competing at the 2A level this year (M&M's band is 4A). I thought they did really good for their first competition. I helped assemble some of their props and then with getting the band on and off the field. We then fed them before we left to return to the school. They didn't stay for awards because there was a school dance later that evening - which is unfortunate because they came is 1st place!! I think it was out of 7 bands! They were super excited! Apparently the band director dropped her phone when she was texted the results! The show is called Scheherazade and tells the story of a prince who selects a wife but she is in love with a commoner. At one point the prince and the commoner fight and the commoner is killed. I'll have to post a video of the show. Here are some pictures that I took from the sidelines:

Luke is just one of two clarinets in the marching band. If you zoom in on some of these pictures you can probably pick him out - he is the clarinet with glasses on and he is a little bit shorter than the section leader.

I loved these gold flags!

Weber Review

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Since we have two different kids in different marching bands, I will be splitting my time volunteering between the two. The Weber Review is held each year on a Tuesday just before the competition season begins. It is the first performance before judges and then they give feedback on ways to improve the show. There are no place awards or scores given out.

I haven't volunteered at this one before because Tuesdays are hard when you have young kids and your husband is working. This year though I was able to go because the younger kids are getting older and able to watch each other. Luke's band was performing during the daytime so I went with M&M's band that was performing in the evening. M&M's show is entitled Dead Men Tell No Tales and is a pirate theme.

M&M is in the line on the left (to the right of the flags) - second person back.

M&M's Family Night Show

Monday, September 21, 2015

M&M at her last marching band family preview show. :( She is loving playing baritone this year! Oh, and she is also the student band council president for this school year. She applied for it at the end of last school year and the band director and outgoing band council picked her from several other applicants. We're not quite sure what she has to do for that other than collect attendance rolls for all of the sections as well as attend band council meetings every other week. I think she is also the one in charge of putting together a slideshow at the end of the year for the annual end of the year party.

Blondie went out to the field to shadow M&M this year.

Luke in uniform!

Monday, September 21, 2015

Here is Luke in his marching band uniform! This was at a family night showcase that they did before the competition season started. (And M&M's band had their family night showcase the same night so I went to Luke's and everyone else went to M&M's - since this was her last one.)

Football Game Pep Band

August 28, 2015

Luke was able to play in the pep band for his first football game! The game was at the high school - which is right across the street from our neighborhood - and was against M&M's high school! DH was out of town at a scout camp out so M&M and I walked over to the game to watch it. The game was packed because the two schools are relatively close to each other and yet they are not in the same division for sports. M&M met up with some friends there and they all came over to our house afterwards to watch a movie and hang out. The band sounded pretty good and I was impressed with their sound for being so small.

Luke is in that band group somewhere!

Marching Band Preview Show - Luke

Friday, August 14, 2015

It is weird having Luke in a different marching band than M&M! We will see how things go once the competition season begins! Luke's high school got a new band director at the end of the school year last year (and it is a relatively new school) - so they are starting fresh this season. The band is quite a bit smaller than M&M's band so they will compete in a smaller class size. It will be interesting to see how the new director is and how the new band will do things compared to M&M's band.

Luke's band did a family preview/parent meeting at the end of their 2 week summer band camp so we could see the progress that they had made up to that point. They were pretty close to having the whole show put together - I think they had all but one of the three movements on the field. Here are a few pictures from it:

Days of '47 Parade

Friday, July 24, 2015

This year our local school system decided to put together a combined parade band for the state's annual Days of '47 Parade. We were kind of excited about it because this would be the one time that M&M and Luke would be able to march together for band. Since we moved out of M&M's high school boundaries, Luke (and the rest of the kids) will attend a different high school.

M&M has decided for marching band this year to switch to the baritone! She stayed after school towards the end of the school year to learn from one of the other baritone players. So this was her first time marching with the baritone!

The band students practiced all week long the week of the parade. Here are some pictures after the parade:

City Parade

Saturday, June 6, 2015

Luke participated in the high school parade band this summer. They had several rehearsals before school ended and then their first parade was for our city's founder's celebration that they do every year the first week in June. We decided to take the family to the parade to see Luke. It was a little cold at first but then it warmed up into a beautiful day - not too hot or sunny. The younger girls thought it was a lot of fun getting the free candy and trinkets that was thrown to them! We were towards the end of the parade so some of the groups had already passed out all of their candy, but they still got plenty.

Apparently Kitty was not too happy to be there!

But I got a smile from M&M!

MJ and Kay playing with some streamers that were thrown our way.

They let any of the kids from the middle schools and high school participate in the summer parade band - so the band was bigger than they march for the fall marching season.

The girls thought that this walking ice cream cone was really cute.

Office cabinets

Saturday, February 14, 2015

For Valentine's Day, DH installed these cabinets in my office:

Before picture - we moved this desk down to Luke's room.