First place for the Spirit of Central!Well, I blinked and Christmas and New Year's flew past! The first part of our Christmas break was filled with holiday preparations and celebrations. The day after Christmas kicked off a weekend with family from New Jersey and Kentucky...lots of food, card games, a little Twister for the more flexible (aka younger) folks, and a wedding shower for our nephew and his lovely bride-t0-be. Then it was crunch time...two days to catch up on laundry that was in a seriously disastrous state, run errands and pack for our trip to the Fiesta Bowl in Phoenix! Mindy and I left the house at 3:15 am on New Year's Eve...Jon stumbled out of bed and drove us to school in a semi-conscious state...and boarded our bus for the airport in the midst of a wicked little snow squall.
Just before the snow hit...we're ready for Arizona sun!We didn't even make it out of the parking lot before we had bus trouble. About 15 minutes into the trip, our bus driver pulled over and we had to wait for another bus. Miraculously, at 45 minutes before flight time, we managed to check in all 32 of our drumline flight group, hustle through security and make our flight to Denver. It was five days of non-stop activity. We slept very little, we ate way too many boxed lunches, and we spent a lot of time in transit. In spite of it all, we had a great time! I wouldn't have missed it for the world! The weather during the day was fabulous! I spent New Year's Eve baking in the sun, watching our kids practice in the shadow of the mountains surrounding Scottsdale, Arizona. It was quite hilarious to watch them shed winter attire and strip down to summer practice gear in the 75+ degree weather. We even pulled out the sunscreen!
Camelback Mountain in the background...One of the highlights of the trip was the national band championship that is part of the Fiesta Bowl festivities. On New Year's Day, our band won the prelims and the Grand Master Champion title! They won first place in every caption award but one...drumline, color guard, visual effect, music. It was so wonderful to be part of that experience, and it was the best way to end a marvelous season of competition. This show was so special. The kids loved it. They loved performing it. We loved watching them! This is an amazingly talented group of kids!
Fireworks inside the Arizona Cardinals Stadium!I have much more to write about our trip, as well as all our holiday memories to share, but I need to spend some time with a certain little girl who missed her mommy very much. I'll leave you with this...a link to the uncut video of the Fiesta Bowl Parade on Saturday. Don't be intimidated by its length! You can fast forward to 117:30 to see our band...as the winners of the competition, the featured band marched last. You can go full screen, but adjust the timeline first...at 118:56, there's a brief clip of Mindy playing cymbals! THAT'S MY KID!!!! I'll have photos to share in a day or so...
http://www.azfamily.com/video/?z=y&nvid=318309
3 comments:
So very cool ~ congratulations to Mindy and the rest of her band! I'm glad that you guys had a good time and I'll have to check out the video link when my computer is behaving a bit better...
Glad you guys are back and I'm looking forward to seeing more!
Congratulations on the band award! That's so exciting! As a former band mom, I can relate to the fun, the stress, and all that goes with it!
That's just awesome -- and it was a great full shot of Mindy! You're now famous!!!
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