cheerio competition & lights

SO. We had our first competition this Saturday at Cottonwood HS. We are doing mainly all USA competitions this year, because that is the company we are going to nationals in California with in March, and the good news is, is that we qualified.... Phew!

So my competition squad has 16 girls on it, and of that 16 I think only like 4 have ever competed, so I'm really glad we did this competition! Most of the schools around here don't compete until January, so we were mainly against SLC schools, but I think it was good to have a little warm up competition before their big ones in January/February! 

They really did awesome- They hit all of the stunts I was really worried about them hitting, and of course... 2 of their easy cheer stunts fell? I swear that always happens. Well, they were against 9 teams- holy cow that is a lot! but I only saw a couple of the other teams perform, and after talking to Cheryl who watched all the other teams in their division we all figured they would probably take like 6th or 7th, really because they had those 2 falls and just looked so tired by the end of their routine. 

Well we get to awards and they say they are only going to announce 1st-6th place, so I was already nervous we weren't going to place, then they announced that Richfield got 6th, and I thought they had a pretty clean routine, so I was like oh crap we didn't even place... but to our total surprise we got 3rd place!! Brooke and I were seriously SO shocked! After watching their routine back, they really did better then I thought they did in the first place, and they are at the top of the difficulty range for their division, which I think helped a TON! I think Brooke and I just know they can do so much better, and hit those stunts that fell, but it was such a good start to our competition season! 

If they can take 3rd with 2 falls, then they definitely have the ability to take 1st!!

And out of 9 teams... I really am so proud of them!

I'm excited for our next competition in January, and i know my girls are too, because it's local so I'm sure their will be a lot more pressure!

Lucy knocked the camera out of Tyler's hands about half-way through so this is just basically the first 2/3rds of our routine- and even though they have 2 falls I'll put it up, just so I can see how much they improved over the next few months!

They also did a 'Time-Out' Dance that Brooke choreographed! She did such a good job, and I'm bummed they didn't get to compete against anyone, because they did awesome. It's also just nice to have another half time routine cleaned and ready for basketball season.

We don't have a drill team, so we perform at EVERY home basketball game!

This was also Kaysville Jr High's first competition! I am their 'competition coach', which basically means I choreographed their routine and work with them about once a week.

It's fun to work with Candace and her friends, but at the same time I am not in complete control of all of their practices, so they always do really well when I am there working with them, but to be honest I'm not so sure how hard they work when I am not there.... which is kind of frustrating, because they are all SO talented and have amazing tumbling, but just don't work on their stunts enough. They did really well though- they also had 2 falls on their opening stunt, but everything else looked perfect. I really think if they worked a little more on stunting, then we could add more difficulty, and they would for sure place higher, but until they do that they will probably never take first place, just because other teams stunting is so much more advanced. They did awesome though.

Sorry for the novel- but cheer is still a HUGE part of my life, so I promise I won't feel bad if you all just skipped this, and didn't watch any of these videos! I usually don't watch people's videos anyway, but you just wait... come February, these routines will be perfect! =) Haha.

Tyler was a trooper and brought Lucy to his first ever cheer competition. Unless you count going to watch his high school crush.... haha.

I was glad he came, even though I'm pretty sure he was miserable.

We headed up to Kaysville after to hang out with Ty's fam, then went down to temple square to see the lights with my family, and randomly went out to Paradise cafe after!

If you ever have a big group on a Saturday night... well, we were the only ones in there and the soup was delightful.

you can always count on cheryl to close her eyes... and I always forget Lucy has reflectors on her stroller, so it pretty much blinds the camera..

Kyle Prier's parents were in town, so they came with us- hence the photographers.

also candace didn't come- she had the 'opportunity of a lifetime' as she called it. haha... Meaning- she got to go to melting pot for some girls birthday party. 

my mom is the biggest push over.. sorry mom... love you! 

carter, shawn, mel, kyle, cheryl, mom, kyle, abby,  & dad