Pictures and videos from state!

We're number 1!



What a great team!! Along with being talented and beautiful (which is obvious), you would be amazed if you knew that these girls are also the nicest, kindest, smartest, well-mannered, well-rounded girls with the highest moral standards. They truly are an inspiration and they prove that nice girls can finish first!!!



Action shots! Kylie:







Kendall:









The next picture represents two things: First (and most importantly) our awesome coach arranged for a charter bus and the school paid for it - Yay! and Thank you!! Secondly, this picture can also be considered the "before" picture ("before" make-up and false eyelashes.) These girls are naturally a BEAUTIFUL group of girls but the make-up helps bring their features out from far away!



The following picture represents revenge. Last year at state, this was the move that the team did in hip hop that got us a safety deduction! Boys are allowed to rip each other apart on the football field, but girls aren't allowed to be upside down without supporting their own weight. Someone explain that? This is Kylie & Caitlynn and Kenzie & Mattie saying, "Ha ha! Look no hands. We're doing it again!!" It was closure.



The captains and lieutenants wearing their superhero capes and tutus of course!

L-R Karlee, Kylie, Kenzie, Mattie, Caitlynn


Kendall and Dayna Bergeson celebrate with a hug!



Before they start the award ceremony and the parade of captains, they turn out all the lights and teams glow. Moses Lake has done their fair share of dominating in the past but never in the glow category! This year we did much better. That's our team glowing mostly purple there. They were armed with Barbie princess wands, flashing scepters and flashing tiaras. Suffice it to say, it was just a good day all around!!!



We had the biggest crowd we have ever had at state! So many parents and friends and former Molahiettes and school administrators and boyfriends and boyfriend wannabes (I could be wrong - but I doubt it!) It was an awesome show of support. Although, when the lights went out our tea was glowing spectacularly but our cheering section was pretty dark. (Note to self: parents need glow stuff next year.)





Caitlynn, Kenzie, Lauren and Kylie



The parade of captains. Hey, Lewis & Clark, get out of our way!



The captains and lieutenants running back and forth to accept their awards. Who knew they would have to run a half-marathon! So exciting!!









1st place kick:



1st place military:



1st place dance:



It is going to be so, so, so, so sad to say goodbye to this amazing group of seniors and our coach who is graduating with them. We might as well start crying now and get it all out before the banquet. Pass me some Kleenex!



What a fun year!! Lori deserves most of the credit so THANK YOU for everything! This amazing year was also made possible by hard working girls who never lost sight of their goal, and lots of wonderful parents who supported them in their goals and also sewed, cook, drove and encouraged. It truly does take a village to raise a child and we have an awesome village right here in Moses Lake!!!

Shhh... don't tell anyone, though. We never want to get so big that we have to split the high school so mum's the word!

Triple crown!

This has been quite a year for the Moses Lake drill team! Kylie (senior) and Kendall (sophomore) are both on the team. To start off with, the team has never competed so many numbers before in the same year. The first two competitions they took four numbers: a pom, a kick, a military and a dance number. They received all 1st places in all 4 numbers at both of those first competitions.

Their third competition they competed only the 3 numbers that they would be taking to state (because you can't compete more than 3 at state) which were kick, military and dance. They earned all 3 first places at this competition as well! So, 11 first place finishes to start the season. It was unprecedented!!

Pom number (Knock on Wood)


Kick number (Jai Ho)


Military number (Superman theme)


Dance number (Shango)


The next hurdle was districts which were held at West Valley in Yakima. The Molahiettes once again earned all 1st places! Wow... undefeated!! It was so exciting but also a little unnerving as we looked forward to state. Could a winning streak such as this possibly continue? Would it cause some prejudice among the judges? You never really know whether politics and prejudice are going to play a part in such a subjective judging system. Luckily, it didn't seem to!

The day started out with Kylie, Mattie, Lauren and Breanna singing the national anthem. All of the dancers at state are invited to send in an audition tape to be chosen to sing the national anthem and our girls were chosen! These girls are on jazz choir together. They did a great job!

Breanna, Lauren, Mattie and Kylie just about to sing



Warming up or goofing off?



Here is the national anthem! (Note that at the beginning of this video Kylie is checking her phone. No, she's not checking up on the NCAA progress! She was using a pitch app on her IPhone to hopefully start everyone on the right note. There's an app for everything, isn't there?)



There are 6 categories at state - kick, military, dance, pom, hip hop and show. In the past, the drill team has competed (and won) in kick, military, pom, and hip hop. This was our first time competing in the dance category. The Molahiettes performed all 3 of their routines really well. There were only a couple of minor mishaps but all in all they were stellar performances. There was a lot of tough competition, though. I think there were 16 dance numbers, 9 or 10 military numbers and 6 kick numbers.

It was beyond exciting when Moses Lake was called for 1st place in all of their categories! No other team has ever won 3 state titles in one year!! Wow. Lori has done an amazing job of coaching these girls. What a fun year it has been. Kylie has been one of the captains along with Kenzie Baker and Mattie Bergeson. The team is losing 11 talented seniors. This truly has been a dream team. We will really miss them.

Kendall and her cousin, McKayla



Team captains: Kylie, Kenzie, Mattie



Happy sisters!



Who's number 1?



I love my girls!



Parental pride!



Way to go Molahiettes!

Shall we dance?

I have been in Utah this weekend watching Courtney compete at the Dansport ballroom nationals competition. It was held in the Marriott Center and it ran Wed.-Fri. It was a huge competition with thousands of ballroom dancers of all ages.

Courtney competed in Novice Latin, Prechamp Latin, Novice Standard and Prechamp Standard. (These are all new terms to me but I am starting to get them figured out.) She and her partner, Tim, did a great job. They got to the semi-finals in almost all of their events which means that they were in the top 12 out of 75 couples or so. They had hoped to place in the top 6 in Novice Standard because they had previously won that category at a couple of earlier competitions, but they didn't. So that was a little disappointing but ballroom judging is very subjective and you never really know what to expect. It really is the craziest system. When the rounds first start and the floor is filled with couples, I don't know how the judges see anything. I guess they know what they are doing but it seems very chaotic to me.

Tim Colvin and Courtney in their latin costumes:




Here is one of their latin numbers:



I feel so bad that I didn't get a picture of Tim and Courtney in their standard costume. Courtney's red dress is so pretty and she looks gorgeous in it. The costumes for ballroom are just incredible!

Here is a little quickstep:



Here is Waltz:



I could seriously just sit and watch Courtney dance all day long. She is amazing. I am sure that I was just beaming. Cali and Ashley got to come and watch for a bit with Dougie and Henry. (Cali is watching Dougie while Justin and Angelique are in Hawaii and I am watching their house which I really appreciate!) It was so much fun to have Cali and Ashley's company and it was nice for Courtney to have a little cheering section.

One of the events they had that I really enjoyed where the formation team competition. There were high school teams and younger kids as well. This is the winning high school team who are the BYU Youth team. They are high school age and they were amazing. There were lots of fun routines in this category but this is the winning team:



Ballroom is huge in Utah and they have lots of elementary school programs. It is so cute. Here is a small clip of the elementary kids all dancing together:



There were some amazing ballroom dancers that competed. There are little tiny kids who are better than the college kids. It's crazy.

My personal favorite, though, was Courtney. I am so happy that I was able to be here. (I hated to have to miss watching Kylie and Kendall compete at drill team districts but they still won - yay! All first places all season long!! And plus I get to see them at state in just a couple of weeks.) I was just so happy watching Courtney dance. It was so worth the trip. I am so proud of her and I love spending time with her.

I also got to see Brad, though he spent most of the weekend in Vegas. He and some friends went to see BYU play in a tournament there. Unfortunately BYU lost to UNLV. Dang! I think I know why, though. Cosmo (aka Russian dance pro) seemed otherwise engaged...



It was a great weekend and I love seeing my BYU kids. I am one lucky mom!

Sweetheart's Dance

Kylie and Kendall just left for the Sweetheart's Dance. They were in the same group. How cute is that! Kendall turned 16 on January 27th and was asked to the Sweetheart's Dance on her birthday by Kyle Reeder who is a senior. Kylie went with Thomas O'Neill who is a Junior and he is in our ward and lives just down the street. He is a nice kid and our families have been friends for a long time. I must admit that I never imagined Kylie and Thomas on a date. Thomas comes from a long line of, shall we say, "vertically challenged" people. I didn't realize he and Kylie were even close in age because she has always towered over him all these years, but he finally caught up (well, close enough). Way to grow, Thomas! I don't know Kyle Reeder but he seems very nice as well. I'm sure they will all have a great time! Kendall was even voted Sophomore Princess! Go Kendall!!

Dancing Dads at Gonzaga!

Last night we performed our biannual (is that every other year?) Father/Daughter number at the Gonzaga basketball game. The Gonzaga crowd is always fun. The arena is always packed because they are sold out years in advance. They really loved the dads!






















Here is some video footage from last night's performance. I'm sorry that it's so shaky. I was taping the jumbo tron and between my shaky camera angle and the camera man zooming all over the place - it may make those who have motion sickness start to turn green. It's kind of fun to see who made it on the big screen, though!