10-15-11 Bridgerland Invitational Marching Band Competition

October 15th we traveled to Logan with the Marching Band for a competition held there.  The last couple of years when we have gone there the weather was AWFUL, so to have a sunny beautiful day was a welcome change.

The Color Guard has their own routine that they do to prepare for a competition, they stretch out, and then have a timed warm up.  The timed warm up period is the same for every competiting group.  They get 45 minutes to warm up.  It is fun to watch as they practice some parts of the show.  When their time ends they work their way to the entrance to the field and ususally have about 15 minutes that they wait there "in ready" to go on. 

As I sit in the stands knowing that our band is on next it is hard to watch the band that is performing, I am looking to the edge of the stadium for the kids to arrive, and that is when I get excited.  There they are holding their flags and front drops, wishing each other well for the last time.

Then they come onto the field and the fun begins:

I enjoy watching the saluate - each group of drum majors has their own unique saluate.  They do their saluate when they win one of the caption awards or "place" in their category.  When a "FIRST PLACE" band is awarded all of the groups do their saluate to say Congratulations.  It is a neat thing to watch.

It is hard to see, but we won all four of the Caption awards and FIRST PLACE.

At the end of the awards, the drum majors return to where the band is waiting for them.  They salulate to the band and then the band can started celebrating.

Gabi, Elizabeth, and RACHAEL, the Guard Captains admire the trophies.

After the band is done they load up into the buses and begin their way home.  Richard and I along with the rest of the band dad load all of the equipment onto the semi before we begin our way home.    Before entering Logan Canyon we decided to get a drink for the ride home.  While we were stopped we got a text message from Rachael that bus 4 had gotten a flat tire and they were stopped off the road in the canyon.  We found them and were very glad that everyone was okay.  The first three buses had gotten way ahead of the last two so it took a while to get them turned around and back to the bus with a flat tire.  By the time the buses had returned there were about 15 cars of parents waiting.  They put as many kids as they could onto the good four buses and some of the kids went home with their parents that had stopped.  They were able to get everyone home safe and sound.

Here is the Bridgerland show.

Great SHOW!!!