Champions!

Maren's cheer team got first place at Locals competition on Sunday! They competed against five other teams in their division and needed to receive either first or second place in order to advance to Regionals. All the girls just did an awesome job. So now we're back to more practice three days a week to prepare for Regionals. We were fortunate that last year it was near us, but no such luck this year. Regional competition is always held the day after Thanksgiving and the girls have to be there to practice the afternoon before which is....Thanksgiving Day. The city it will be held in is a five hour drive from our house, which means we'll have to leave about 10:30 in the morning on Thanksgiving. I foresee a turkey dinner at Luby's in my future...

Tim's whole family is coming to our house for the weekend. We figured we'd probably have to go to Regionals, but didn't think it would be so early and that we'd miss out on practically the whole weekend. You do what you gotta do for your kids! So Tim's family will hang out at our house without us and keep our boys (who have no desire to drive five hours and back to see cheerleading).

About this time of year (right before Locals), I have about had it up to my eyeballs with cheer and all the practice and going back and forth to practice and football games and did I mention practice? Both years I've said that I wouldn't be all that upset if they didn't advance to Regionals because then the season would be over. But that's just the stress talking. When we get to Locals, it's so exciting to see the girls rewarded for working so hard. Last year, they made it all the way to Nationals at DisneyWorld and it looks like we're headed that way again. Stay tuned for the verdict at Regionals!
Here's Maren's team with their first place trophy!