It seems like Fall gets faster and faster each year. With marching band taking up so much of Jake's time the first nine weeks of school are a blur. We spent this last weekend in St. Louis at the Bands of America Regional Competition. The BVW had a Saturday morning wake up call set for 4:45 a.m., so they left school at 2:00 p.m. on Friday - which gave them time for dinner, to their hotel and settled with lights out by 9 p.m. It was raining, so Jack and I decided to head out early too, and got Annie out of school and got on the road at 2:30. We never saw a bus or equipment truck and arrived a little after 7, just missing Happy Hour at our hotel. Jack and I grabbed dinner at an Italian restaurant in the hotel and brought some back for Annie. We had a relaxing evening - I colored Annie's hair and Jack did a little exploring. It's funny, when the kids were little we often chose a hotel with a pool. I can't recall the last time we packed our suits for an overnight.
There were 64 amazing bands performing Friday and Saturday with rankings shared at 4:30 on Saturday afternoon. There may be some small part of me that would like to sit and watch all the bands, but only a very small part. After an hour or two I found myself on sensory overload. The band performed at 9:00 a.m. We stayed at the same hotel as our friends Brian and Lisa, so the guys got up early and joined the band at 7:15 to help unload the trucks and schlep the equipment to and from the performance. Lisa and I had breakfast with Annie, then got Annie and Suzy settled in to spend a few hours hanging out in the hotel room. We had to wait a bit for tickets - only because I choose the wrong line. Lisa picked a longer line that was efficient and she got done way before me. BUT we got in with enough time to spare that we each got our boys a BOA jacket and had them put an iron on transfer of their instrument name.
Jake's jacket.
I don't think he's taken off since he got it.
Seriously.
The band did great. Their show is fun and cutesy.
< As they prepared to take the field.
> "warm ups"
This place is huge!
from the field...
It was very cool to see band people really get their show
and stand up with their hands over their hearts as the band
played a portion of the National Anthem.
They looked great.
Jake twisted his ankle during their performance and was exhausted. I think their 9:00 p.m. lights out was... not followed. And Jack's feet were hurting. His shoes were not forgiving on the concrete.
Not a bad view on Suzy's walk.
The park right next to our hotel was between the Arch and the Old Courthouse.
Our room with a view.
Walking back from lunch...
After a morning full of walking - and sore feet, Jack decided we needed to take the trolley.
Brian and Jack on the "trolley"
it was just a bus,
we waited longer than we rode,
which was only about six blocks.
(still makes me giggle)
I thought it would be funny having the guys sit together...
and it was.
Unfortunately, most judges don't like fun and cutesy - I think only one did. There were many dark topic shows - i.e., What if... (what if this or that - what if there was no music, and the entire band put down their instruments and sang. Ok, that part was cool but...) We ranked 30th overall. Not bad. We were in the top half. Our new director did the best she could with what she was given. It will be exciting to see what she does next year. Saturday night we had planned to go to Finals. The band had planned to go no matter what - either to perform or just watch. Jack was tired, still fighting foot pains and starting to show symptoms of a cold. We hadn't gotten him a ticket, so he and Brian decided to hang back at the hotel and watch a bit of college football.
Annie joined Lisa and I and we walked back to the dome. The performances were AMAZING! The only bummer was the little boy sitting behind us giving us his commentary. Play, by play, blow by blow. He was so excited but SO terribly annoying to Annie. And after about half a performance his enthusiasm was pushing me close to the edge. I did my best to channel my sisters loving kindness and asked him between bands to talk very quietly when the bands were performing. To which his Grandma said, "see, I told you so!" We did hear a few more comments, "WOW, I get it!" And he joyfully ran laps after several performances with his little flag flying high. I found it cute. Oh how I wish I would have taken his picture. We all agreed he will someday be a flag dude. Annie never got past annoyed. (giggle) We sat fairly close to the band - hoping to grab the boys and avoid a walk to the buses, since they parked were several blocks away in the opposite direction than the hotel. But no such luck. We grabbed the boys and headed back. We gave them the trolley option but it was quickly vetoed. We returned to find Jack and Brian in the hotel lobby commanding the remote. (more giggles) It must have been a pretty darn powerful feeling sitting in a hotel lobby because both of them commented about it and smiled.
We had breakfast together on Sunday morning before the Pfeiff's headed home. I had promised both kids they could take some pictures before we left down so we headed to Laclede's Landing. In one grassy area Annie found a little plastic igloo with blankets, food and kittens nestled inside. She was so excited. And they were adorable.
Jack took Suzy for a stroll along the Mississippi.
Then I took one more picture of the Arch before we headed home.
We had a quiet, uneventful trip home.
We are expecting our first hard freeze tonight. :-)
xo
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