Last Band Competition

We haven't gotten to do our usual Fall/Halloween activities that we normally do every year like going to a corn maze or carving pumpkins because of band competitions, etc. We also missed our ward trunk or treat because Jack's last band competition was the same day, which was last Saturday. Thankfully, the girls' school had a trunk or treat last Thursday. We didn't get the girls' costumes figured out early enough either so they just wore costumes we already had in our bucket. Charlotte was a vampire and Alice a pirate. I did order Alice another costume online and it arrived yesterday, just in time for Halloween. Charlotte couldn't decide what she wanted to be. We finally went to the store last night and there wasn't much to choose from. She says she'll just be the vampire again. Anyway, first we went to the girls' classrooms to get a fun math packet for them to work on whenever they want. In Charlotte's class, they were doing a few activities, so we did one of them together. After the activity, we went outside to do the trunk or treat. We had to wait in a long line and it was getting colder than we had planned on. I let the girls go play on the nearby playground while I waited in the line until it moved up a ways. It was fun to take them even though it was cold.

A cute simplified non bloody vampire and a cute pirate.

We had to build a tall tower for a pretend table decoration using a certain number of gummies and toothpicks. Ours started to fall down after we walked away. ☺

Jack left with the band Friday evening to head over to Everett, WA which is north of Seattle, to stay the night in a school gym and do their last competition on Saturday. Curtis and I didn't know for sure if we were going to make it over there to watch him now that we have a puppy, but the other kids said they could handle it. So, we left around 6:30am Saturday morning to drive over. It's about a 4 hour drive and we wanted to make sure we got there early so we could watch other bands and make sure we were there in time to see Jack at 11:15am. We noticed they were missing the big bass drum player in the pit but they still did a great job on their performance. It was fun to stick around this time for the preliminary awards ceremony where Southridge received best color guard, best music and 1st place in their division again. This time there were 8 schools in their division and only a few were the same as from the Yakima competition. So they were mostly new schools they were going up against. We left to head home after the preliminary awards. All of the schools (because they take the top 12 and there were only 12 competing) were to perform again in the finals. Unfortunately, our school got a lower score than the first time and ended up in 7th place overall against all of the schools. One of the schools didn't even compete in the finals because they needed to leave, so there were 11 schools in the finals. I'm not sure how they happened to get so low after getting 1st in their division. The cold must have gotten to them.

After the performance I caught up with Jack and his friend Morgan. They both kind of like each other. 😉She's a nice girl. She plays one of the drums.

Look at the beautiful mountains in the background.

Our drum majors and color guard captains.

Had to get a shot of us before we left. It was cold all day but at least the sun was on us the whole time to help warm us up.

We stopped at a gas station on the way home and got a tamale for dinner. We had to pull over so Curtis could eat his because it was going to be way too difficult to do while driving. They were pretty good.

Milo has been doing pretty well on sleeping through the night in his crate. Usually, he goes to bed around 10 or so and Curtis wakes up at 5am to let him out. That's the time he normally gets up anyway. He's gotten better at quieting down before we leave during the day also. After church on Sunday we walked him across the street to the school to exercise him. We took a favorite toy, which is donut shaped. We would roll it and then he'd run after it. That's the most exercise he's ever had so he was very worn out after that.

He likes to cuddle up by my feet sometimes. This was after church.

Curtis is luring Milo to walk by tying the donut to a rope and dangling it in front of him.

While having Milo has been fun and he's super cute, it has also been difficult. Some days I feel like I can't get anything done. He needs so much attention. I have shed a few tears and had many regrets on getting a dog. It sure helps when I see how happy Charlotte is with him though. She's the main reason that we got him. It's been stressful thinking about how now we'll need a puppy sitter when we need to go out of town. The breeder we bought him from said she can do it depending on the dates. So far, it sounds like she won't be able to help out much in the next couple of months. We may have to cancel some of our trips. The things we do for our kids. I remember my dad getting dogs for us kids at different times. We had a golden retriever when I was around 4 years old. One thing is for sure, I will never get a puppy again. The puppy biting is so frustrating. I feel like this will be the only dog we ever get. It certainly doesn't help my morale when people say negative things about having a puppy or a dog. I need to hear positive and encouraging things right now. Again, we have our good moments and our bad with Milo but I try to relate it to having a baby and all of the frustrations I had with that. We just need to get through this first year or so and it will get better.