Basic Dance Training Camp - 2009

On June 23 - 26, I was at Basic Dance Training Camp (BDT) with my drill team. The entire team goes to this camp. We had an awesome experience there. I was a little bit nervous and so were they. It was the first time for all of them to attend a drill team camp like this. I have 8 girls out of the 21 that have been on drill before, but they had not come to this camp with their other teams. So, it was a new experience for them. I had been to this camp with my Payson teams and so I knew what to expect, but I was still nervous for the team.

We ended up having a really great time! Especially on the first night. On the first night, teams can bring a routine of their own to perform for all the other teams at the camp. We took our hip hop routine. It is called "Jump Jiggle" and it is really a fun routine. The girls can really get into it. After all of the teams perform, each team votes on what team they liked the best. Then, the team with the most votes wins the Performance Night Champion trophy. Well, Maple Mountain WON! I was so proud and excited for them! When they went to announce it, they said, "Well, we have our winner, and this is so cool, the roof better come off this place when we announce it, because it is really neat, the winner is . . . Maple Mountain! We were so excited! It was so much fun! Our first trophy and probably the first trophy for the entire school!

Here we are with the trophy!

Again, another picture with the trophy--we were so excited!
Working on military technique:

Team massage circle--gotta love it!

We also won an award for best technique in jazz technique classes!

We also had three girls make the top 25, so they were in the final drill down on the last day. And we had two girls named to the T.O.P. Corp finals. Thirty girls were selected by the staff as the top dancers of the camp. They had to learn a combination on the spot and then perform it. Both girls did really well!

It was a fun and busy two weeks of camps. Now, I get a short two week break and then we start up again so we can get ready for the 24th of July parades.

Father's Day 2009

For Father's Day, my aunt Lisa had a family party at her house in Nephi. It was a lot of fun. We ate in her dance studio. The weather had been a little bit rainy that morning, so we ate inside. After eating, we all went outside and the kids were playing ball and running around. It was a good time just to see everyone. Here is Scott with Amanda and Hollie:

My dad and I:

Go For It Camp - first camp for MMHS Drill

On June 18 - 20, I took eight members of the MMHS Drill Team to Go For It dance camp. It was a lot of fun for them. Four of the girls are officers and the other four just wanted to come. Usually I take the whole team, but this was their first time and so some of the team opted not to come. (It is an optional camp.)

The girls did really well. They were awarded the Sportsmanship award from the camp staff. We also had three girls in the Go For It dancer finals. On the last day of camp, they have all of the dancers come out and perform across the floor combinations for the staff until they are eliminated. Then the top eight, three of which were my girls, learn a dance combination on the spot and have to perform it in front of everyone and the staff then picks the top three dancers. One of my girls was selected as one of the top three! This has never happened to me as a coach before! So I was very excited. It was great! Here they are posing in the East High commons area. The camp was held at East High. You may recognize the area if you have seen the first High School Musical. We decided that the "E" stood for our team name which is Elleves. Eleve is a ballet term which means to rise up onto point. The theme of our school is "Education Elevated", so we decided we are dancers elevated or "Elleves." We added an extra "l" to the spelling. Hopefully everyone will learn our team name and say it correctly.

Mother/Daughter Picnic

On June 17, I went down to Levan with all of my sisters to join my mom at the Levan Ward Relief Society Mother/Daughter Picnic. It was a lot of fun. Cold and rainy, but fun. I still know a few of the ladies there. But it was weird to think that I used to know everyone in the town. Now, I hardly know anyone, except those that have been living there all their lives. Here is a picture of Me, Paula, Amy, Annie, Emilee, and my mom holding Ryan.

Planting Flowers in our Flowerbed

We finally had some time this weekend to plant some flowers in our flowerbed in front of our condo. Here is Scott tilling up the dirt:

Till up that dirt!

Planting the flowers.

Amanda helped too!

1990 - 2009 PHS Paysetter Teams

This post is for me. I have been going through all my old Paysetter files and scrapbooks, so I decided to do a post of all the teams I have coached over the past 19 years. I like to see how the hair styles and costumes changed. So, here we go:

PHS Paysetters 1990-91

My first team!

PHS Paysetters 1991-92

(only team picture I could find!)

PHS Paysetters 1992-93

PHS Paysetters 1993-94

(the year of the bright green dress!)

PHS Paysetters 1994-95

We won 1st place in Prop at Region that year--fabric and black stairs.

PHS Paysetters 1995-96

We had a really technical dance--I used an outside choreographer for the first time.

PHS Paysetters 1996-97

New military tops that could also be worn over the dress from the previous year.

PHS Paysetters 1997-98

Our dance costumes--"Feel Mighty Real", choreographed by Janalyn Memmott. We were starting to be really competitive and people noticed us!

PHS Paysetters 1998-99

Our dance costumes--"Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves", I loved that routine!

PHS Paysetters 1999-00

Our dance costumes for "Kiss The Rain"--we beat Lone Peak in Dance that year! Of course they were a fairly new school and we couldn't beat Timpview & Pleasant Grove though!

PHS Paysetters 2000-01

New military tops.

And we used the green army man idea again for Novelty--this time it was Toy Story 2. Complete with Woody and Jessie this time!

PHS Paysetters 2001-02
New green velvet dance costumes for our dance "Missionary Man".

Our Novelty was a Jungle theme routine complete with monkeys and vines that came to life!

PHS Paysetters 2002-03

PHS Paysetters 2003-04
Green dance costumes for our dance "Devil Inside".

This was our outdoor shot. I liked our black shirts that year.

PHS Paysetters 2004-05

Costumes from our 1st place prop routine with piano benches and umbrellas. Also the first year we won Region!

PHS Paysetters 2005-06

Costumes from our dance routine, "Look at Me". It was a fun, sassy dance choreographed by Brianna Hafen. We wore the black hats as well.

PHS Paysetters 2006-07

Costumes from our prop routine, "My Sharona", (a techno-upbeat version).

Our outdoor shot that year. I liked the location by the water.

PHS Paysetters 2007-08

Costumes from our dance routine, "Rock You Senseless". Second time we took Region!

Same year, different shot!

PHS Paysetters 2008-09
Our dance costumes for "Look at all the People". 3rd year we took Region!Same team, different shot!

I really have enjoyed my years at Payson! I had some really great times there. We accomplished a lot.

Now I'm starting over with a new school and a new team. It is going to be a big change. But I'm looking forward to it. New challenges and new goals to meet!

The Last Week of May

So, this post is all about what we did the last week of May. First, on the Sunday before Memorial Day, we went down to Levan to have dinner with my mom and dad. Amy and her family, Annie, Jim, and Ryan were also down. After dinner we went up to the Levan cemetery to put flowers on my grand parents graves.

This is Amy's son Hayden--Levan just put in the new flag pole you can see in the background.

My sister Annie's son, Ryan, checking out the headstones.


My dad and my aunt Nancy.

Amy, Annie, Hayden, and my mom.

Then on Monday, Memorial Day, Scott and I went out to his sister Debbie's house for a barbecue with his family. We stopped in American Fork cemetery to see his mom's grave.

Here is Scott at the front of the headstone.

Here is the back of the headstone.

The rest of that week was my last week as a teacher/coach at Payson High. It was a busy week, even though it was a short week. I was at the school from 1:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. on Thursday packing all of the stuff in my dance office and organizing the drill team costume closets. I went and got new plastic containers to put all of the new costumes in and I also organized it and got rid of some old costumes. I couldn't believe how much stuff I had accumulated over the years! I still have some bins of stuff to go through at home.

Megan King, who was the other dance teacher at Payson High and we shared an office together, was leaving Payson also. Her husband is going to medical school in Las Vegas. Here is a picture of Megan and I on our last day at Payson:

She has been so great to work with! She is going to have a baby in August. It is a boy! She and her husband, Blaine, are super excited--it is their first!

Then, after a weird, sad, kinda emotional day at Payson High, Scott came down and helped me pack up my things and take them over to Maple Mountain. We unloaded everything talked to a few people there and then went home for a minute. I had to get ready because I was having my officer party that night! Talk about ending it all at one school and getting it started at another!

For my drill team officer party, we went up to Zermatt Resort in Midway and had an hors d'oeuvre party, ordered pizza, rode on the carousel, and had a long meeting to plan out our upcoming year. Well, not quite all of the year, but quite a bit. We also set our officer goals for the year and just had a fun time getting to know each other.

Mikel and Haley at the hors d'oeuvre party:

Savannah and I riding the carousel--yes, I rode it! I wasn't planning on it, but the girls got a token for me!

All of us!

On Sunday afternoon, we celebrated Zach's birthday. We went out to their house and had ribs and pulled pork from Casey's cousin, Jeff, who owns a restaurant in Layton called "Holy Smoke". It was really good! We also had yummy cake and ice cream. Here is Zach with his Star Wars cake:

Zach opening his presents:

Sophie holding the "Z" that we gave to Zach. It was actually a "bonus" present I gave him. It was one of the left over letters from my novelty routine at Payson last year. We had made blocks with alphabet letters on them for our "Little Girls" novelty routine. When cleaning, I found the letter and decided to give it to Zach, especially since he gets called "Z".