BDT Camp 2013

On June 24 - 26, my drill team went to Basic Dance Training Camp at Park City High School.  I couldn't believe it was time for camp already!  School just gets out and then next thing I know, drill starts up and we're going to camp.  I love BDT camp though!  It's fun to see the team start learning things and work together. 

Working out!

 This year, BDT had a lot of different work out classes for the coaches too!  I went to all of them--it was a challenge, but fun too!

 Team massage circle while waiting for the next class to begin.

Later that night was the Performance Night.  My team was performing their hip hop routine.  There were a lot of other great performances that night.  We were there with a lot of great teams!  The team performed great and I thought it looked the best I had seen it so far.  My favorite part was seeing them so happy with their performance when they came off the floor and were all hugging and celebrating!  That right there was enough for me, no matter what the end result was.

 Pics from the performance.

 Brittney and Jamie had some awesome hip hop facials going on!

 Love how they were getting into it!

 Lots of energy!

 

When they announced the team that won the performance night trophy, it wasn't Maple Mountain.  Hunter won it, and they had performed a pretty tight hip hop too!  

 The team with their performance night certificate.

 We won an Esprit de Corp award on the first night!

 

The next day was another full day of learning routines, technique, and workouts!  Here are some pics from the camp:

 Kickline in Camp Dance.

 Lauralyn, trimming the Velcro on the neck of our practice tops.  It was rubbing on their necks and making a red mark!

 Team hug!

 Day three began with a team cheer with our sister team, Granger.

 Lunch time!

 Always fun to have a little break from dancing and to eat good food!

 Jamie likes it!  HA HA

 Three girls made it into the drill down finals - Brooke Coleman, Brittney Peterson, and Bryn Starkey.

 All five of our "Top Corp" girls made it into the Top 40!

 Working on military technique.

 Kierney and Lauralyn were our instructors for our Be All You Can Be class.

 Our team won a military technique award, a hip hop master class award, and one of the main awards - Most Inspirational Team! 

Jamie Topham, our team president, was named one of the Top Corp dancers.  There were only six dancers chosen from this camp.

 

I was very proud of this team for all that they accomplished at BDT this year!  I'm so excited for this year!  Teamwork makes the dream work!

June is Here

Well June arrived and school is out!  We've been busy with some drill team events and some family events.  I decided to do one post about all the little events in June.  Then I'll do separate posts on the bigger events.

The first Saturday in June the drill team had a yard sale for those girls that wanted to participate.  My sister Annie had some stuff she wanted to sell and so she came and set up at our yard sale.  She did pretty good and sold most of her stuff!

While she was there, I wanted to go to the Springville parade, which was that same morning.  So, we took Jake and Ryan with us to the parade.

The theme of the Springville city float was "Celebrate".  So they were passing out these blow whistles.  Here's Jake, Ryan, and Kendrick trying them out.  It took Kendrick a while to figure it out, but he did.  They had a great time and were really good about going out and getting candy that was thrown from some of the parade entries and then coming back to the curb.

 

On June 9, the Ropers had a birthday party for Keaton, who was turning 8 this year.  Here's some pics from the party.

 Amy makes some pretty awesome cupcakes!  For this party, she made chocolate mint ones and cookie dough cupcakes!  I tried them both and they were so good!  I think my all time favorite one she makes though is the peanut butter cup ones!  I love that peanut butter frosting!

 Blowing out the candles!  Happy Birthday!

 My mom, Casey & Paula, Joseph & Emilee, Amy & Jason and Me at the Manti Temple.  We went and did sealings for members of our family that Emilee had been researching.  We also did sealings for others while we were there.  It was a cool experience.  The sealer used the word "gathering" to describe what was going on there that day. 

 Summer Drill practices officially started on June 10th.  This year, we added a ballet class on Wednesday mornings.  Our first teacher was Kate Griffin.  She was great.

 She worked the team hard and I was very impressed with her!

 The team is looking good so far!

 We'll continue the ballet classes in July, but with a different teacher because Kate is moving.

 Kendrick gets to come to practice at 7:30 a.m. every day when Scott drops him off on his way to work.  Kendrick does pretty good and is a good sport about it.  We bring movies that he watches on the portable DVD player and snacks, etc.  Here he is wanting his picture taken on the day I was taking pictures of "the girls", as he calls the drill team.

 He really does do a good job at being quiet and keeping himself entertained.  I asked the basketball coach if he could come in to basketball practice instead. HA HA Maybe some day when he is older!

 On June 19, my friend Sheri Bartholomew Johnson's daughter Jessica got married.  We went to the reception.  It was great to see Sheri and the reception was so nice!  They have a nice house in Mapleton with a great yard!  I need to go visit her more often!

 On June 22, the drill team had their first car wash of the summer.  Kendrick came down for a visit and wanted to help, so we put him to work on Scott's truck. 

He had a great time spraying the window cleaner everywhere! :) 

Father's Day 2013

Father's Day was on June 16th this year.  Kendrick went to daycare on Wednesday and Thursday that week and so he made a Father's Day gift for Scott.  

 Scott and Kendrick with the cute Father's Day sack Kendrick made.

 Another pic - better lighting! :)

 This is the sack that Kendrick made. 

 It had a cute verse on it and then there was some Hershey kisses inside the bag.

 Kendrick colored on the back of it!

 

Kendrick also made another similar item in nursery that day.  It was an envelope that looked like a shirt and tie and then there was a Hershey chocolate bar inside the envelope.  It was cute too!

 

Amanda and Hollie came down and made Scott a chocolate flower arrangement and tie.  It was cute too!  

Amanda, Hollie, Scott, and Kendrick.

 

We then headed down to Levan for lunch at my parent's house.  It was a fun Father's Day!  I'm grateful for my dad and all that he has taught me and done for me.  I'm also thankful for Scott and the father that he is to the kids.

Closing Out Another Drill Year

Another school year and drill year was quickly approaching!  This year has went by fast!  There were some times when it seemed slow, but when I really think back, it seems like just yesterday we were having tryouts!

We had our year end drill banquet on May 9 at Magleby's in Springville.  They always do a nice job and so we've had our banquet there the past three years. 

Here's some pics of the team:

A nice pose.

 A crazy, fun pose!

 

A few days later, we had our "ugly dance day" on May 14.  This is where the girls wear "ugly" dance clothes and we have an "ugly dance class".  This means they can dance as ugly and as incorrect, weird, and do whatever they want!  No rules really and no order/precision whatsoever!  It is a great day and they always look forward to it.

 I mean, look at these costumes?  Ugly Dance Day, need I say more?

It was a fun day, that's for sure!

Officer Retreat 2013

Just as you're closing one drill team year, you are also starting the next one.  It's hard, because you are sad to be losing the seniors and the current team, but you are also excited to get things going with the new team.  It's also stressful, because you have two teams at the same time.  Yes, there are members on both teams and sometimes it's just a difference of a few people, but it can still be a little bit crazy trying to keep things straight and get things done in time for the new team since they will be going to BDT camp in a month! 

First, the officers attended the BDT Leadership Camp or as I call it - Officer Retreat.  It was held up at the Zermatt Resort in Midway, Utah again this year on May 10 and 11.  We had a great time and the officers learned how to be even better leaders and made some great goals for themselves and our team for the upcoming year.

Having fun before the retreat started.

 Each team of officers were asked to bring candy that represented their school.  Well, that was easy for us - M&Ms for Maple Mountain and for "make it matter"!

 The group presenting the bag of candy to the other teams and then adding it to the candy basket to share.

 Getting started planning our year!

 They received a star pin and learned what each point of the star stands for in being on a team and being a leader.  Nikki Ashton, one of the BDT staff is posing with them.

 The new officers successfully completed the training and are ready to lead our team!

We picked our theme for the year - "Give it all you've got all the time.  Teamwork makes the dream work!"  We'll use clocks as our symbol for the year.  I'm excited for this group--they want to continue the work ethic that the previous team had and work even harder to achieve our goals.  It's going to be fun to see where this group of officers can lead this team!