AFHS marching band, the newest champions...

We had such a great weekend. The American Fork High School marching band went to the Western Region Bands of America Competition in Las Vegas. Rick and I went down to Vegas together on Friday while Andrew rode the bus down. They competed in St. George first and then continued on to Vegas on Saturday. Rick and I enjoyed some time alone...eating fabulous food and just plain relaxing. The highlight, however, was attending the competition.

The event was held at the UNLV Sam Boyd Stadium and had schools from all over the Western states, from California to Oklahoma.

They first played in the preliminary competition.




AFHS band won 1st place in their division and made it to the top ten later that evening.

They really rocked that stadium. They were amazing!




The coolest thing... all 10 bands that competed marched into the stadium, all in single file lines. They came from both sides of the end zone, and continued to file in as the UNLV drum line played. It was very impressive.





As they announced that American Fork had won the championship, there was no snapping a photo...the kids where jumping and screaming so much that they were all blurry! This was one I thought was cute, it is when all the other bands came into the celebration to congratulate the band.

It took a while, but the announcers finally cleared the field and turned it over to the AFHS marching band to have one final performance. I don't know if it was just me, but they seemed to be playing a little louder and they looked much more relaxed!

This is Mr. Miller, the band director. I love the way he watched the band as they played one last time. He deserves amazing accolades. He has really done a great job with this band. He works them hard, but they all respect him. He said that in the last 20 years they have competed, this was their first Bands of America win. They are now ranked 3rd in the nation and are onto the National competition in Indianapolis to play on the Colt's football field. They are expected to do very well.

They entire band was given individual medals afterwards.



This is Andrew's friend, Christian.


Andrew & Cameron.

This was the entire pit, enjoying thier moment.

And this is the percussion group, including the drum line. They are with thier fantastic instructor Mike Huestis.

My friend Katrina (an old friend from Moab) now lives in Las Vegas and came for the competition. It was so sweet of her. We had a great time and she even stayed until the end!

I know this picture is blurry, but it is the only one I have of Rick and I with Andrew. I really need to take a point-and-shoot for situations like this. It is way too much to expect someone to be able to use a complicated camera!

We had such a wonderful time. It was fun and exciting to watch this band win this competition, they really deserved it with their hard work and efforts all year.