IT WASN'T OUR BEST SHOWING

One of these things don't belong....can you detect it?

Los Angeles

Washington DC

NYC

Louisville

Those are the 4 cities that we've been to for Champions League in the last 4 years. The obvious stand out that doesn't belong is this years city.....Louisville. What makes Louisville so cool you ask? NOTHING. We didn't like this city at all. And to top it all off, Black Ops would like a do-over for all 3 days. 

We had 2 highlights. One was Friday night when we ended up in first place for the Cheer Alliance competition. This is a competition that you have to be invited to. And if you don't do well, you get kicked out for the next year and have to earn a spot again to get back in the Alliance. The floor was ABSOLUTELY AWFUL! We had a couple of stunt mishaps and then started having tumbling busts which is very unusual for our team. In the running tumbling we had a girl fall and was pulling herself off the mat so they stopped the music. We ended up coming back on and redoing the routine but still struggling. It turns out the winner (US) was just the least worst. We beat Cali Black Ops though which is a tough competition for us. 

They do a "prom" event the night before which is fun to see them all dressed up.

We explored the city a little but there wasn't much to explore

We were excited to maybe get to see snow and so we felt cheated when it legit snowed in Willis and we only saw a few snow flurries in Louisville. This was the snow in Willis. They literally had snowball fights. And there was snow on the roof....it stuck

The next 2 days we had another competition and did equally bad. And so did the other teams. The scoring for this comp left us in 3rd (out of 4th). 

The other highlight of the trip was the zip lining we did through the caverns. It was cool because it was all underground in a natural cavern. We did that the morning on the day we left. It was fun!

FOOTBALL BANQUET

Calli was excited to be able to go to the football banquet with Ty. She was supposed to have practice but since they won their bid on Sunday, the coaches gave them Monday practice off.

Isaiah won the highest award given. I was proud of him. He was proud to receive it.

As a side note, I thought I'd share the story of Ty and Calli. He asked me on November 8 if he could ask her to be his girlfriend.  I told him as long as he wasn't asking for her hand in marriage that I would approve. I also asked 3 things of him.  1. That he would treat her with the utmost respect 2. That they would continue to go out in groups together and not lose their friendships and 3. That they would not date when they went to college.  I had already had a talk with him at CFA about a month prior laying out my expectations if they were to date and he was very receptacle. I thought it was sweet that he asked to date her.

AWARDED A BID ALREADY?!?

I thought getting a bid in January last year was early and awesome and freeing....this year we landed the bid in December....how about that?!?! It was a great weekend with 2 zero deduction performances. Black Ops killed it. And what made it even sweeter was that we beat Spirit of Texas Royalty.

The competition stated that they were awarding one all girls bid and one coed bit prior to the competition. At awards they announced they added a 3rd bid. So black ops won the coed and Generals won the all girls. Guess who won the third (new) bid? Royalty. Not sure why they won that but it made our Blops a little aggravated. We call it purple points.....the judges love them some Spirit teams (they are purple and white so when they beat us and it was undeserved, we say they got purple points).

IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS

I think this is the first year in a LONG time that I had anyone help with Christmas decorations. My girl wanted to help decorate the tree which made this mama happy! Her last Christmas at home....better late than never I guess.

TURKEY DAY

Thanksgiving everywhere is all about reuniting with family and giving thanks for all the many blessings. And we have a lot to be thankful for. We always start off the day with our family photos so I can use them for Christmas cards. Everyone brings food and we either eat at my sisters or my house. This year it was Christina's turn. We celebrate with Scott's side of the family and Wes' parents. My aunt and uncle and cousin Mark (and his family) come too. There are kids and dogs everywhere but always a fun day.