Wednesday:

Spirits were high as we were about to leave for the airport and make our way to California for the United Spirit Association Nationals. in Anaheim. The excitement was high but the nerves came early as a huge snowstorm hit the roads. It slowed us down a little, but we made it to the airport (even if the bus driver was probably going 50 miles the whole way there). Once we got to the airport we received the bad news that our flight had been canceled due to the snow. Shoot. After hours of our coach Zoë Hale working with the front desk and calling back and forth to our district, they came up with a plan to get us to our competition. We ended up staying the night in Salt Lake at a hotel so we could make our early flight the next day.

Thursday:

We woke up at about 2 AM in order to leave the hotel at 3 AM. Thankfully the flight was on time this dark and early morning as we started our journey to Nationals…again. We landed in Oakland but still had one more leg to go. As we boarded the plane we all took a sigh of relief because we would FINALLY make it to our competition after all that hassle. We were tight on time, but we could still make it to our first routine if all went according to plan. Suddenly the pilot came on the intercom and said that we would be delayed. This was due to heavy winds in LAX. With that delay we were much tighter to our competition time than comfortable. Thankfully after an hour we were able to take off, but when we landed we had to basically RUN off of the plane. We hopped on a bus and changed into our uniforms as we made our way to Anaheim. After many calls to the competition, sadly we couldn’t make our first routine, which was our “Cheer.” Although we were sad, we did make it to our second routine which was our “Bandchant.” We placed third and were thrilled! The competition fortunately let us showcase our “Cheer” routine but we couldn’t compete it because the awards had already passed. We did amazing though! After a long day, we were all excited to go to our hotel, The Candy Cane Inn (it is sooooo blissful) and sleep. Home sweet T-Bird Home.

Friday: 

We woke up and felt refreshed as it was a new day and we would compete our most important routine, show. The morning started great as we began with a great walk-through in the morning for practice. We had matching practice outfits so we were already feeling really good! We were so excited! Then the warm up room as we were getting ready to compete had probably the highest vibes I’ve ever felt backstage. WE. FELT. GOOD. We were hyping each other up and hugging and ready to put our all on the mat… They announced us and we rushed the mat. The start was GREAT, but when the music section started, something was off. We kept our energy up, but after the routine we were devastated. We had a few deductions that really hurt our score. We performed nothing like how we had practiced, even though we practiced very hard. It was an absolute fluke. Heartbroken we had to take it and hope for the best at awards. We hoped to advance to finals, but we knew it wasn’t likely. Thankfully we had bowling scheduled for the night so we had a way to cheer ourselves up with a fun night. While bowling we found out that we unfortunately didn’t make it to finals, but we kept our heads high. Unfortunately that same night we watched our basketball boys fight hard to advance to the next round of state, but even after a fight we couldn’t cheer them on all the way from Anaheim. We were so proud of them for working so hard. Although it was hard, thankfully I think this tough experience brought us together. We knew what being happy together felt like, but coming together and being sad about a cause, made us realize we needed each other even more.

Saturday:

Thankfully we had a great day lined up to keep us busy! The JV was set to compete at finals! Varsity watched them in the morning and they did outstandingly! They hit their routine and it felt incredible to watch them! Then a few hours later we got to watch their awards. JV has won the national title 2 years in a row and we were all hoping for a 3-pete! The anticipation rose and finally it started…they announced fifth place and it wasn’t Timpview, fourth..nope, third..nope, second…nope. AND SOOO THEY ANNOUNCED THAT TIMPVIEW JV WON NATIONALS. THREE-PETE! What a great way to end the competition at Nationals! After celebrating Jv’s win, we all headed to Disneyland and spent our last bit of the trip in the happiest place on earth! 

Sunday:

The trip came to a close as we checked out of the lovely Candy Cane Inn. We made it back to the SLC airport at around 12:00AM (so Monday.) Tired, but definitely not in lack of experience, we had just had the craziest nationals EVER. Although I wouldn’t have picked it, I wouldn’t change it for the world.