Final Marching Band Competition

Yesterday was Mackenzie's last marching band competition for this year. The band marched in the Veterans Day Parade and then they competed in the marching band competition in Auburn, Washington (about an hour south from us). There were 25 bands from all over Washington and one from Oregon representing A, AA, AAA and Open divisions. Mackenzie's band, which has 134 members in their band and color guard, competes in the Open division. At the end of the evening when the awards were handed out Cascade Sound (Mackenzie's band) won the following awards:

Best Music
Best Marching
Best General Effect
Best Percussion
First Place Parade
First Place Marching Band - Open Class
Sweepstakes Winner (overall highest combined Parade and Marching Band score)
Here we are celebrating with Mackenzie after her performance and awards ceremony.
Part of the mellophone section celebrating!

Brooklyn with one of her friends. Both of these girls are looking forward to High School next year and possibly doing marching band.

It's been a fun marching band year and we are sad to see it come to an end. Almost every weekend since the middle of August has been filled with competitions and band trips. Marching through these complex moves while playing a musical instrument is way beyond what Steve or I can even imagine doing! We are impressed with the hard work that Mackenzie and her band put in to doing all these moves - including some cool spirals. You need to take 10 minutes and check out her show. The show is called "Defying Gravity" and the moves are meant to symbolize the struggle with the gravity of a Black Hole as the band moves in difficult moves away from and then back towards the center of the gravitational pull - some pretty cool moves. Here's the link to a video that was posted on YouTube from one of their competitions. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6doc5rX65g&feature=related

Great job Cascade Sound and congrats Mackenzie for an awesome marching band season. It's truly been fun watching you perform.