Tennessee State Pageant!!!

We FINALLY made it to TN after a VERY long day in the airport and a delay in ATL. I believe we arrived at Mrs Joys house around 2am. No time for sleeping though! I only brought about 10 days worth of clothes - so I had to do a little laundry before I could get to bed... finally hit the pillow around 3am! Boy was that an amazing feeling!

Fortunately for us - the next days events didn't start until 10am. So we got up around 8, got dressed and headed for the hotel. Party wear and Casual Wear were planned for the morning. Kennedy sang My New Philosophy. There are still a couple of spots where her timing is a little off - but it was nice to get another chance to perform it. Kennedy was very excited to see Infiniti and Leah again. She got to know them last year at Internationals and was very excited to see them again.

After the competition we went to the Flying Horse for lunch with Mrs Joy and Mrs Ethel before the girls had to be at the theater for rehearsal. It was nice to have a few hours to just kinda chill out. =) After rehearsal and another little break, we got ready for the Western Party and Baby Playtime. The western party was a lot of fun and Mr Stacy outdid himself with the decorations! AMAZING! The girls danced and danced and we had a nice BBQ dinner. Then I had to make a run to walmart because Kennedy has been going through nylons like crazy! I think she has put a run in every pair... Then back home for some chatting with Jennifer, Donna and Mrs Joy while the girls enjoyed some time in the hot tub.

The next morning was the baby pageant. I think the lack of sleep, humidity and airconditioning did a number on Kennedy's voice. She was a little hoarse so we tried to switch to a song she could sing a little easier. It didn't really work out because again we didn't have any way to practice ahead of time and she kinda forgot the words half way through. =( Poor baby... she waited until she could pick it up and she finished the song - but she was so sad. =( I felt bad for switching songs on her at the last minute... but Infiniti and MacKenzie were so sweet and encouraging.

After crowning the babies we only had about 1 hour before the big girl grand finals started. So we grabbed a quick bite and headed over to the theater. Kennedy sang Tomorrow - and her voice seemed to be pretty good by then. =) She was so excited when Leah made top 5. Kennedy got really attached to Leah and Madison at Internationals last year because their room was right across the hall from our room - so she saw them ALL the time. You can imagine how excited she was when both Leah and Madison won their state titles! Yeah! The TN queens also included Savannah F, Savannah R, Sunni and Summer - what a beautiful set of TN queens! We can't wait to see you all at Internationals! Thank you to the 2008 TN queens for being so sweet to all the International Queens we had an amazing time with you!

After Grand Finals we went to the awards banquet and then off to the Country Tonite show to watch Janelle (2008 Intl teen) in her show. It was a wonderful show! Thank you Janelle for having us!

We finally went to bed around 1am and didn't wake up until 11am! It sure was nice to get 10 hours of sleep! WOW! then off to the airport to try and catch another flight... boy! this standby thing is a challenge! All the flights out of TYS were full so our only hope was to drive to ATL and try and catch a flight out of there... so that is what we did. We got to ATL just minutes late for the 7pm flight! BUMMER! Now we are waiting for the 9pm flight.... I hope we make it! Otherwise it is another night in the airport... maybe this time I will splurge and get a hotel room. =)

Next stop... NV state!