Road Trip to Nationals Day 3: We Have Arrived!

Today we made our drive from Indianapolis to Southbend, Indiana.  We made it!  For the next 3 days we get to have some fun here and do a little twirling too :)  Do you ever need a reminder of how small the world is? Well as we were coming into Southbend today, we pulled up to a red light only to see that the car next to us was Mrs. Amy, Mrs. Janet, Miss Cezann and Miss Caroline!  I mean what are the odds?  We were excited to meet up with them though and we all had a good pizza lunch downtown at Bruno's pizza.

After lunch we got checked in at our hotel and then we got Cohen checked in at the competition.  This is the 50th year of AYOP (America's Youth on Parade).   Because Cohen won the title of Miss Majorette of the Southeast, this qualified her to come and compete for the title of Miss Majorette of America in the beginner 0-6 age group.  Any twirler can come and compete in open events which Cohen will compete in as well, but only those state and regional title winners can compete for the title.  No matter what the results are this week, we are so proud of all Cohen has accomplished this year!  In only her second year of competition.  Of course we owe so much to her teacher, Mrs. Amy, for all the hard work she has put into teaching Cohen and of course for being such a good baton teacher!  She is learning from the best!

checking in at the monogram room...open event results will be posted here 

 Kate had fun posing like some of the football posters...this girl gives us so many laughs!

Cohen had some practice time this afternoon and while she was practicing, Miss Cezann and Miss Caroline had some fun decorating our hotel door.  I think Daddy got in on the decorating too.  These girls along with Mrs. Amy and Mrs. Janet have really made Cohen feel so special already!  We now have the cutest door in the entire hotel.  If anyone happens to see black balloons on the floor we do apologize!

The rest of our afternoon was spent at the hotel getting settled.  We now are at a place we can stay at for 3 whole days instead of packing up in the morning!  Woo hoo!  The girls are loving the fact that they can go play with Cezann and Caroline right across the hall.  Here is a picture of them playing monkey in the middle as the rest of us talk about dinner plans.  I mean we can't have anything interfere with meal time!

Kate informed me she was being a "girl boy" today...a girl in her pretty dress and a boy in her daddy's hat.

We were excited to find a McAlister's to eat at!  That place is becoming hard to find back near Lavonia so we like to go to one anytime we find one.  They even have sweet tea!  Now all my friends know I have to have my tea and believe it or not we have found tea on most of this trip.  McDs has made sure of that;)

We got a few shots of some of the campus on my phone driving back after dinner.  I can't wait to explore more tomorrow.  It is really a beautiful place!  Stay tuned for better pics!

Everyone has been so sweet to send me texts, messages, and posts wishing Cohen good luck.  I really appreciate every one of them and I have read them to her!  We are feeling the love for sure.  And no matter how she does we are so proud of her and are proud to be representing Georgia up here!  We got this precious picture from Savannah and Addison tonight showing Cohen the sign they made for her!  How sweet are they?!

I have one last request tonight!  You have been so sweet to pray for our safe travels and a fun trip but I have a few more prayer requests if you don't mind :)

#1.  My Mama will take her last chemo treatment tomorrow morning!  YAY! Praise the Lord!!  If you will please pray for her strength in this last treatment.  Her chemo has been rough to say the least and really zaps her energy.  Please pray that this last treatment won't be as draining on her body and that her energy will come back quick.  She is one tough cookie and her faith is strong!  I know she would be here with us tomorrow if she could but beating this cancer is the most important thing.  So please remember her tomorrow and in the coming days.
#2  Our church has a mission team in Alaska right now!  There are 32 people spreading God's love to this part of our country.    I am enjoying keeping up with their trip on their blog and if you want to follow along you can do so HERE.

So I now have to get some sleep!  We are up in about 5 hours!  Tomorrow's pics will be of all of us napping!