Happy Birthday Belle!
(She's there in the purple...sorry I don't have a better one of the birthday girl!)
The anticipation...
...and if you look real hard you can see the hilarious reaction to the slide.
Shelley, I think the slide was a hit! Thanks for the fun!
No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't climb all the way back up the slide!
This was the first time I had taken Gracie down the slides and I LOVED her reaction
EVERY TIME!
These are just some cool shots walking around in the neighborhood...I wish I had a nicer camera (hint, hint!)
I LOVE this picture! Even as a newborn Gracie was full of personality.
I love this face. It's the typical newborn "I-have-so-much-to-tell-you-face"
Daddy was being funny by smashing her face it, but she thought it was great!
This was my view
Yes, we really were herded like cattle and in my opinion too close to each other. I now value and treasure my own personal space. Really, we ended up leaving the stadium with our wristbands and tickets around 11:00AM. This was only the first few of many hours of waiting. 
the coveted wristband
Ok, so we have our wristbands and we have all day Sunday to prepare for the audition. We get psyched up and go to bed at 7:30 PM on Sunday so we can get up at 11:00PM to go camp out at the stadium. We feel the plan is fool proof and soon discover we are totally off! We get to the stadium and the lights are on, strange. We go to a surrounding parking lot to get a game plan and notice we are one of very few cars already waiting but are informed that they are still registering contestants! Remember there were 2 full days to register and it's now Sunday after midnight (Monday). We are not allowed to enter the parking lot (or just park elsewhere and line up for that matter) until the lot opened at 3:30 or 4:00 AM or we would be disqualified. So Liza and I try to sleep in the car in a nearby parking lot, waking every 30 minutes or so to make sure they haven't opened the lot early. At 3:10 we notice cars are parking and a line is forming and we quickly join. We were so excited because we were easily in the first 500 people in line. We thought that after auditions started at 8:00 we might get out early and have a little fun afterwards. So we start the waiting...
Poor Eliza! (it's only 4:00AM)
Liza and I in our cuteness
We all enter the stadium and find our seats. One of the producers teaches us "California Dreamin'" and we ALL sing and dance to it, and wave at the camera. Then we sang "Walkin' on Sunshine" and did the same cheezy smiles and waves, hoping that the person in front of us would move the sign they were holding to the side so MAYBE we would be in the shot at all....ARGH! Then they explained the audition process and the judges came out and we get really excited that they day is almost over---NOT! It's 10:30 or so when auditions start. They started on one end of the stadium and pulled a section of contestants down onto the field where they would walk across the field in a group of 4, then lead to a table of two judges (13 tables were set up), and a group would line up and one at a time step forward to sing, the judges would briefly confer and then have the entire group step forward for the verdict. If you were told to go home you had to immediately leave the stadium but if you were lucky enough to get to the next round you were given a golden ticket and you "got to" run up a flight of stairs to get the info, get interviewed, etc. Ok it's 11:00AM and I'm thinking "ok, I'm sitting in the middle of the stadium, I'm sure I'll be done by 12 or so. The line is moving fairly fast, until half of the judges leave for lunch and the line almost didn't move until after the second half had returned from their lunch. It was wicked hot! and we were all dolled up and sweating profusely! We have the option of sitting and waiting in the sun:
or waiting in the hall where everyone thought they needed to practice very loudly for HOURS. I mean, come on! We are in an enclosed area and it's already loud with just a lot of voices but CONSTANT SINGING....AAAARRRGGGGHHHH:
A double-edged sword...
After trying to sleep, quietly practice, and many rounds of 20 questions we finally get to have our chance to audition. We haul all of our stuff down onto the field and we got in the same group of 4 so we could hear each other. We had 2 cute girls in our group who were very nice, at this time I was also treasuring other kind souls. I was first in the group to sing. I stepped forward and told them my name and joked with them a little bit, and then the man asked me for the chorus only of my song. I let it rip and gave it my all. Eliza was next and did a fantastic job! Now in the groups before us we watched the judges make VERY QUICK decisions and told everyone they were going to pass or IF they wanted to keep the contestant they would have them sing another song and most of the time they would go to the next round. Our judges looked at us and deliberated for quite a while, they were actually discussing and not just dismissing us. They did say they were going to pass for all of us. But I felt a great sense of accomplishment for 1. staying the entire 16 HOURS just for 20 seconds of singing 2. Singing well 3. making the judges deliberate. All in all it was a fun weekend, but I missed my family and am so tired!!! I'm sure I won't be answering my phone for the next few days just so I can get as many naps as possible.
(picture of Jana, Eliza, and me will be posted here shortly)
Special thanks to Jana for her graciousness and hospitality!
