This is not your Mother's Cheerleading

We headed down to Galveston yesterday so Anna's cheerleading group could participate in Jamfest, which is a cheer competition for clubs across America. Let me tell you, Jamfest is a well organized, money making machine. These guys are laughing all the way to the bank!

The competition was held at Moody Gardens which did not sustain much damage during Hurricane Ike. The rest of Galveston looks pretty beat up however. There is damage to structures, debris littered here and there, and utility trucks were about 1/3 of the vehicles on the road. They still have a long road to recovery, that's for certain. But they are really trying hard to get people to come down and visit and keep their economy going. We were happy to do our little part by attending this competition.

Okay, so on to Jamfest! Anna's team did not compete, but just performed during the exhibition part of the program. Here she is in her cheer uniform:

And here she is with part of her team and Coach Allie, getting some stage make-up applied:

Anna and three of her teammates below. I really liked that their uniforms were for the most part modest. There were other teams their age that were wearing midriff baring tops and enough dark eye make-up to grace the cover of Vogue magazine. I very much respected that Anna's gym chose modest uniforms and light make-up to perform in.

We had to wait until the end of the competition for Anna's group to perform. Here is how Jack spent his time:

And here are Claire and Meghan munching on nachos while waiting. Those two goofballs had a great time together. They were very silly and enjoyed hanging out while waiting for Anna to perform.

Here is Claire with "Jammy", the Jamfest mascot:

Here is Anna's group performing. Anna is on the far right and that is their coach on the floor in front of the team.

Anna on the far left being lifted for a stunt:

This is the awards ceremony and that ugly thing in the middle is the REAL LIFE JAMMY! Frenzy ensues!!!

Here is Anna with the medal given to her for performing and with some flowers Jack thoughtfully brought for her. She did really well and we were so proud of her. It was a rough week because she had been so sick and missed the entire last week of practice before Jamfest. She was nervous and really unsure about even attending with her team. But in the end, she decided to go for it and she did awesome!! So, GREAT JOB Annie B!!! We loved watching you do your thang!!

And these last photos I shot of the girls when we stopped for lunch before heading home. We had lunch at a deli right on the seawall and the water was absolutely beautiful. So hard to believe that less than 2 months ago, Ike ravaged this area. But when you stare out at the Gulf in its beauty, you know that Galveston will rebuild and things will get back to normal eventually.