2009 Miss Utah Pageant

First things first, I found the DVD with my pageant clips on it. I had to upload the crowning to YouTube (1st for me), so here it is for all of you who have waited these 4 days to see it:


Yesterday was fun. It started with a breakfast for the contestants, their parents, and the former queens. There were about 12 people formers there. I think. Here's a picture with most of us who were there:














My favorite part was hearing Kayla and her parents speak. It brought back so many memories. She's from a small town too (Manti), so it her stories seemed so like my own. I'm sure we and our parents could be best friends. Renita, the director, spoke shortly but said something I liked. She said something like this, "We are not looking for a Miss Utah who fits the mold of what the Miss America Organization [aka Hollywood/the world] thinks Miss America should be. We're looking for someone who represents Utah and is true to herself. And if Miss America picks her, then good for them." Miss America is having an identity crisis lately (see my post about swimsuit legs), and a good Miss Utah would do them well.

I got to go up on stage with a number of the past Miss Utahs. Of course our camera was on a weird mode, so Taylor didn't get any great shots, but here's what we have:


















Notice how I'm wearing the gown I gave my crown up in. I figured that the fact that it fits outweighed the fact that it was 8 years old.

They gave me a rose, and Claire immediately stole it. She says her favorite part of the night was seeing me up on stage. Maybe because I got a cool light-up rose; maybe because I gave her thumbs up.

The best part of pageants is always catching up with old friends. Kelly and I each have a bad eye and noticed that while we were talking to Francine she was staring at our bad eyes (his right eye is bad too). So we took a step back and stared at her from our weird eye side. I don't know that she noticed, but I was in good company. It made me feel better about a day I was pretty nervous about because of my eye.

I was thrilled to catch of with Brittany Wiscombe. I hadn't seen her since I was pregnant with Claire. Miss Utah gets a CAR this year. Lucky, Lucky girl. Here Brittany and I are pretending it is ours.