Marching Band

Marching band has been of our biggest adventures since Abbey started high school. It's a lot of fun. And it requires a huge time commitment. For the most part, I think we all feel the experience is sufficiently rewarding that it's worth the effort. I'm not sure that Quinn would agree yet, since he probably gains the least from it at the moment. But his time will come.

For the first couple of years Abbey played the mellophone -- the marching version of a french horn:

This year she decided she should be a drum major, so she tried out and got it. What Abbey wants, Abbey gets, I think.

So, back to that time commitment:
First, over the course of the summer Abbey managed to log about 125 hours volunteering at the Denver Zoo. She had to weave her zoo schedule around the marching band schedule:
June 25-29  Drum Major Camp
July 11-12  Band Leadership Training
July 14  One-Day Marching Band Camp
August 3-7  All-Day Band Camp
August 10-13  All-Day Band Camp
Once school started on the August 13th, it was 2 to 3 hours after school 4 days each week through then end of October.
September 26, October 3, 15, 17, 24, and 25  Marching Band Competitions
And there were a couple of football games in there, too. So that's why she wasn't up to for riding the Monarch Crest Trail this year. That girl needs to sort out her priorities!

The pictures below were posted on the CCHS Marching Band Facebook page. I've borrowed them. Some or all of them were taken by Joan Brennan; some may have have been taken by Sara Cheng.

Oh, and this year I helped out with the props. We built these two ramps; each composed of multiple segments, some of which folded, all of which rolled. For each performance we to run them out and assemble them on the field, and the at then of the show, fold them up and get 'em off the field.

This year, as usual, they made it all the way to the State Championships, where the took 8th place in their division.