This One Time...

Friday night was the night for the marching band preview performance at band camp!

I talked to Andrew only one time the entire week he was away. He called me one night before their dance that night to check in.  That was it.  He received mail from a couple great family friends, his Papa, and Aunt Pam the Great throughout the week! It meant a lot to him and it means a lot to me.

Friday night, the girls and I were heading up to see his show! We stopped to pick up our friend Tracy's oldest to come with us too. It was a surprise for Andrew and something new for Dominic to be able experience. George had to work this year, so he wasn't able to go.  We were all disappointed at that. Andrew knew ahead of time, but was still disappointed.

When we arrived, the band was warming up off somewhere in the woods.  We could hear them, but not see them.   I got the kids situated on the hill to watch the performance. Violet hung out in the stroller for a little bit and Lily had a little picnic of snacks in the grass.

Our view of the performance field.

From the distance, we hear a long whistle which immediately quiets the crowd and the familiar, "We Are North Hills!" in unison from 197 members of the marching band and we know it's time for them to begin marching out to the drum cadence.    There are really no words to describe watching and hearing that all happen, but the goosebumps that cover my body and tears that fill my eyes remind me what a special journey my son is a part of and how fortunate I was to be part of a wonderful marching band community in both high school and college.  Those moments emerging from the woods are pretty incredible!

Being that this is only our second year involved, I'm guessing they play a "pop" show, a march show annually along with their pre-game performance and another show that, this year, is The Lion King. They played a medley of the Armed Forces songs and invited members of each branch to stand as their song was being played.  It was a tribute that again brought me to tears.  My heart swells with patriotic pride when our military is acknowledged and I'm so glad these kids are also able to witness and honor these servicemen and women during their performance.

Andrew is 3rd in from the right in this picture. 

He's in the 2nd row, 3rd band kid from right. {behind the clarinet kid}

The girls enjoyed themselves as well.

This is the longest performance of the year marching wise since they're playing all of their shows. They take water breaks between each show, but after a week of 9 hour marching/rehearsal days to say the kids are tired by the end is a huge understatement!  When the performance was finished, we waited for Andrew to come take a few pictures with us before we headed off to his cabin to get his luggage and then head home. The band kids had a dance and some more fun to have before leaving band camp behind in the morning. 

We're looking forward to an exciting season of football game performances, band festivals, parades, and a trip to New York City!  

I'm so glad that Andrew is loving marching band and hopefully next year he'll remember to call his mom more than once during the week while he's gone. :)

The band director with Andrew and some of the other freshman boys~Class of 2018.