Hope of America

Last Wednesday we went to our last Hope of America. There are over 6,000 5th grade students from over 70 different schools. We got to watch the kids celebrate America’s freedom through song, choreography, and Sign Language.

This year Andrew got to be blue. He is in the top left near one of the "stars". 

As wonderful as all this sounds this is one of those grade school events that I will not miss LOL! Andrew was excited to perform so we were excited to support him but the Hope of America is a slightly painful experience.

We got out of the house a little later than I would have liked. The traffic getting to BYU was insane. It took us almost as long to get there as would if we were going to a football game. We had to be there at 6:15 but the actual show didn't start until 7:30. That's a long wait! I had to eat a cougar dog (barf) since there wasn't any time to eat before making the 45 minute drive. Paul was sick so that wasn't fun either. Since we were slightly late we didn't get good seats. We were stuck on one of the sides. The back of my seat was repeatedly kicked by the young cherubs behind me. Growl. Once it got started I enjoyed myself, for the most part. However I learned from Emma who did this a few years ago that the kids are singing along to a pre-recorded chorus. We don't even really hear our own kids sing!

One perk of Hope of America is you get to see the dancing granny's. They are all 50-94 years old and have over 1,000 grandkids between them. The lady in the front, you know, doing the splits, she's 94. Yipes! Emma was impressed that she could get up off the floor after doing them LOL! 

The best song of the night is the last one where they all have flashlights. It was really pretty. I had Emma record it on my phone but she talked through the whole entire thing! It's basically useless. 

After the performance you have to make your way through the crowd of THOUSANDS to find your child. We were on the opposite side of the Marriott center so it took us forever. Luckily we found him. 

This young man is the big brother of a set of triplets that Andrew is friends with. Andrew wanted a picture with him and wanted to thank him for his service. I was proud of him and glad he had such a great time taking part in Hope of America. After high-fiving a few parents about never having to go through this again we made our way home.