Miss Idaho....

This weekend I spent a lot of time at the . . . Miss Idaho Pageant! :)

A friend of mine is on the board of directors, and I ended up helping out backstage with the "Little Sisters" (mentor program) that do a dance number during the pageant, both Friday and Saturday night. It was great because we got them all ready before the show started, and we got to sit in the audience and watch almost everything. This was the first pageant I had ever been to. It was a fun experience--and really not exactly my cup of tea but it's really entertaining! I do really admire the girls who can do it, even though it has such a "prissy" reputation, it really is a lot of hard work. I was at several of the rehearsals throughout the week and they have to do a lot of preparation together and also separately. So it was fun to see it in the rehearsal process and also the finished product. I really learned a lot about the pageant world, because really, I have never even really thought about and definitely never had any involvement with it before.

So, after two nights full of production numbers, swim suit, evening wear, interviews, and talent competitions, the winner was . . . Elise Davis, Miss Idaho Falls! I had to cheer loud for her because it's my home town, even though I really have never heard of her. She was an amazing singer, and also, of course, very beautiful. I actually am pretty sure that, in the picture above, that's her on the far left.

One other thing I learned from this is--the judges do not have an easy job! I watched the whole thing, and saw (almost) every performance, walk, and interview, and really, of course a few were kind of bad, but overall it was really like 15 beautiful, talented, smart girls that they had to choose just ONE out of. Not that I'm like, an experienced judge for this kind of thing, but from my perspective, there were like 8 of them that all could have won just as easily. I felt a little bad for the ones who didn't place--just because it really is so much work and well, that's got to be disappointing. But I also figured, hey, even if they come away with no prize, they are still drop-dead gorgeous, talented, and ambitious, so they've still got it going pretty good!