Miss Rodeo America Pageant Begins!

Hi everybody! This is Rita, Megan's mom, giving my version of the Miss Rodeo America activities.

What an exciting first day! Contestant check-in was at 11 a.m. in the Gator Lounge at The Orleans. The girls turned in their scrapbooks, and lined up for introductions.

For check-in the girls were required to wear Wrangler products - an unadorned Wrangler shirt and matching jeans, no vests or jackets. I think pretty much every color was represented - white, many yellows, shades of pink and purple, blue, orange, green, browns, and black. Megan wore a pretty lavender Wrangler shirt with matching jeans and boots, and looked very pretty! Her jewelry was a chunky lavender and turquoise necklace with a silver cross, and matching earrings. She also wore a wide lavender and turquoise antique bracelet. Each girl had their competition banner pinned on by Ashley Andrews, Miss Rodeo America 2007.

Orientation was held in the Showroom, which is an auditorium with stage at the front and comfy chairs for the audience. The rules for contestants (and spectators) were covered. The bad news is that we aren't allowed to take photos during the competition. The good news is that they have an oustanding professional photographer shooting pictures, and he already has the first days pictures up on his website!! Go to http://www.shooterenterprises.com and click on Online Images on the right hand side. Each event has its own link and you can page through all the pictures. Notice that there are multiple pages of pictures for each event - you won't want to miss anything! If you are looking for Megan in the pictures, it helps to remember that she is wearing lavender.

After orientation, the girls were assigned their roommates for the week. Megan is rooming with Nebraska. The parents all helped their daughters move in, and what a job!! We had traffic jams in the hallways as all the clothes racks and carts were wheeled in! Then I got a little preview of what the girls would be wearing for some of their fashion show production numbers, as they tried on their costumes. Parents had to be off the floor by 5 pm, so the girls could get ready for fashion show rehearsals.

New this year, and a wonderful addition, was the Parent's Social in the evening. Ashley and her parents were there to welcome everyone. Then the parents got to experience the limelight as we each got up and introduced ourselves and where we were from. We put a push-pin in a US map to locate our hometown, and then had our photo taken with Ashley as she presented us with a bag of sponsor gifts. Ashley thanked all of us parents on behalf of our daughters, and presented her parents with a gift for their love and support. It was so much fun visiting with some of the other moms (and a few dads). The consensus seemed to be that the moms are there all the time, but the dads arrive later in the week. As one lady said - "Somebody has to work and pay the bills!"