The envelope please...

Mark, Hope and I just came from the Miss Hudson Pageant. (Hudson, WI, that is.) The 2008 Miss Hudson Queen is Emily Klanderman...OUR NIECE!!! YEAH!!! We are SO excited about this. Emily is an incredible young woman. A strong, strong, Christian. A wonderful spirit. A beautiful (inside and outside) girl. I was so proud of her when she decided to run for Miss Hudson because she has always been really shy. When she got into high school I wasn't sure how it would go for her because she was shy. But she's come out of her shell and amidst that has still retained her beauty, her spirit, her kindness and her innocence. So from now on when you're at a town's festival and you see the Hudson float, you'll see Emily as the Queen. We are just praising God tonight for this blessing. Just incredible!!!

Now...for those of you outside the area I'll try to explain a little bit about what this town festival thing is. I grew up in central Wisconsin and we NEVER had anything like this. It was new to me when I moved to River Falls. Each of the towns in this area has it's own "fest." It includes the crowning of royalty (usually some princesses and a queen...although there is one that also crowns a king), food, a carnival, a parade, etc. It happens throughout the course of a weekend. So this weekend is Hudson Booster Days. Hudson is the town next to River Falls (and it's the only thing, next to the St. Croix River, that separates us from Minnesota. Thank God for Hudson. LOL). That's where Mark's sister and her family live. Next weekend is River Falls Days (original name, huh? sheesh!!). Every weekend during the summer is a different festival. The City of St. Paul (MN) has the Winter Carnival. So now you have a better picture. Well, each town has its own float that the members of the royalty ride on...and each town has its float in every other town's parade. It's crazy. So, as the Hudson Queen, Emily will be riding that float ALOT (pretty much every weekend) for the rest of the summer. She'll also be representing the town of Hudson at other community activities. Next year at this time she'll get to crown the next Miss Hudson. She will also receive a scholarship next year. She is going to be a very busy girl this year (there goes our babysitter), but she is going to represent Hudson beautifully!! In her personal interview last week with the judges, one of the questions they asked her was what would be the hardest part about being chosen Miss Hudson. Emily's response: that she'd feel bad for the girls who didn't win. That's our Em. She's pretty amazing. Such a great heart for God and for God's people. I think tomorrow I'm going to make T-shirts for Mark, Hope and I to wear to the parades that we'll be going to this summer. They'll say something like "Miss Hudson is my niece." How fun would that be?? I think I'll even get to do a few of the parades with my sister in law which will be fun. Oh...the parents of the royalty are just as busy as the royalty themselves. So Mark and Cheryl will be incredibly busy this year as well.


I've got lots of new pictures of Hope to post, but for tonight I'm just going to post some pics of Em from tonight. I'll get pictures of Hope up sometime this weekend. Enjoy!!


Bethany (Emily's sister), Emily (Queen) and Courtney (Princess). I gave piano lessons to all three of these girls once upon a time.

Emily, Hope and proud Uncle Mark.

Em, beaming Aunt Mel and a mad Cousin Hope (when she saw Em's crown she promptly said, "I want a crown, too." lol Maybe we have a Miss River Falls in our future??)