Jackie at Miss Colorado USA Pageant

Here are some photos of Jackie in her evening gown taken on Saturday evening, October 27th at the Miss Colorado USA pageant in Loveland, Colorado. She looked absolutely stunning!

The pageant weekend was exciting, emotional, educational... and very draining! Jackie and Jim traveled to Loveland Friday evening and got Jackie registered for the pageant. Jim's sister Marsha and her husband Gary live in Loveland so Jim and Jackie stayed at Marsha's house Friday night. Orientation took place starting at 9:00 AM on Saturday - family and friends were encouraged to attend this session of the pageant. There were over 500 applications for the Miss Colorado USA pageant and 49 ladies were selected to participate this year. Congratulations to these ladies for making the cut to the top ten percent of applicants! The orientation session was followed by the individual Interview portion of the pageant where each judge had just two minutes to spend interviewing each contestant. The rest of the day Saturday was spent in rehearsal for the public portion of the event Saturday night from 8 to 10 PM - Pageant Preliminaries - where contestants were judged in swimsuit and evening gown competition. Contestants were allowed time after the event Saturday night to spend time with family and friends in the lobby of the auditorium. Jackie had to wait at the auditorium over 1-1/2 hours that night for the bus to take her to her hotel. They didn't have enough buses or room on the buses for all of the contestants (poor planning!!!) Then she got a dismal 2 hours sleep before waking up Sunday at 4 AM to start getting ready for that day's events - rehearsals all day long, followed by the Pageant Finals that started at 4 PM Sunday. She got a total of 5 hours sleep that weekend...boy was she beat Sunday night! I was able to make it to the Pageant Finals Sunday evening, thank goodness! I stayed home to feed the animals and take care of the ranch (I figured Jim should spend time with Marsha over the weekend!) I was so disappointed when they didn't announce Jackie's name for the 15 Semi-Finalists but it certainly made the rest of the pageant easier to breathe! Jackie realized early on in the competition that this was a dog-eat-dog world that she really didn't want to be a part of. Jackie is such a positive, happy person with such a great sense of humor - this was all waaaay toooo much trauma and drama! The winner of the pageant competed SIX TIMES IN A ROW (in this very same pageant) before winning!!! And now Future Productions owns her until the crowning of Miss Colorado 2009! Jackie, on the other hand, is now free to enjoy her senior year at high school and is looking forward to graduation next May, followed by a move to Florida to attend the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale where she will study Fashion Design.

Congratulations Jackie on a job well done!!! We're so proud of you!

Love Mom and Dad

Jackie - Nails, Pedicure, Haircut and Style!

Jackie got a new haircut and style, along with some awesome highlights! Thank you to the ever talented Lynne Tatro, our stylist, at Studio West Salon in Woodland Park. I have been going to Lynne since Jackie was a toddler!

Jackie also got a pedicure and manicure with french nails - they look beautiful.

Tomorrow we pick up the custom made earrings purchased from Charitable Treasures in Woodland Park. Many thanks to Sandy D. for her beautiful custom work on the earrings. We will post photos of the earrings and contact information for Sandy here on the blog page when they are available.

We're on countdown now - only 3 days and 12 hours until registration begins for the Miss Colorado pageant! Thank you to everyone for your words of support and encouragement!

Jackie wearing her new Tony Bowls Evening Gown!

Here's Jackie wearing her new Tony Bowls evening gown! It needs to be steamed to remove the wrinkles caused by shipping but it fits her perfectly. Only two more weeks until the Miss Colorado pageant - we're all getting really excited. What an opportunity!

Jackie's Miss Colorado Pageant Evening Gown

We finally found everything for Jackie's Miss Colorado Pageant wardrobe. Whew! For her introductory outfit, we found a stunning short black halter dress with a rhinestone bar accent at the bodice - and beautiful black high heel sandals with a very similar rhinestone bar accent on the strap. A turquoise swimsuit - specifically made for competition wear; Strappy silver high heeled sandals. An interview outfit - mix and match Jacket and Skirt suit pieces from Victoria's Secret - with awesome coordinating Steve Madden shoes. And, the crowning glory - her evening gown! A Tony Bowls silk charmeuse gown with Swarovski crystal accents - a stunning dress! Now we can relax and the Big Weekend will be here before we know it - October 27th and 28th in Loveland. I just had to include a picture of The Dress.

Jackie in Miss Colorado Pageant

Okay, I know this isn't really ranch, llama or fiber related BUT we are so excited that our daughter, Jaclyn, aka Jackie, has been chosen to be a contestant in the Miss Colorado/USA pageant in October! The pageant is being held in Loveland Colorado on October 27th and 28th.

A BIG Thank you to her sponsors:

Scott Homes, Ltd.

Earthworks Land Development

Split Rock Ranch

Stage Stop Llamas

Hawes Plumbing

Richard & Darlene Larson

Now we have to go shopping for "the perfect evening gown", the "perfect swimsuit" and the rest of her wardrobe. This is Jackie's first pageant so it will be a big learning experience for her. She wants to become an actress and/or model so this will be a great introduction into that world. She plans to attend the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale in Florida next year - fashion design, fashion merchandising and interior design - we told her she needs some "real world" skills to fall back on and she has an amazing talent for these areas and is a very talented artist.

We will post an updated blog as more details evolve.