Colton ~ Homecoming + (Senior Year Socials)

August of 2023, Colton started his senior year at West Jordan. Part of high school, is the social, school dances and such. First up, Homecoming. Colton originally hadn't planned on hitting homecoming, but then he got nominated for the court (Homecoming King) so ... he went. 

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/jfOK1yfrQsM

As part of the Homecoming festivities, he had to prepare a little presentation at a pep rally, there was voting, and the announcement at the homecoming game. I wasn't able to make it (week of my extended EEG) but Coach Wouden was his escort, and Coach's wife got video to share with me. You can see it HERE. 

Pictures and the dance ... fun group of guys and gals. 

Homecoming was September 17, 2023.

Colton got asked to two of the girl's choice dances during his senior season.

November 2023 was Sadies /50s theme.

I had to tease Colton a bit for buying a leather jacket to wear once for pictures.

WE paid for it (he used the family credit card).

Even with girls choice grouping, Colton was with a bunch of his buddies.

Then in February 2024, it was Sweethearts.

Colton decided to forgo Prom - He had a track meet all that day anyway!

Homecoming Colton - Junior Year

Colton didn't hit Homecoming his sophomore year, but as junior year started up, he and his basketball buddies were definitely doing the dance. The "ask" is always a bit stressful, coming up with a creative way to pop the question. Once he came up with an idea, he turned to Kate to help with the lettering (Kate has helped the boys with almost all of their dance ask/answers!)

So "Simply Lemonade" was was the theme Colton went with for the ask. The asking is different in this day and age ... seems like the girls know ahead of time (Colton's date was inside waiting and then came out for a picture). The answer was drink themed too ... Kool-Aid.  We still have a little Beta fish from Colton's prom answer back in April. 

Saturday, September 3, 2022 was the day of the dance.

Colton asked if he might take the Tesla, to make the date super cool. Grayson said okay.  Colton said he had a lot of fun, and even cooperated when I asked him to do a little write-up of the date:

I started off the homecoming day by picking up Cashlee in the Tesla and we made our way down to Blackridge Reservoir in Herriman. We met up with everyone else there, and started setting up some of the games we had. We had a couple of paddleboards, a large mat for the water, a crossnet, then the stuff that I brought (KanJam and a football). We spent a fun couple of hours there, took a group picture, then all headed back to our houses for a few hours until it was time to take pictures. During that time, I hurried and picked up my corsage. A little before 4:00, I headed to Cashlee’s house to pick her up for pictures. After putting on our corsage and boutonnière, we met up with everyone else at the picture sight at this little walkway across from Gardner Village. There we took our group pictures in some 90 degree heat.

The group consisted of me and Cashlee, Ethan and Emmalee, Carter and Christie, Steven and Abby, Daniel and Ashlyn, Kyle and Jovi, Zac and Abby, Tyler and Lexi, Drew and Avery, and finally Brody and Bryn. Pictures didn’t take too long and after about an hour, we all went to pick up some food to take back to Kyle’s house. Quite a few of us went to Costa Vida for food, and then arrived at Kyle’s to eat together. We had the Utes football game on the tv at the house. Dinner was a lot of fun and we just messed around a lot at the house with everyone. The dance started at 7:00, but no one wanted to get there nearly that early. At around 8:15, we finally left for the dance. We spent nearly two hours there and the whole thing is pretty much just a mosh pit so you get tired really quickly. It is still a lot of fun though, I entered the dance circle a couple of times, one time being really cool where Carter went into the middle of the circle and then I came in and jumped over him as the beat dropped. At 10:00, the dance ended and I was pretty glad to get out of there. Cashlee and I went and got some slurpees at the Maverick on 13th, then we all headed back to Kyle’s house to end the night. Everyone was pretty exhausted from the dance, so what we did was put on Creed II in the main basement and put on Top Gun: Maverick in a separate little movie theater room that Kyle has right next to the basement. Most of us stayed in the basement and watched Creed. I was crazy tired and was dozing off for a while then I definitely fell asleep for almost an hour. Cashlee woke me up around 12:15 and a lot of us left then because curfew for a lot of the girls was 12:30. So I took Cashlee home then got back to my house for the night.

Prom Pictures - Colton Sophomore Year

Saturday, April 2 was PROM for West Jordan High School. Colton went with his buddies Ethan, Carter, Stephan, Gage and Jair (all on the basketball team). Colton was on driving duty which stressed Mom out, but he managed it all fine and said the dance was "amazing" (that is a direct quote).

First off was the ASK and the ANSWER ...

Colton had Kate help with the lettering again. In today's social media age, the ASK and ANSWER gets posted to the various platforms, so Abby had posted "Yea, Prom with Colton!" the night he asked, but the ofFISHal answer didn't come until a few days before. And yes, we now have a little beta fishy. His name is Gerald.

There was some prom prep and planning. Colton and a friend went out for some suit shopping, and then there was deciding on the day date and dinner. I had to remind Colton about the corsage. 

Present-Day Prom is an ALL day thing! 

They started around 8:00 am for breakfast, 

got some pictures, and then went paintballing.

Then it was back home to get ready, and off to the Capital for a photoshoot. 

Lots of fun pictures. Got lots of great ones with the guy group!

Some silly, some serious ... some smiling!

LOVED this one!

 

Dinner was downtown at Brios, Italian. Colton wasn't too impressed ... it was pricey and he might have had a touch of food poisoning, or his meal just didn't agree with him. He was having some serious stomach cramps. He tossed his take home box.

... and one more with the basketball team!

Colton is hard to see ... shortest in the back? 

Seniors in the front! 

Prom memories!

School Dance Daze ... Colton Starts

Colton is now a sophomore - which means school dances! He got asked to Sadie Hawkins in October. It was pretty late at night when giggling girls dropped off the poster and treats. It took a while for Colton to get around to answering (she knew it was a yes, but officially I had to get after him to get it done). He had help from his SILs ... K8 wrote out the words on the poster, and Sol took him to drop it off. There were additional goodies with both the ask and the answer.

Then it was Colton's turn to initiate the date ... he and his buddies asked to Winter Waltz, even though it was complicated by a basketball tournament that same day. AND it was COLD ... they were freezing for their photoshoot. Pajama theme ...

It's just the beginning I'm sure. I feel bad that I never got around to blogging all of Keaton's high school dances. He had quite, with lots of fun photos. Maybe I'll still get around to doing that. I did get a few of Landon and Callahan's prom pictures on the blog.

Cal and Kate - Homecoming 2016

Homecoming 2016 ... Callahan didn't go to Homecoming his sophomore year. Last year, he had a girlfriend (so it was an obvious ask). This year, he really wanted to go. The gang had plans, but he just wasn't sure who to ask. He told me there was "one girl" that he talked to sometimes ...

The guys set up an elaborate ask ... music videos. They spent SO MUCH time and effort on this. I'll admit, when Callahan would say he was leaving to go work on the video some more I'd get a little frustrated. Just do something quick and simple! I must say though ... when I saw this finished product? It's a treasure! I loved it ... I hope the girls did too.

It is a little long - Callahan's "solo" is at the 3:50ish mark, but he's in most of the other videos too (just not the lead singer lip sync). I'm never confident about links to other people's accounts, so I managed to download a copy of the video to have, just in case. Sure enough, after a bit, the original link was no longer available. But here's my copy (https://youtu.be/v8mLztVv8r0) So anyway ... she said yes.

 Friday night was the homecoming game ... 

Cal with the guys.

... and the girl.

They started Saturday (the day date) with paintball!

 Cal and the guys 

... and the girl

Then it was time to get all dressed up for the dance.

A fun photoshoot at a friend's house before heading to the high school ...

Silly Socks (they matched each other ... and nothing else!)

 Five guys (most of the senior basketball team!)

Cal's date Kate was named Homecoming Queen.

... and the final formal shot.

Callahan's senior Homecoming ... in the books. And on the blog!

Homecoming for Cal

Ah ... Homecoming at the high school. Callahan didn't go to the dance last year, so this was his first Homecoming dance. He asked his girlfriend Amanda, and went with a huge group of friends. 

Previously, for PROM, I had to help out with the ordering of the corsage, picking out a tux and such. Here, he had everything covered himself. 

For the "day date" portion (which wasn't a thing back in the olden days when I went to school dances) the guys rented big inflatable balls. You know, the kind you actually insert yourself into. There was rolling down hills, colliding into each other, and an attempt to play soccer. He said it was a lot of fun, and luckily there were no injuries requiring a trip to the emergency room.

Then it was home to shower and dress for dinner and the dance. Callahan's original idea was to hit Italian Village (a hangout from MY high school days) but apparently he wasn't the only one with that idea (it was packed with people from CHHS) so they went elsewhere. 

Then group pictures and the dance. Following the posts on twitter and instagram, it seems like everyone had a great time.  Here are more pictures ...

The day date activity.

Travis and Cal ... off to pick up the girls.

He got the Girl :)

 Group Shot

 Just the Guys

Boys will be Boys!

Happy Homecoming!

Callahan's Prom Pictures

Prom. Callahan and Amanda. Ah ... cute couple!

In the weeks before from, there was the asking, and the answering (we ended up with a life sized Justin Beiber cutout in the house). Then there is the fitting for the tux rental (happily there is a local place that is very reasonable), the ordering of the corsage, the making of plans. Normally, the kids to big long day dates, but Amanda had a dance thing in the morning, so this was pretty much just dinner and dancing, without a lot of the extras.  Here are some pictures from prom ...

The corsage and ticket.

 The "pickup" picture at the house.

Mom's of boys often miss out on this - I told him I wanted a picture!

Group shot before ...

Dinner at Olive Garden ...

We mentioned to Uncle Clay that is where they were going ...

Silly texts. I think it stressed Callahan out just a bit ;)

Not a limo, but they had a nice ride arranged. 

 Another group shot.

 BIG group shot!

Another prom down in the books ...

Prom Pictures

 

Time for Prom Pictures.  Herriman had their prom March 8, 2014. At the state capital, as it was back in the olden days when Gray and I went to high school. Landon asked, Sam answered. Landon got the tux and corsage (he took care of it all on his own, I remember needing to drive him to the fitting a couple years ago when he went as a sophomore). Daddy even let him borrow the Tundra for his dates. I say date(s) because now, they do a big "day" date prior to the dance. It's often earlier in the day, but Landon and his buddy did theirs the night before. They went go-karting and had mini-murphy pizzas. They played some games, Landon introduced The Great Dalmuti and Progressive Rummy.

The day of the date, they went out to dinner at Buca di Bepo. 

Then it was off to the capital for dancing and pictures.

After the dancing was done 

they stopped off at Maga's house for some skookie.  

Herriman Homecoming

Landon's Senior Homecoming dance was a few weeks ago ... There had been several school's homecoming dances in September, and I saw many mom's posting about them on Facebook or on their blogs.  Landon recently got his pictures back, so now I have something to post.

I wasn't too involved in Landon's date ... I guess it's a little different with a son, than with a daughter (although some mom's got much more involved than I did, they had pictures the day of the dance!). There's no dress shopping, or pictures at the pickup. Landon left ... and then was home later that night.  I'm glad he at least shared the dance picture with me.

Even the asking he did all on his own. He bought a white shirt and wrote a bunch of boy's names on it with washable marker. HIS name he wrote with permanent ink (he did test this process before going through with it). Landon wrote a little poem about how his would be date would need to wash the shirt to find out who was asking her to the dance. 

He said it was a fun night ... it's hard to believe he's a SENIOR!

Prom

Tux Rental ... $45

Corsage ... $23

Dance Ticket ... $34

Dinner ... $45

Pictures ... $17

Ice Cream ...$11

Prom ... Priceless

(Landon said it was a blast and it was worth it!)

This was the first dance that Landon has attended.   We went to "A Tip Top Tux" the week before to pick out his duds ... if you live in West Jordan and anywhere near it, I would definitely recommend it. Close, easy and inexpensive. Landon went online to look for a corsage and found the one he liked at FlowerPatch. The silver wristband ended up matching Maddie's dress perfectly. I drove Landon out to pick up his date (and after both she and her mom tried to pin on the boutonniere they brought it to me ... I got it on in one try *Ü*) They had already taken a number of pictures inside, but I asked them for just one, and it turned out nice. I dropped the cute couple off at another house (his best friend Sam, her date's parents were the chauffeurs for the evening). They went to dinner at the Gateway, then onto The Capital for the dance. Maga was working late and did try to see Landon, but they didn't connect (dang it, that would have been fun!). Landon said the dance was great. They went out for ice cream after and got home just after midnight ... I had fallen asleep, but had awakened and was waiting up :)