Finally I can tell someone!!

    Whew finally I can tell someone I was a judge for the Mrs Utah Pageant held this weekend in Sandy Utah!! It was so hard to keep it secret because they did not want anyone to know. That way there is no one that can get an unfair advantage of possibly influencing a judge. There were five judges and we were all sequestered until the opening ceremonies when we were brought out to our seats. We had interviews with each contestant the day before and got to know each one of the contestants. The pageant was split into three thirds, a third for the lifestyle fitness (swimsuit), a third for the formal gown and a third for the  final interview. Each one of these ladies would have represented Utah in great fashion and judging them was very difficult. Each contestant was married and all but one had children, some of them up to 8 children!! Welcome to the Mrs. Utah pageant!! I thought it would be pretty easy being a judge but there were a lot of variables that I had not considered before accepting to be a judge. They were judged not only on beauty, but presentation, articulation, knowledge of their platforms, and overall grace and elegance. I was blown away at the passion each one had in their causes in which they had made their platforms. There was finding women's inner beauty, domestic violence prevention, support for ADHD kids, mental illness support, addiction recovery, healing through service just to name a few. Each cause had a specific reason that each contestant validated very well. I felt it was a very close pageant up until the final interview. There Michele Weeks, Mrs. Draper, showed such passion, knowledge and a yearning to make a difference for kids suffering from ADHD that she won my vote as I was very moved by her presentation! All in all in was an amazing experience that I owe to Tiffany Berg for nominating me as a judge. For those that don't know Tiffany she was Mrs. Utah 2007 and is still one of the most beautiful women in Utah, (besides my wife of course!) :-) Being sequestered with four other judges we become kind of a team in our short time together and I felt I made four close friends! Special thanks goes to Natalie Murray as she was the Judges Chairman and she basically showed us the ropes of how to judge these beautiful women. Natalie is no stranger to the pageant as she has competed before and even won the Mrs. Utah United States  top swimsuit award. I was honored to be a judge and if you are ever given the opportunity please by all means do it because it will be a memory you will never forget!!! A special congratulations goes to Michele Weeks your new 2013 Mrs. Utah!!