Here are some photos from last night’s Spelling Bee finals, taken by ace photographer Santos DeBarros (and others in our family). We’ll post our wrap-up thoughts from our week in D.C. later today or tonight.
Kavya Shivishankar spells Laodicean to win the 2009 Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Paul Loeffler, Shawn Johnson and Tom Bergeron during the broadcast.
Host Tom Bergeron gladly signed autographs and posed for photos all night. Here, with Santos.
... and here with Nino (who entertained the lobby crowd on piano several times).
Sidharth Chand, last year's runner-up, reacts to missing his word.
Tim Ruiter, on his way to finishing second. He's a Virginia homeschooler like us.
Kavya Shivishankar hoists her trophy. The gentleman is from Scripps.
Jill Biden spoke to spellers and families before the finals began.
June 1, 2009 at 9:20 am
Congrats! Marybeth and Maggie watched most of Saturday. Nino seemed to get the camera’s attention quite a bit I am told. I must admit, I had hoped to be on ESPN myself and now your whole family gets on. What’s the deal??? I guess I should have pursued spelling rather than sports. It was exciting for us all to know you were getting such a great experience Santos. May your life be filled with many more.