28 April 2019

Abe's Chinese class choreographed a routine with fans as part of a school wide lip dub video.

 After years of neglect, Abe pulled out his acoustic guitar this week.  He wants to refresh his memory so he can play his electric guitar when he finishes it.  Whatever the motivation, we appreciate the live music!

Brandan, Abe, Helen and Gibson went on a campout with the scouts from our ward to Harris Beach on the Oregon coast.  Helen could go along since Brandan was one of the chaperones.  Here's a photo of the beautiful beach.

The leaders cooked an enormous breakfast Saturday morning.  From the left are Jake, Ben, Gibson (you can only see his t-shirt and shorts), Spencer, Camden and Malakai.

It was a clear weekend at the coast, windy, but pleasant.  They stayed until late afternoon on Saturday.  This is a photo of a giant game of tag.

This is Abe jumping over one of the many small creeks on the beach.  Helen is in the middle of the photo and Gibson is in-between Helen and Abe.

What did Becky do home alone? Schoolwork, housework, yard work, temple work-- a little bit of everything.  It was nice to have unscheduled time and feel very productive.

21 April 2019

Happy Easter!  We know Gibson has his eyes closed in the photo, but this one looks better than the ones of him scowling into the sun.  

For our Easter countdown this year we read scriptures about the events at the end of Jesus' life beginning with him riding into Jerusalem and ending with him ascending into heaven.  Inspired by a similar map in the New Era, we created this poster to help us visualize the events and remember what we read.

Helen's dream is to play the organ in sacrament meeting.  She plays the piano quite well and we felt she was ready to find an organ teacher.  It turns out there is currently one person teaching organ lessons in our valley, a woman named Peg, who is retired faculty at SOU and a nationally recognized organist.  So while there might only be one teacher, she is well qualified.  Peg asked Helen to get some organ shoes before her first lesson.  The shoes have soft soles so the organist can feel the pedals through the soles and a heel to allow the organist to play thirds and fourths on the pedals.

Helen had her first lesson on Saturday.  This is the practice pipe organ at the university.  The university has a bigger organ in their recital hall.  Helen loved learning about the organ and getting to play it.  Peg emphasized that while an organ looks like a piano, it's a different instrument.  Pianos are percussion instruments.  Organs are woodwind instruments.  Helen has to learn new keyboard techniques, as well as getting used to playing with both hands and both feet all at the same time.

Peg designed this room while a faculty member at SOU.  Besides providing a space for practicing, the room has space for about 50 people to attend recitals.  When Peg retired, the university didn't replace her.   Now the practice room is mainly used by the university to store percussion instruments.  Peg uses the pipe organ for teaching lessons and makes sure it is kept in tip top shape.  We don't have an organ at home, but Helen can practice the organ at the church in between lessons.  Peg is standing next to the organ in this photo.  

It was pouring rain Saturday morning and we though we might have to have our annual Easter egg hunt inside, but the sun came out and the afternoon was beautiful.  Abe hid the eggs for us.

We invited our neighbors to join in.  From the left are Gibson, Ike, Helen, Addi, Seth, Kate and Abe.  Abe is explaining the rules.  There really is only one rule: all the eggs were hidden in the backyard.

 Here's Gibson.

 Abe hid the eggs in more challenging locations than Brandan and Becky typically do.  Helen climbed the fence to get this egg out of a tree.

Here's another egg, in plain sight, but out of reach.

After all the kids found all of the eggs, we divided up the candy evenly and put the plastic eggs away for next year.  We will probably never outgrow Easter egg hunts-- such a simple and joyful activity!

14 April 2019

Abe is taking a class at school where everyone builds their own electric guitar.  Right now they're shaping the body.  This is photo of Abe with his guitar.

 Brandan took Abe to the DMV this week to get his driver's license.  This is a photo of Abe getting his photo taken for his license after passing the driving knowledge test.

And here's a photo of Abe pulling away from the curb for his first solo drive.  He drove himself to soccer practice Wednesday afternoon.

 Inspired by the cooking classes we took this winter, Brandan and Becky invited the priest quorum over for mutual Wednesday night.  We showed the boys how to make fajitas.  Abe and Jason made the filling with chicken, peppers and onions.

 Camden and Spencer made homemade flour tortillas.  You can't tell from the photo, but Camden's right arm is broken and in a cast that extends past his elbow.  The cast made cooking tricky, but he could flip tortillas with one hand.

 Ashton and Jake made guacamole.  We also made refried beans,  pico de gallo and peach/mango sorbet.

Abe is playing soccer on a rec league this spring.  His first game was Friday night.

 Helen and Clara ran the 10 mile Pear Blossom run on Saturday.  This is a photo of the girls before the race began.

Here they are at the end of the race.  Both girls beat their times from last year.  Helen finished in 1:34 and Clara finished in 1:31.

New York City

Last week, from Sunday to Wednesday, I was in New York City with my violin group to play our violins at Carnegie Hall. I had to get up at 4 am in order to leave at 6:30 am. Out the window of the plane, I could see the sun rising over the right wing.

My group had a layover at the Denver, Colorado airport, where our next flight was delayed by an hour and a half. We decided to pass their time by doing a flash mob (mentioned in last week's post) entertaining the people around us with a couple songs. This was my lunch at the airport, a Cobb salad and barbecue chips.

We arrived in New York and checked into the Park Central Hotel at around 8:30 pm. Then, we went to dinner at Planet Hollywood, a restaurant next to Times Square, and enjoyed a very late meal. We ended the day with a walk back to the hotel. My 3 roommates and I went to bed at around 11:45 pm. This was the view out the window in my room on the 6th floor in the morning.

My group and I woke up early Monday morning to walk to an Applebee's a few blocks away. At first, we were confused about why we were going to a restaurant that we could access when we were in Oregon, but it turned out to be the largest Applebee's in the world, 3 stories tall. The walls were plastered with musical theater posters.

After breakfast, we had a one hour masterclass rehearsal with one of the adjudicators from Carnegie. Once that was over, we had a lot of free time to kill, so our main chaperone took me and a small group of kids to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We stopped outside Carnegie Hall, which was thankfully just across the street from our hotel. The people in this picture are (left to right): Theodore, Elizabeth, Amy, me, Lovey, and Trinity.

 This photo was taken outside the Met museum, where a bunch of school groups were gathered on the steps.

The Met had a special exhibit on musical instruments, including Stradivarius violins. These beautiful instruments were made by Antonio Stradivari in the 17th century.

Also featured were beautiful, ornate pianos and harpsichords. This piano caught my eye because of the faun sculptures holding it up. Imaging having this in your house!

This is me in front of a very well known painting of George Washington crossing the Delaware River. The painting was massive and took up quite a large area of wall.

One thing that was quite peculiar to me was the lack of "baby" faces in several paintings. In this one, each person has the exact same facial proportions and expression, from the father to the baby.

 After enjoying our time at the Met, our group boarded a giant cruise boat for a 3-4 hour round trip around the Statue of Liberty. The cruise was accompanied by a buffet dinner and a DJed dance party. We were awarded a beautiful view of the Manhattan skyline. This is a panorama taken of the setting sun to the left and the already fallen night to the right.

There were a lot of other musical groups staying at the Park Central Hotel, and only one elevator was working, so we were forced to take the stairs up to the 6th floor way too many times. This painting was outside the exit from the stairway.

Tuesday was the day we performed at Carnegie. We warmed up and rehearsed in a large room offstage.

Carnegie Hall is huge and beautiful. There are intricate designs in every part of the stage. We performed in the afternoon, and this was taken by a parent during the performance.

I am in the center of this photo. I was standing in the center of the left side of the whole group.

The evening after the performance, the main chaperone Susan's in-laws took me and Susan's children to dinner. Another chaperone and her son came along with us. The restaurant is named Junior's, and it supposedly has the best cheesecake in all of New York. Sitting clockwise around the table are: me, Amy, Theodore, Karen, Susan, Grace, Ralph, and Lovey.

After dinner, I ordered this giant strawberry ice cream soda. It was delicious.

On the flight home, I ordered Sprite from one of the flight attendants and got this Asian brand of soda.

This photo was taken as I walked towards my family Wednesday afternoon at the airport. I had gotten up at 5:30 am and was very tired.

We played at the New York Invitational Music Festival. Eight other youth musical groups (like orchestras, bands, choirs, etc.) were also invited. Each group was ranked out of gold, silver, and bronze. We were awarded gold, and this plaque was given to Faina, my teacher and the director of Siskiyou Violins.

Earlier in this post, there was a photo of some kids outside Carnegie Hall. It's hard to tell because of the glare, but we were actually standing in front of this poster. After the festival was over, the organizer of the event said she didn't usually pick favorites, but our performance was her favorite. She gave us the poster, and Faina plans to hang it up in her studio.

I had an amazing trip. I am a little bit sad that I only got to stay for a short amount of time in New York City, so I want to visit again and see all the sights we didn't have time for.

7 April 2019

Abe turned 16 on Wednesday!  We love his quick wit and kind heart.

Abe is looking forward to getting his driver's license soon.  He put new windshield wipers on his car this week.

 Abe got a part time job as a soccer referee this spring and reffed his first game on Saturday.

Gibson played three soccer games on Saturday.  He was worn out by the end of the day.  Gibson is in the middle of the field in this photo.

Helen competed in a sonatina competition on Saturday.  Each candidate played a memorized sonatina for a judge.  Helen was happy and surprised to see Louvey and Amy at the competition, friends from Siskiyou Violins.  Helen played Sonatina in G major by Dussek.

On Saturday we listened to conference through ear buds at soccer games.  We started a puzzle Saturday morning, but no one was home much to work on it. On Sunday we enjoyed conference at home and appreciated the opportunity to watch all of the talks uninterrupted. 

Mostly we just listened.  Helen created beautiful notecards with her favorite quotes from conference. Abe, Helen and Gibson played conference bingo on Sunday afternoon.

Sofi sent us a photo of herself playing conference bingo with friends at her house in Salt Lake.  From the left are Sofi, Nelson, Sam and Jaqueline.

Brandan, Abe and Gib finished up the puzzle shortly after conference ended.  Now we all want to visit Italy.  Gibson's favorite part of conference was watching the tour of the Rome temple during the world report.  Another reason to visit Italy!  Helen's favorite part was taking notes.  Abe liked the talks by Elder Uchtdorf, Elder Stevenson, Elder Renlund and liked working on the puzzle.  Becky and Brandan were impressed with President Nelson's unmistakable call to repentance.  Brandan also liked that there were no new announcements, mainly because there were so many rumors before conference of what announcements would be made.