church history museum

Before leaving Utah, we spent a morning in the Church History Museum's Children's Section. Our great friends the Milletts made the trek up from their house to play. I highly reccomend a half day at the museum, the kids had a great time.

Sarah looked very beautiful all dressed up as a Mexican dancer.

Clara, Sarah, and Diana.

Building a great building - very manly thinks Isaac.

Milletts, Borens, and Chases, oh my!

uncle david and aunt sherrie's

We started our Utah adventure at David and Sherrie's - grand fun!

Uncle Michael took everyone for scooter rides.

Uncle Stephen and Aunt Rosie came down for the festivities - Uncle Stephen is very manly.

The girls picked tons of lilacs to decorate a little fir tree top Nathan had stuck into the sand box.

Pleasant Grove has a really beautiful park with a very nice creek running through it - we had a lovely day there.




We finished the day with s'mores - tasty. Poor Diana is on marshmallow ban because of her braces, so she just had chocolate.

summer begins or, I found the pictures

We started (way back at the end of May) diving up to Salt Lake for a week of recording and performances. It was tons of fun, exhausting, and a really great experience. Here you have the LOVELY front row second altos in Abravanel Hall where we recorded for 4 days (it was supposed to be 3 but we lost a full day of recording data - ouch - and had to come back to re-do; we were bushed and I can only imagine how the orchestra felt, they worked at least twice as long as the singers every day).

More first row loveliness. FYI Mom, the red head is the girl who married Dave Spear - hooray!

On day 3 we all showed up in our FAVORITE blue choir shirts (actually, they weren't that bad, women are just sensitive about looks). We spent the morning in the Tabernacle on Temple Square to rehearse and sound check. It was super fun to watch people who were so excited to be there. I sang a couple of times in the Tabernacle in college so it was already checked off my list of things to do, but for a lot of members of the choir and orchestra this was their first time and it was a dream come true.

This is Susan. Not only does she sing Alto II with me, she is also the executive director of MCO (that's both choirs and orchestras). She had to do all the nasty work of negotiations, politics, trouble shooting, press, etc - plus she recorded and sang concerts! I hope she took a break when she got home.

The Tabernacle looking the "other" way.

Yet MORE beautiful Altos - sigh.

Brandon and Brett are our musical directors and Brett composed the oratorio we were performing and recording. I just have to say, I was very, very, VERY impressed with how they handled the stress of the week. Not ONCE did they lash out, snap, or get frustrated, not on take 12, not when we lost a day of data, not answering the 400th foolish question, not once - VERY impressive, especially considering it was a great personal, financial, and professional risk for them. I should take composure lessons.

All in all it was a great week. The recording will be released hopefully within 6 months. Both the Tabernacle concert and the Abravanel concert were wonderfully fun and fulfilling.

Yipee for choir!

Next up: playing in Pleasant Grove with Utah cousins - it involves grass, water, marshmallows, a scooter, and lilacs.

coming soon

I'm sorry I've been a slacker about summer re-cap and fab pictures, but I don't know where Ryan put all the photos (they are not where they belong and when I asked him he offered to show me, but I was tired and HAD to go to bed). I will share soon.

We are home and have fallen into an OK rhythm for the two weeks of summer left before school. The kids are doing great at chores, "homework", piano, and our daily swim. I am VERY grateful Isaac and Sarah are napping still, Isaac especially. The transition to little home, little yard, and no Uncle Michael has been the hardest on his little soul and he is trying patience and pushing limits like grocery carts.

Must go, Nora needs a peach!

evmco in slc

Uncle Michael spent a week filming MCO in Salt Lake in June. Here is the first official YouTube video.