Violin Recital

Here is their recital numbers from Saturday...

Visitors!

There were lots of visitors today. Catye and Josh left this morning. Then after church, Rinar went to the Riviera Hotel to pick up his Uncle John. He was here for a math convention. It was fun to visit with him, eat pancakes together, and have a mini-concert for him. John also played a few piano duets with Zach, so Zach was in heaven.

It is always a pleasant surprise when you get a visitor, especially family from far away who make the effort to stop by. It is what life is all about, I think.




This is really surprising...the last visitor of the day. Sam B. visited us from North Carolina. He is the father of one of my close friends from my childhood; Sarah. He stayed for a few hours and we had a really nice visit.

He is here for a month doing a project with his work. Thanks for visiting us. We had a blast.

Chuck E. Cheese's Revisited With the Family...and Other Stuff

We have had a few visitors these past couple of days. Lyf and his five beautiful girls came down yesterday to stay over. They really wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese's. They don't have that restaurant in southern Utah. A couple of years ago Bethany and Bryn stayed at our house during the summer and we took them there. They had a memorable time and so they made sure that we went again with the entire family.

Let me just state unequivocally that Chuck E. Cheese's is no fun with a one year-old. Avoid it at all costs. Eli wanted to get on to everything and would get really mad when he couldn't. Plus, you have to stay right with him so that he can avoid all the mayhem that usually follows a one year-old around unmercifully. It is exhausting. For example, I thought I would let him try skeeball. Yikes. He threw the ball like a baseball into other peoples lanes, he didn't want to let me help him throw it, and then he climbed up on the ramp to put the balls in by hand. This automatically tilts the game. Not a problem for our game, but when he tries to go to the adjacent lanes for the same fun, it gets dicey. I guess that is why I sat at the booth with the little babies (who slept the entire time, in their carriers, away from all people and germs, covered by a big blanket) and ate my salad.

The other kids had a blast playing all of the games and cashing in tickets to get lame little prizes that they go ga-ga over everytime.

We came home and put the kids to bed. Except for Kate and Eli, the other 6 slept in a couple of tents we put in the backyard. Then Catye and her friend Josh arrived. They decided to visit us from Tucson. We played 8 and Back at the kitchen table and at 10:30 we could still hear giggling from the tent. I guess it is to be expected. But they sure did have lots of fun.

Today we went with Lyf to see the airshow at Nellis AFB. Well, at least we tried. The line was so long to get a shuttle, we wimped out and decided to watch from afar. After about 45 minutes, Lyf decided to go ahead and try again. We didn't have enough time because the boys had a violin/viola recital. Oh well...maybe next year for me.

It was fortunate that we had over an hour to kill before the recital, which was just down the street and about 30 minutes from our house. Why? Because Zach's violin was not in the car. ARGH! Hence, we briskly made our way home so the kids could change and to retrieve the violin. Honestly, Zach!

They did great with their pieces. I did take a video of each performance and I will try to post it tomorrow.

Catye and Josh babysat for us this early evening so we could have a date. So Rinar and I went to a nice dinner and then did a little bit of window shopping.

It is was a pretty good day.

Book Festival

Yesterday we went to the Target Book Festival downtown. It was a lot of fun. They had free hotdogs, chips, water, and snow cones and booths for crafts and such. There were also lot of authors there, mostly kids, who were selling and signing books they had written.

The Nevada School of the Arts was set to perform and so Zach came with his violin. It was great. They all got up on stage and played some Suzuki numbers. You can Zach second from the left.

Mayor Oscar Goodman made an appearance and we stopped to get a picture. It may shock many of you to know that I really like him as mayor. He is very approachable and has done a lot of good stuff for Las Vegas. Plus, our first picture with him accidentally got erased so he was kind enough to do a mulligan.

A Special Call

This moment must be documented into the annals of my personal history.

For the first time in my life, my little sister Catye called me. No lo creo! I know, it is quite unbelievable. But she really did call me.

I feel special.


Catye is the girl on the left...fyi.

My Gorgeous Babies

Thanks a million trillion Corrinne. These turned out so beautifully. I am very grateful. I am so lucky that I have such talented friends.