If we approach adversities wisely, our hardest times can be times of greatest growth, which in turn can lead toward times of greatest happiness...Come what may, and love it! -Joseph B. Wirthlin
What a fun and spontaneous day today. I love it when that happens. Raef had asked me several times if Breken could come here to play. I was able to arrange a sleep over for them. We went to Orem to get Breken at his basketball game because it is a lot closer than Heber City. It was just me, Raef, Zach, Julia and Noelle. Rinar had taken Harry and Eli to St. George to visit his family.
Breken was great and they had a nice time. And since today is Martin Luther King Day, there was no school and Saver's was 50% off. Lindsay and Justin came into town to get Breken and to do some thrift shopping at Saver's. Before they got here, I met Melanie at her Saver's to do some shopping. Then I came back and met them and then we headed to our Saver's: Rinar, Lindsay, Justin, and me. We did some crazy thrift store shopping. It was great.
And then in the evening, Melanie came over with her little clan and we had an impromptu dinner party. It was 14 crazy kids and 5 adults. The house was bananas and it was just the way I like it. All of those 14 kids are pretty much my kids. I know them all so well and love them so much. And it was hilarious to see Kinley and Lindsay just waiting for me to finish feeding Noelle so that they could hold her. That little girl got a whole lot of love today from a lot of people.
It has now been 18 years of wedded bliss. I can't believe I have been married for 18 years. Rinar wanted to do something special for me and it just so happened that Michael Buble was in town. He really wanted to take me but just couldn't get out of work obligations in California. But he went ahead and got the tickets and surprised me by having my best friend Melanie take me.
I had not a clue what was going on. She came and picked me up. We headed downtown and ate at the Blue Lemon, a delicious little restaurant directly across the street from Temple Square. And then we headed over to the ESA (Delta Center) for the concert. Before we went into the building we ate our delicious little tart desserts outside. Then it was concert time.
Before Michael came out, the warm up act was Naturally 7. It was an a capella group that mimics musical instruments. They were tremendous. I really enjoyed that a lot. And Michael Buble was even better. He is an amazing performer and does a great job interacting with the crowd. He makes ya feel special!
We sat in the back, looking straight on. It was neat that he had this circular stage at the back and near the end of the show he worked the back of the arena. We could see him really good.
It was a lot of fun going with Melanie. I always enjoy hanging out with her. But it would have been more fun with Rinar. I am very blessed to have such wonderful people in my life.
It was great to be able to go to Salt Lake City for the week. We were able to catch up with friends and family. On Monday night, we went with my sister Catye and her husband Mike, Jamie and Leah, and Melanie, Halle, and Caleb to Seven Peaks water park for a fun night of swimming and sliding.
We got a sweet deal. It was free! Catye is working there right now. It was a lot of fun to go with kids and a lot of adults. There were plenty of grown-ups to help with all the little ones. Melanie, Jamie, and Zach made a good trio because they are all very daring. Me...not so much, thank you. After the water park, I went with my family to The Pie for some delicious pizza.
Tuesday night was a blast as well. We headed to American Fork to catch up with Lindsay, Justin, and their crew. They just moved into a complex where there is a community pool. The kids were in heaven, catching up on old times, and swimming like crazy. I love all of these kids so much.
Kinley girl.
Ali
Melanie put Taryn in the pool with a regular diaper. Then the poor girl walked around, looking like she was going to give birth to an exceptionally large soggy-bottom nappy. It was quite funny.
Taryn and Malaya
Jump in kids! Weeeeeeee!
These two are buddies. They have always been the best of friends. We miss them so much.
I was also able to babysit for Melanie so that she could go to the temple. It was a nice morning. We took a walk to the playground and the whole time we were walking, Caleb read to me from his Time Warp Trio book. So stinkin' cute.
By the end of the week, Caleb told me that Zach and him used to be worst enemies, but now they are best friends. Aaah. Zach also seemed to make amends with Breken and they are now on better terms. They are no longer worst enemies as well. Zach can now officially mark two more names off of his Worst-Enemy List. Whew. Thank goodness.
Standing in front of their house: Caleb, Raef, Ava, Zach, Halle, and Taryn
Friday night was great also because we were able to see Catye, Mike, Jamie and Leah one more time. We did dinner at Cafe Rio and then went back to Jamie's apartment for some Wii action and football pointers.
Catye and Mike stayed over so that they could catch the Saturday finale concert at the school. It was a fun week and I am glad I was able to do it.
I had a prolonged moment of insanity and decided to drive to Provo alone with my kids. Rinar did a brothers trip and since he was going to be gone for the week, I thought, "oh, why not?"
Did you know it takes over 8 hours to get there?
Sheesh.
But we still had fun. We stayed the first night in Wendover and I pulled in to the hotel registry Thursday night at about 10pm. I was tired and I just wanted to get my kids to bed. First, I couldn't find the room and thought I was going to go crazy. Then, I go to open the door. It is three floors up, Eli is asleep in my arms and my older ones have to go to the bathroom. The key did not work! I got so mad and frantic I decided to take it out on the door so I kicked it as hard as I could. I had on my sandals, so I only managed to stub my big toes pretty bad.
After a trying ordeal of trying to get the babies to go to sleep, they finally succumbed to their eyelids and I fell asleep, sort of. But I had this really achy big toe. It felt like it was broken. What an idiot!
We spent Friday with my good friend Melanie and her crew. It was a blast. Except, because of sleep deprivation, Harry and Julia were horrible. So I strapped them into their car seats, turned on a movie, turned on the car and left it idling for about 1.5 hours. I say it is cheaper than a babysitter and can you really put a price on sanity?
Isn't this the most scrumptious little baby? This is Melanie and Jared's latest girl, Taryn. She is a good little baby.
On Saturday I went the the Despain Family Reunion in Provo. Despain is my grandmother's grandmother's family and her posterity. There were a lot of people there. They have quite the posterity. Here is my Grandma N. and my uncles Barry and Dave.
They just had a little moment here. Brotherly love, you know?
My sister Catye is getting married in October and here is her man, Mike. My kids LOVE him. Hence, I love him. He will make a great addition to the family.
My Great-Grandmother May was one of 12 children. She was number 5. The church sent her parents to Lovell, Wyoming in 1905 on a mission to settle the area. It was one of the last wagon trains. The guy standing up in this picture is Gordon. He is one of two surviving kids and my Grandma's uncle. I am not sure who the other two are, but I bet they are important.
We belong to the May faction.
On the drive back, Raef wanted to touch the salt. This is the famous salt flats. This is where they break land speed records and where the unfortunate Donner party planted the seeds of a horrible demise in the Sierra Nevadas.
We limped to the finish, but we made it all in one piece. The more I see Nevada, the more I realize that it is an incredible beautiful state. Elko and Winnemucca are beautiful country and I look forward to going back that way again.
It was a big week for me. You remember how before everyone thought I was totally crazy for taking my kids by myself on a little jaunt through Arizona? That was just a warm-up for the week I just experienced in Utah.
I took Raef and Zach to the Intermountain Suzuki String Institute camp this week in Draper, Utah. Wow, what a week, huh? Let me see...me, check. Raef, check. Zach, yep him too. Oh yeah, then there was Eli, check. Harry and Julia, check, check. Yep, uh huh. Just me and five little ones at a rather serious Suzuki string camp for 6 days. I didn't have a clue what I was getting myself into when I went.
It was at a private high school and it was me against all of them. I mean, me and all of them together. One big happy family.
My thought was that I would stay the whole first day and get them oriented to their classes. I had arranged babysitting with Melanie, superwoman! After that first day, I would drop them off in the morning and spend time with Melanie and go to a few classes in the middle of the day.
There was only one teensy weensy little problem.
"Mom, are we done yet?" spoken by Zach after the first class was finished. He only had 3 more on the first day, and 5 more days ahead of him.
"Is this my last class?" spoken by Zach after his second to last class, to his fiddling teacher, the guy who was teaching 6 different classes in a large high school where every single room was being used for classes.
"Are you Zach's mom?" spoken by Zach's violin performance teacher Andrea Sanderson, on Tuesday when it became painfully obvious that Zach was very wiggly and disruptive to the entire group.
"I couldn't find my class." spoken by Zach when I needed him to go to his next class on his own, as I had to deal with my little ones. I had only physically walked him to his class twice so that he would know where it was and had also written down his schedule with all the class numbers, so he could ask someone if he got lost. He lost the schedule on Tuesday morning.
"Your violin bow is not a sword." spoken by me.
"IT'S NOT FAIR!!!!!! YOU ARE CHEATING!!!!! YOU DON'T PLAY FAIR!!!!" spoken, I mean, tearfully screamed by Zach at lunch break when he didn't like the way the game was going because the other kids were bigger and he was constantly losing.
We went to Melanie's house a few times to hang out when camp was over in the evenings. It was a lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed reconnecting.
This gal is the best. She totally saved me. When it became woefully apparent that I was going to have to do a lot of hand holding for the entire week, she stepped right up and watched my babies the majority of the time. They got lots of naps and attention and fun. Whew! She totally saved me. At night we stayed with my Uncle Barry and Aunt Sue in Orem. It was a lot of fun being able to reconnect with them and just hang out. I was grateful for the opportunity. There was one tiny, little thing that I didn't like. Bedtime. I mean, Eli and bedtime. Those two things just didn't really go together very well. You remember how I chronicled his bedtimes problems at our house? I am not going to rehash that, but needless to say it was quite painful. It was Act III. Every night it took hours to get all three of them to sleep. The problems really revolved around Eli. Errrrrrr!
So I seemed to go to bed every night around 12pm, but we were always up bright and early around 5:45 to 6am. And somehow I survived.
But look at these faces...
Oh, come on! How could I be mad at that???
I made sure to take some pictures with their teachers. This is their orchestra teacher, Denise Willey. She was fantastic; dynamic, funny, instructive, helpful. Everything you would want in a teacher, she fit the bill. The kids loved her class. Raef was the only viola.
There he is...all by himself, holding down the fort and doing a mighty fine job.
Oh yeah, that is Zach...
Now unlike Zach, who struggled all week...Raef thrived. He is just a cool kid. There were not very many viola players and he was by far the youngest kid in his group. He is very advanced for his age. He is going into the 3rd grade and the next youngest kid was headed to 7th. But he fit right in and made lots of friends. In this picture he is getting instruction from his master's teacher, David Becker. He helped Raef work on his dynamics.
David Becker is from Wisconsin. Because the viola group was so small, Raef was able to get a lot of needed attention with his instrument. It was fantastic.
These are some of the kids he studied with this week. They are just the cream of the crop, wonderful kids with great personalities and so kind. I loved the environment he was in. The vibe in the viola class was cool. There was a camaraderie that really worked for him.
His performance and technique teacher was Dee Martz. She is also from Wisconsin. I loved her class and so did Raef. They would make up stories about the songs they were playing and this really worked for Raef. It helped him with dynamics quite a bit.
One neat thing about Dee is the viola she is holding. It was made in 1773! It is a Guadagnini and there were only 12 made, with 4 known to exist. The university she works for owns it and lets her play it. Isn't that cool? It has its own name and everything...Cosio. Whoa!
Raef made a friend at camp named Tyler. He came from South Dakota to study. They really hit it off and Raef and him would go play rugby in the field during lunch break. Raef thought that was the coolest thing ever.
Zach reminded me several times this week that he will never be an aborigine. But he did enjoy this exercise where they actually got to wander around while they played. He felt right at home as that is how he usually practices at home.
Zach with Andrea Sanderson. She is a very compassionate lady. She was very patient with him and pleasantly surprised when he didn't do anything outrageous during the final performance.
This was Zach's master's teacher, Deborah Moench. She is a well-known pedagogue in Salt Lake City and I believe her daughter is a world-renowned violinist. She is soft-spoken, but tough.
On Saturday we enjoyed the fruits of our labors and the kids did a concert in the main auditorium. The babies were terrible when it was time for the show. Luckily I brought my brother Jamie along and he watched them so that I could see it. Julia listened to a little bit of the pre stuff on the floor. Oooohhhh! So cute.
Of course I made a couple of videos if you want to hear what it sounded like. The actual concert footage is terrible, but it sounds good. There is a faculty orchestra that accompanied them and that was really cool.
I have been hearing for weeks how good it is to eat at Serendipity, the latest restaurant offering in Las Vegas. It just opened at Caesar's Palace a few weeks ago. It is a big ordeal in New York City and so I thought I would check it out with my best food friend, Melanie. When we aren't eating food, we are certainly talking about food. Plus, this is her last week in Nevada before the big move to Utah, so it was even more imperative that we get over there quick.
We went for dessert and got the famous Frrrrozen Hot Chocolate, and a "modest" slice of carrot cake. The Frrrrrozen Hot Chocolate definitely lived up to its billing, especially if you love chocolate as much as we do. Then they brought out the carrot cake...
...and my jaw just about hit the table. To say it was huge would be an understatement. The piece could easily feed four to six people. It was insane. We had to cut it into two pieces to get it to fit in a to-go box.
It was a lot of fun.
Today, Melanie came and fixed dinner for us at our house, seeing as how her house is now devoid of all pots and pans. She threw them all out for the move. I guess when she moves into her new place, she will be treating herself to a new, grown-up set of cookware.
We ate sloppy joe's and then after dinner, we made all of the kids ice cream cones with the caveat that they all eat them outside. It cuts down on the cleaning bill. This is all of the kids, including Lindsay's brood. She had a hot date tonight with her husband, so I am the daycare center. Zach is the mysterious masked figure hovering above everyone else.
Three cheers for ice cream, cake, and Frrrrrozen Hot Chocolate!
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