The Magic of Childhood

Our third full season of Valley Children's Voices started rehearsals in June. We practiced nearly every Monday all summer, which was tricky because the other director and I both had to travel, so some duty juggling was involved. All that work culminated in our concert Friday night.

A few moms came early on Friday morning and helped us set up. It usually takes us hours to do this, but with two extra sets of hands the work was done in just over an hour.

Call time was 5:30 for the 7:00 show. As soon as everyone was there we gathered for a picture in our brand new, much nicer (thanks to a choir mom who offered to use her Cricut to make our logo look awesome) shirts. One of our newest singers has terrible stage fright and only stayed in front of the audience for the first minute or so of the concert. I'm extra thankful for this picture that shows everyone, whether they sang or not.

Our theme was The Magic of Childhood. We picked the big choir numbers and the kids picked their own solos and small group numbers. This was our set:

“Everything Is Awesome” - full choir

“Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” - solo, ukulele accompaniment by me

“Good Day” - solo

“Oh, What Do You Do in the Summertime?” - younger choir

“Do Re Mi” - cello and two violins

“What a Wonderful World” - full choir, ukulele accompaniment by Sophie and me

“The Girl I Mean to Be” - Phoebe's solo!

“I’ll Make a Man Out of You” - small group

“Wake Me Up” - full choir

“For a Moment” - duet

“Naughty” - Sophie's solo!

“Pure Imagination” - older choir

“On the Steps of the Palace” - solo

“A-B-See-Ya Later” - solo

Folk Tunes Medley - full choir

I directed "Everything Is Awesome" and "Oh, What Do You Do In the Summertime?" "Everything Is Awesome" felt like a run-away train during many of our rehearsals. It finally came together and the performance at the concert was the best they'd ever done it. "Summertime" was fun and sweet and the littlest members of our choir (the five to seven year-olds) did a great job.

I had taught "What a Wonderful World" to the kids and planned to direct it for the concert. But the young singer that was going to join Sophie on the ukulele ran out of time to prepare. (She played the violin for two of the songs, so she was busy preparing, there just wasn't enough time for this song too.) A week before the concert I handed directorial duties over to my co-director and switched to the ukulele instead. I think it turned out well.

Phoebe both really wanted to do a solo and really didn't want to do a solo. She stressed and was super anxious and wasn't sure she would actually do it right up until the moment she started singing. She did a great job! This took so much courage and when she sang you couldn't tell that the lead up had been so traumatic.

Sophie took a lot more initiative in preparing for this solo than she has in the past. She rehearsed beforehand and made sure she was ready, which I very much appreciated. She also did a great job!

In addition to directing two numbers and accompanying two numbers, I was in charge of pushing play on the accompaniment tracks for seven other songs. I'm so thankful to Bryan for gathering all those tracks and putting them into a single file. This helped the whole evening run more smoothly. Directing, accompanying, and stage managing all in one concert is maybe too much for one person. I'm glad he helped lift that load. He was also our videographer for the evening.

The kids were wonderful! They've improved since we started last summer and have gained confidence. Two of the kids who were too shy to do more than sing with the group said they were ready for more this time. One of them was part of a small group number and the other sang a solo in one of the choir songs! It makes me so happy to see them grow and improve.

And now we need to figure out what we're doing for Christmas.

Go Cougars

Peter sent me a first day of school picture! Was it actually taken on the first day of school? No. But it was taken at the end of the first week of school, and I'm just happy to get a picture.

In the Spotlight

We had our third kid choir concert tonight.

It went well.

We're really tired.

That's all for now.

Play Ball

Fresh From the Tree

On the day that we arrived in Utah, after we had slept in until the middle of the morning, we walked to church with Bryan's parents. Living close enough to the church to walk on a regular basis would be really nice. My sister-in-law Falisha went to church with us. She also joined us for Sunday dinner at Bryan's grandma's house. I was originally supposed to drive her the rest of the way home to Idaho Falls on Sunday, but we were so exhausted by the long haul from California that she agreed to hang out and rest an extra day. I was thankful.

I drove her home on Monday morning. I loved getting to talk with her for the drive up. When I got back to Bryan's parents' house at lunch time I saw that the kids had helped Papa Ron harvest the peaches from their tree. We enjoyed the fruits of their labors during the remainder of our stay. Thanks to Phoebe for the picture of the peaches.

Apparently I took very few pictures during those first few days. We had a great visit though, even without photographic proof. Topher and Sophie pulled out all the toys and claimed the basement as their domain. We ate good food and got to see Uncle Dallin and cousins Harmony and Liam. We also tried to buy supplies for Peter's apartment. It turns out he had very few opinions about what bedding and dishes to buy. We ended up ordering a lot of stuff online.

Our Own Zoo, Almost

This picture doesn't do justice to how huge this bird is. We watched him chill for a while on the wire across the street behind our house. Based on our quick Google search, we think it's an osprey. It's amazing to me how much wildlife we've seen from our own backyard.

Quick, Let's Take a Picture on Our Anniversary

Bryan and I celebrated our twenty-third wedding anniversary while we were in Utah. He's wonderful, I'm so glad I picked him.

A Scenic Route

It took us longer than we anticipated to begin our drive from California to Utah. We packed up both cars, Falisha joined us at the hotel so we would have four drivers, and then we managed to lock the trunk with all of Peter's luggage inside. Bryan and Falisha and Peter spent time trying to unlock it. They finally managed to open it from the inside and we got on the road.

Falisha and I were driving buddies and Bryan and Peter were a pair. I started by driving the giant rental car (a Ford Expedition Max) and switched to being a passenger in the Corolla (the college kid car and the reason for our trip to San Diego) in Baker.

While it was just me and Falisha in the little car, we had many great discussions. When we were in the big car with the kids, we listened to Hamilton. We also sang along. And it was all very loud and lively. We switched back to the big car in St. George when we stopped for dinner.

We stopped a little bit later to switch again, but I don't remember where. Poor Falisha had to drive through an impressive rain storm. I thought for sure we would reach a point of weariness and decide to stop for the night. We were definitely tired, but to my great surprise we pushed through and arrived at Bryan's parents' house around 2:30 in the morning.

We were so incredibly exhausted. We hauled our bags in, claimed our beds, and fell into them. I didn't change or brush my teeth or anything. I just slept.

Thankfully they have church at noon, so we were able to sleep and still be mostly ready for church on time. For those that weren't quite ready, being within walking distance of the church helped quite a bit.

Two Short Days in the Golden State

Our first full day in California also happened to be Emma's first day of school. Thankfully, it was a half day so these two still got lots of time to play together.

Phoebe loved all the time she got with Tuxedo. He decided she was a safe person to hang out with.

Aunt Paige pulled out her fun splashpad for Emma, Topher, and Sophie to play with. I didn't think to take any pictures until we had turned it off.

Sophie and I gave a little ukulele concert for the grandparents. Topher had played so hard all day (and stayed up so late the night before) that he took a nap while we strummed. Cooper was a good sport to hold him.

Topher started day two with lots of scooter riding in the backyard. That led to a crash and a gash just below his left knee. The doctor said he was right on the line between needing stiches or glue. Topher begged (rather aggressively) not to have stiches, so the wound was glued shut.

After three hours in urgent care, we were on our way home. Ten minutes after we arrived Topher had fallen again and ripped all the steri-strips off and pulled open the glued cut just a little. Bryan ran to the store to buy sturdier bandages. We had to replace them again that night because they were coming off. That was a consistent theme of the trip: trying to keep this injury clean and covered.

These two really love each other. I'm so glad they had a couple days to play.

PA to NJ to CA