Summer Vacation: Part 1

Our summer vacation this year was all smashed into an exciting, action-packed two weeks! It started out with stopping at two national parks on the way to a family reunion in Utah. We went to Mesa Verde, (Colorado,) and the next day visited Arches, (Utah).

MESA VERDE

Here are our exciting pictures from Mesa Verde. It was very cool to see these ancient cliff dwellings and learn about the people who built them and lived here.

At Mesa Verde, there is only one dwelling you can visit without a Ranger guide. We looked at that one and then we went on a guided tour to another one. I was not prepared for how much information the Ranger would share with us (and more importantly, how LONG it would take to hear it all.) Here is a picture of our kids being angels, and I am standing behind the camera just crossing my fingers that they'll keep it up as the ranger kept going and going and going.

We stayed near the back of the group because as the tour progressed the kids got more and more antsy. At the last stop, the group had surrounded a Kiva, where we learned quite a lot about kivas and the various theories there are on what their purpose was. It was here that Sean started putting his head down the ventilation hole for that particular kiva, and the ranger used Sean to point out where the ventilation hole was and what it was used for. (Definitely not for putting your head in.)

It was a cool tour I would have enjoyed a little better had I not been so paranoid about my kids being disruptive or falling down ventilation holes. So if you go with young kids, I'd probably pass on the ranger tour, even though it is neat to learn about all that stuff.

We did learn some really interesting facts. The ones I remember most were about the women of that culture. They married around the age of 12 or 13, had an average of ten children. And most women did not live past the age of 30. The men lived a little bit longer: 40-45, because they didn't have the babies. So had I lived back then, I'd probably be dead already. History is fascinating, but I must say, I'm glad I live today.

Here is a picture of the kiva in the foreground, and the dwellings in the shaded background.

Daphne kept holding Sean's hand as they hiked along the trail.

I love that she was watching out for him.

The cool ladder ascending up out of the canyon. I barely fit through with Hayden on my back.

ARCHES

We did Arches for the first time last year and went again because we loved it so much last time. (Also, since we went last time, one of the arches unexpected collapsed, so Arthur felt some urgency in hiking out to see the landscape arch--a particularly thin formation, before it collapses. You never know, right?)

I love all that red rock at arches.

Hayden making sand angels.

His hair was auburn for the rest of the day.

Landscape Arch

Double Arch

Arthur and the kiddos.

Davy Crockett Performance

We had our Children's Music Theater performance of "Davy Crockett" on Friday, June 20th. My kids had a blast! I had 30 kids in this production, ages ranging from almost 5 to 12. and they did such a great job! (And frankly, we need a bigger stage.) They sang out and did their choreography and smiled, and they looked great in their costumes. The set was AMAZING, (thanks to my amazing husband who built it,) and some great moms who helped paint it. Also, since this play is so old, there was no accompaniment CD available, so we had live accompaniment this time. In fact, we had a whole Davy Crockett band with piano, fiddle, guitar and banjo!

We had a great time, and I was so proud of those kids. It's a ton of work, but I think it's worth it for these kids to have an experience where they are singing and dancing and working together, and also cooperating and helping each other out. It gives them something fun to talk about and look forward to, and now to remember.

I actually chose this play because I performed it when I was growing up in California, with a group of children directed by Brad Thompson. I had such a great time, that it inspired me to try to do something similar for my kids. Hence, Stone Soup last year, and Davy Crockett this year. Believe it or not, when I was in it, I was "Carrie Ann" who has blond hair. (There is even a song about her "Yaller Gold" hair.) Obviously, I don't have blond hair so I had to wear a hideous wig which clashed with my dark eyebrows. Haha! Good times. (Maybe I'll dig that picture out and post it.)

And now, the pictures you've all been waiting for . . .

This is just me welcoming the audience, but I posted it because here you can see the awesome set that Arthur built for me. It turned out great, (and we got to use the beautiful mountain backdrop from last year's performance of Stone Soup!)

Opening number, "Old Fashioned 4th of July"

Daphne having just a great time.

Dallin is the boy second from the left. He loved being a part of Mike Fink's crew.

The entire cast. (Too bad the lighting isn't very good on that front row. I'll have to bug my friend for some better pictures taken at the dress rehearsal.)

Mike Fink's crew

My little actors (& Sean) posing in front of the set before it was taken down.)

"Coming to a Theater Near You"

For all you Albuquerqueans who are in town this weekend, there is a free Children's Musical Performance on Friday night. Here's the scoop:

the 2009 Children's Music Theater

presents . . .

Davy Crockett

Friday, June 19th at 7 p.m.

San Victorio Building

of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Come for a "ring-tailed, rootin' tootin', side-windin', rifle-shootin'" GOOD TIME!

Exclusive behind-the-scenes pictures from the making of Davy Crockett below:

Reverence is . . .

not the way we came into church today.

I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but here's kind of how it played out. Arthur had an early meeting (his last one, since since he was just released from the Stake YM presidency today--yipee!) So I was getting everyone ready for church by myself, which I've done semi-successfully plenty of times, but today, somehow, I completely lost track of time, and when I got a chance to look at the clock, it said 8:45! I should have left five minutes ago! Especially since the choir was singing a prelude hymn, which I was accompanying!

So I started frantically grabbing shoes, socks, ties, belts, for Sean & Hayden, all while Dallin was putting cereal in bags for everyone to eat for breakfast in the car.

I arrived at church with my kids eating their breakfast out of ziplock bags, missing shoes and socks, and in Hayden's case, his shirt wasn't even fully buttoned. With about three minutes before the meeting started, we pulled into the parking lot, grabbed all our stuff (primary bag, diaper bag, breakfast in ziploc bags . . .) and RAN into the building!

I plopped the kids & bags down on a bench, and got up to the piano bench with a minute to spare. Miraculously, the kids sat quietly without a single escape attempt until I got back down from playing, at which point I proceeded to finish dressing poor little Hayden.

We then had a very good sacrament meeting which, appropriately, focused on reverence. Clearly, we can use some help in that area.

Another exciting development at church was that Daphne lost her first tooth during Primary. A couple weeks earlier, I had tried to pull it out unsuccessfully, which left Daphne a bit scarred, I think. As a result, she decided to wait until it just fell out, which it never did. It just got more and more wiggly until at church, her primary teacher said, "Enough is enough! That tooth needs to come out." And pulled it out for her.

Here she is with her tooth in one hand and the letter she wrote to the tooth fairy clarifying whose tooth it was. We taped her tooth to the note and put it under her pillow for her very first tooth fairy experience!

Reflections, Reading, and Recital

1. Reflections:

When I was in Elementary School I participated in the PTA Reflections Program. This program encourages children to participate in creating art in their choice of 6 different categories: Music Composition, Dance Choreography, Literature, Photography, Visual Art, and Film.

I remember I entered a story about a school girl who slapped her teacher's face and ran away, (don't remember why, but it is branded in my memory that that was an important part of my story,) and a painting of a puppy. Believe it or not, my story won 1st place at the school level and went on to the district level as well. I won a $50 savings bond at my school level and a $75 savings bond at the district level. So it turned out to be a good experience for me. (Who knew that slapping teachers faces would be received so well?)

Well, this past school year, I encouraged my children to participate in the Hubert Humphrey Reflections Program because it's a good experience. (And also because I got suckered into chairing the event), and Dallin took the challenge. He submitted one of the two Music Composition entries. Dallin entered a song he wrote entitled "The Monster," and was the only one in the pre-K-2nd grade division, so he won 1st place, and therefore his entry was sent on to be judged at the state level.

He felt so special to get his 1st place ribbon at our award ceremony (and thankfully he didn't realize he'd won by default.) So you can imagine his elation when we got a phone call informing us of his winning 1st place in his division for the whole state of New Mexico! He said, "No way, Mom! Does that mean I'm famous!?! Wait 'til Uncle Nathan hears about this!"

Well today, he got a certificate in the mail and a $10 gift card to Walmart, which he is very excited to spend. Way to go, Dallin!

Here is a recording of Dallin playing his composition. (the pictures are just random piano pictures that we have, to illustrate that it's Dallin playing it. Though his age at recording was slightly older than some of the pictures shown.)

It's exceptionally short, so enjoy all 20 seconds of, "The Monster."

2. Reading:

This past week, I finished reading Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. I suggested it for a book club that I attend. And I think I was the only person in the group who enjoyed it. I thought it was wonderful! The movie stinks, but I loved the book. I felt bad that no one else in the group liked it. In fact I started thinking that I must not have a very sophisticated taste in literature. Truthfully, my favorites tend to be written for children and young adults. I love Shannon Hale's The Goose Girl, and Princess Academy. I love Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings series. My kids and I are eating up C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia series. I enjoyed the Stephanie Meyers Twilight series and the Uglies series by Scott Westerfield. I like to curl up in bed at the end of the day and enjoy a little of the surreal. Nothing too heavy or hard to get through or very thought provoking. I guess I read for escape rather than enlightenment. And ya know what? For now, I like it that way. Maybe I'll want to be enlightened in a different phase of life.

3. Recital:

Today Dallin played in his 2nd piano recital. He played "The Caravan" and "The Magic Man." We were very proud of him, but he mentioned afterward that he could play it waaaay better when he was practicing than when people were listening. I told him, the same thing happens to me. I don't know what it is about performing but that extra pressure somehow trips your brain up. And that is one reason we have recitals, I guess. So our brains can have practice getting over that performance glitch.

Anyway, here is Dallin with his teacher Dillon. (If the piano looks familiar, it's because we had the recital at our house.) Dillon is a phenomenal pianist. I've included two video clips below: Dallin's song is first, (it's about a minute long) and the next one is the song Dillon played for us. Just wait, in a few years, Dallin will be wowing us all with his performances of Chopin too! (p.s. I love how Dallin gets out his books even though he could play both of his songs in his sleep.)

Dillon and his students who performed today:

Christmas Carol Train Tour

Ah, what can I say about this experience?  Here is one of those times when I feel that everyone around me is thinking, "Why does that woman have all those kids?  And why on earth would she go out with all of them in public?"

So I ventured out this morning with my four kids, (ages 7, 5, 3, & 18 mos) to go to the Amtrak station downtown to check out the Christmas Carol Train that is touring the United States promoting the movie starring Jim Carrey that is coming out this November.  (November 6th in case you're interested.)  It was free, and I thought, "Hey, this might be fun."  Besides, Sean loves trains.  

It's a long story, so I'll try to condense it: (And if you don't want to hear it, just skip down to the kids' pictures; those are pretty cute.)

An hour's wait in the hot sun, one sippy cup for all of us to share, no snacks, no strollers allowed, so Hayden is not contained, Hayden gets hot being held in my arms so he keeps squirming to get down.  When I let him down, he bolts out of line, or under the train, or a number of other places where Dallin and Daphne are yelling, "HAYDEN COME BACK!" and I am running after him and saying, excuse me, excuse me.  After waiting in line for 30-40 minutes, Sean tells me he has to go potty, the people in front of me in line kindly offer to have Dallin & Daphne stay with them while I take Sean out of line to go potty.  It takes awhile to get to the bathroom.  While we're in the bathroom, I fill up the empty water bottles I grabbed out of our car in the hopes we might run into a drinking fountain, Sean takes a drink and doesn't screw the lid on properly which I don't realize until my bag is wet and dripping on me, meanwhile, it takes us so long to get back from the bathroom, that the nice people saving my place in line almost had to go to the back of the line since I wasn't there to take my kids through!  But I make it just in time, so thank goodness for that.  (And we'll thank goodness that Sean told me he had to go potty instead of having an accident on the train.)  

The train was cool; Dallin & Daphne liked it, and what I saw of it was cool. (In between struggling with holding Hayden and keeping Sean within arms reach to prevent Dallin & Daphne from freaking out again.)  The train cars held displays about the making of the movie, portraits of cast members, costumes, old Charles Dickens museum stuff, and some special effects stuff.  We got to morph our faces into characters from the movie which the kids thought was funny.  But essentially, it was geared for kids older than Sean & Hayden.

After the train, we went over to this big air conditioned tent so we could watch the sneak preview of the movie on the 3D screen, with our 3D glasses.  But Sean had a breakdown as we were getting ready to get in another line.  I say, "Fine we'll go home."  Dallin & Daphne are so disappointed and are saying, "Sean!  He's always messing up everything!"  (And I think I was guilty of saying something like, "Good grief, I can't take him anywhere!") Both statements felt very true today.  Well, he pulled it together, we got into the theater in short order and saw the preview.  The kids liked it, and the movie looks pretty cool.

Then we went and got some gelato at Sweet Berry which is right by the Amtrak station.  It was pricey so I got two for us to share instead of one for everyone.  So of course they were squabbling about whether the ice cream was closer to Dallin or Daphne, and Sean had another breakdown when the ice cream was gone, and I had had enough adventure for one day!

To top it all off, I didn't even bring the camera, so I have no proof that I actually took everybody out on that family bonding experience.  But, Dallin & Daphne saved the day with some original illustrations of our experience, and happily, I think it was mostly positive, (if a little stressful,) from their perspective.

This is Daphne's

She drew a picture of us getting our 3D glasses for the movie in the bottom right corner, the train across the top, and the bottom left corner is us sharing our ice cream.  I'm glad that we are all smiling in her pictures.  If I drew a picture we wouldn't all be smiling.

The next two are Dallin's

Above, we are getting our 3D glasses for the movie.

Below, it's us waiting in line by the Christmas Carol Train, and you can see the gelato shop behind it-- it has the ice cream signs sticking out from it.  (spelled: ickrem)  Again, I'm pleased to point out that in Dallin's pictures we are all smiling!  So maybe it won't be such a bad memory for them.  :)  I should have them illustrate all our adventures.