Shout-out to Snowbird

Hello people at Snowbird reunion! I love you all and wish I could be in two places at once so I could tell you in person!

Shout-outs: Aunt Debbie and Kerr cousins, Aaron!, MASON and Ethan (as well as Aunt Becky and Uncle Mike, I guess... :) ), Kayla and Kara of course

Upcoming events for my 10 Piano working vacation:

• 6 Flags! on Monday! with Hannah and Lindsay!
• Jello cake for dessert tomorrow! and hopefully Cafe Rio wraps
• REHEARSAL... EVERY DAY THIS WEEK (Tuesday-Friday) - Friday being the dress rehearsal, I believe (has time really gone by that quickly?)

Good night; enjoy church tomorrow and FHE... also tomorrow? Grandma's worked hard on FHE and I think you'll enjoy it!

Estoy contenta otro vez

I don't have much more to add tonight except I think our piano rehearsal today was one of the best yet, I love being here and I'm looking forward to tomorrow!

More practice; more fun

Went to a water park today (don't think Seven Peaks; think more along the lines of the Olympic Fountain in Gateway) and a regular park for Nathaniel's soccer practice.

Tire swing at the water park

Climbing trees with Hannah at the regular park

Practice, practice, practice

Today was the opposite of yesterday: lazy morning in which Shannon took all her kids to a home school group social thing until noon and Hannah and I spent the hours practicing, playing on the computer and watching The Little Rascals in the quiet house all by ourselves; then a busy afternoon. Pretty soon after lunch, it was off to rehearsal and then soccer practice for Lindsay, dinner, games and an after-the-boys-are-in-bed trip to the grocery store for me, Hannah and Shannon.

Rehearsal went pretty well. The Japanese teachers complimented us almost right off after they asked us to play through our song: "We can tell you have been using metronome." Then they proceeded to give us several more spots to work on, adding dynamics to some of the old skill spots. I was glad to hear Tyler say we played a lot more together today. He should know - he's been at every one of our rehearsals so far.

Tyler, Hannah and I have all been working hard refining our performance pieces (Tyler is doing Happy Farmer). Hannah especially is very dedicated. She's a good example of diligence and very willing to help me with or discuss the K. 545. She's also in high demand for helping Tyler and Nathaniel with their piano practices.

When we're not practicing, the hours continue to fly by with fun outings, games and yummy food. Shannon is amazing.

Today and yesterday

10 piano rehearsal went OK yesterday. Hannah was even more nervous for this one than our first one, and she may have rubbed off on me a little bit... It was still mostly enjoyable, but the Japanese teachers got frustrated because we're having problems playing together and people kept making mistakes. They said for tomorrow's rehearsal they're going to make everyone who makes a mistake stop playing and stand up. It was fun to see Cleo and Mrs. Tuttle there (my piano teachers). According to the music grapevine, the Japanese teachers consider the K. 545 to be one of the worst groups thus far. We'll have to change that.

Thankfully, Shannon made plans to have FHE on the grounds of the Sacramento Temple that evening, so Hannah and I got to unwind in that peaceful setting after our stressful rehearsal. There was one exciting moment when Matthew was wandering over to the drinking fountain a few yards away from our picnic dinner when Hannah started yelling, "Snake! Snake! In the grass!"

Shannon darted to Matthew and picked him up, protesting, while the rest of us took a few steps forward to see what kind of snake it was. After Shannon and Hannah's rattler stories I was kind of scared, but it turned out to be only a garter snake - and a hurt one at that. Its tail was oozing blood. At first we thought Matthew may have stepped on it by mistake, but a quick shoe check proved otherwise. The snake slithered away from us when we leaned forward for a closer look. Tyler was especially fascinated with it, although he understood the potential danger. Nobody got bit. The incident was nearly forgotten when Hannah, Matthew, Tyler, Nathaniel, Lindsay and I discovered a smooth stretch of granite to the side of a staircase (holding up the staircase railing) by the temple - a perfect slide!

Today was characterized by a busy morning and a lazy afternoon. Hannah, Lindsay and I went walking with Shannon again at 7 in the morning, then some people did music practice after breakfast, after which we ran errands (one of which was going to the Costco optometry place to get Hannah's glasses fixed - she lost a screw last night right before we were trying to leave for FHE and Scott had to wire the frame back together until we could go to an optometry center).

After we came home from errands (and getting treats at two separate places), Hannah and I practiced and then the lazy afternoon began, complete with card games, hand games, and board games. Fun times.

Monday

Matthew on the slip n' slide

It took Tyler a long time to decide to get wet

Matthew

Matthew, Tyler

Hannah, Nathaniel

Nathaniel and Matthew, who enjoyed randomly turning the water off and on

Hannah

Playing Ninja again

(Tyler, Lindsay, Nathaniel)

Hannah knows lots of hand games. Lindsay likes to learn them so she can play them with her

Everyone was really concerned about the state of Hannah's glasses

Scott used pliers and a little paperclip to wire the frame back together until we could get a new screw

Looking at the poor wounded garter snake at the Sacramento LDS Temple

Tuesday

Hannah played with Star Wars figures with Nathaniel and I this morning after Nathaniel practiced his songs on the piano

...it was about time somebody took my camera to use on me instead of the other way around... Hannah got this picture

Hannah and Lindsay made almost the same face. :)

Matthew and Hannah

Happy birthday Matthew

Nathaniel (who was my special buddy two years ago) is talking to me finally! He was shy for the first two days but I broke out the big guns today with a glow-in-the-dark shark puzzle and the next thing I knew, I was the bedtime story reader of choice (he chose me over Shannon) and three stories later, we were still going strong talking about Star Wars figures.

Matthew also turned three today. He is super cute. He talks now - a change from two years ago. His favorite present was a Cars 2 LEGO set. He was sooo excited.

Hannah and I did part of our piano practice together today so we could quiz each other on the skill spots the Japanese teachers assigned yesterday. It was much more fun than practicing by myself. We even played the K.545 a few times in extra high and low octaves so we could play on the same piano at the same time. The standard piano keyboard isn't quite big enough to fit all the notes, but we had a blast anyway.

First rehearsal, walks, sports and rattlesnakes

Hannah, Lindsay, Shannon and I took a morning walk beginning about 7 A.M., in which we enjoyed watching for bunnies on the side of the trail and telling stories. Hannah did most of the talking. ;) Shannon showed us a rocky place where Lindsay almost stepped on a rattlesnake, Hannah told us about her "wonderful" dream last night and then shared her own snake stories, and I (not to be outdone) described the scare one of the moms from Graig's orchestra had recently with grapes and a black widow spider.

After breakfast, Hannah and I prepared for our first 10 piano rehearsal around lunchtime today. I thought the group practice went pretty well and even enjoyed it. The teacher assigned to my piano only had to correct me about a hundred times, and there was only one time when I was the only one to make a mistake. Hannah, on the other hand, said the practice was worse than she thought it would be (she was a little nervous going in). As piano 10, she's apparently responsible for keeping the rest of us in tempo. I told her they picked a good person for the job; she just shrugged. It doesn't help that it hurts her to play piano because of a painful cyst on her wrist (rhyme unintended), which is why she wears a black wrist brace most of the time (whenever she's not playing piano).

The afternoon and evening ended with a big water fight complete with water balloons, sand volleyball and tennis. I'm pretty worn out.