Victoria's Career as a Singer

Victoria has always had a very good singing voice, and wants to be on American Idol or start a band. So this year she tried out for a children's choir in Denver called "Young Voices of Colorado." She and two friends from the ward, Lindsey and Ellie, all made it into the same choir, Cantabella. The directors of these choirs are well respected in the music field, and are very good at getting these kids to sound amazing! These girls sing in 2 and 3 parts, well!

This weekend was their overnight camp in the mountains near Bailey, CO. They get to bond with eachother, play games, and learn their music. This is Lindsey and Ellie, the two friends from the ward.

At the end of camp, they had a performance for the all the parents. Here are some clips of the performance: A three part canon, and a Spanish song called "Cantar." Sorry about the large hairdo in front of the camera!

The concert dates are Sunday, December 7th at 4:00 pm and May 2nd at Denver University. You all are invited to come!

Happy Birthday, Scott!!

On Sunday Scott turned the big three-two! We had a big get together at our house with about 30 people! Scott worked hard on the back yard this summer, now we have a deck, patio and grass so we can accomodate a lot of people. We cooked all day, and the food turned out great!

We are lucky to have great friends out here, our families get together weekly. The adults all hang out, and the kids play together.

Scott got clothes, a gift certificate to buy a scope for his gun, and a CD.

Foo Fightin'

Scott and I got to go rock out with other people stuck in the 90's at the Foo Fighters concert. It was at Red Rocks Ampitheater, and it was cold, but we loved it!

Trampoline Fun!

Victoria and I drove down to Colorado Springs to see our friends the Gonzales family. One of Victoria's very best friends is Salena.

It was Salena's sister's birthday party, and they took us to a gymnastics gym full of trampolines, and ropes to swing on. The kids were running and jumping nonstop!
In this video, Victoria has a harness on which are attached to bungee chords. She learned how to do flips! Sorry it's sideways- I don't know how to turn it!

Utah!

Emily's wedding was August 2nd. I flew out a few hours after I was done with my program at CSU, and I forgot my camera. I only have a few pictures from the trip.

Emily and Alejandro were married in the Bountiful Temple. They had a luncheon at the Old Spaghetti Factory, and their reception was at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. The photographer brought a camera for Tori to take pictures with!
While I was home, I spent an afternoon with my friend Cathy Butler Marlor and her son Tucker.
I also got to spend time with Kirsten Rash, Mark Noyce, Brett Skidmore, and Aaron McIntyre, we all grew up together. I miss them!

I took Victoria and Scott up to Logan to show them Utah State and Cache Valley.

We also said goodbye to Rebe and Tyler who moved to Rochester, NY for Tyler to go to medical school. It was a fun trip!

Goodbye, Charlie Barkins!

This is our silly dog, Charlie. This Spring, Charlie figured out how to jump our 6 foot fence. We patched up the fence, gave him a shock collar, he still jumped. The vet was always calling us, "Your neighbor has Charlie." One neighbor threatened to shoot him. We tied him up while we were planning to build a kennel, and he almost hung himself twice, our neighbor saved him once. Charlie's whole goal in life was to get out and go play around the neighborhood.

We took Charlie to Scott's parents in South Dakota to be a farm dog. Now he has thousands of acres to run on, ponds and irrigation ditches to swim in, barn cats to chase and carry around, and rabbits and pheasants to hunt.

This is his new best friend, Lolly Pup (she was lonely after Soda Pup died).We miss Charlie, my running partner, but are glad he's happy and free! We will still get to see him when we go visit South Dakota.

Here's cute puppy Charlie
There's one member of our family who doesn't miss the dog- Our cat Lucy!

My 2 1/2 Weeks as a College Girl!

For three summers now, I have gone to Colorado State University in Fort Collins to work on a master's degree. My friend Jodie from in my program rented a house in Estes Park this summer, so we stayed there most of the trip. As we commuted, we saw elk, deer, and big horn sheep!

This is Jodie from Long Island, NY, her dog Jack, and me hiking.This is the amazing house we stayed in up on the side of the mountain. Here is the view from the front porch!Scott and Victoria came up to visit one weekend.One day we went to Rocky Mountain National park, and walked up to some lakes. It started raining and hailing on us! We were about a mile or so from the car, so we just kind of gave up and just enjoyed the rain.

My master's degree will be in music education with a Kodaly Emphasis. The class I took was Level III of Kodaly, the last one you need to earn the certificate. We studied conducting, choir, folk song research, methodology, and sight singing (solfege- hence the do re mi handsigns we are all doing). For 12 days, we go from 8:00 am-4:00 pm to class all day. The seven of us have been together for three summers. Some of us will be presenting together at the Colorado Music Educator's Conference in January!

I love being a college student again!