The First Half of March

Okay, time to get caught up...!  There was no school on March 5th because of the primaries (no, I'm not even going there), so we tried to go kayaking with Adam.  It turned out to be kind of cold and gloomy, but everyone had fun anyway!  Bonus-- we finally used the two free kids' kayaks and paddles I'd gotten!  We also learned that Ryder is already too big for those little kayaks, and he ended up with a very wet butt after sitting in one!  He wasn't too happy about that-- like I said, it was pretty cold-- but cheered up quite a bit once he got to use one of the bigger kayaks.  Adam was also very generous with his paddle board, so that was fun to watch people try and occasionally wobble precariously on!  No one actually fell in, which was a good thing, even if it was a little disappointing to us spectators!  

Ryder definitely preferred the paddle board!

Colton takes a relaxing nap

Craig looks so forlorn here, but I promise he wasn't actually sad!

Seriously, how cute is this girl?

Camille with her friend Noelle on her birthday (and Noelle's big sister, Nina)

That night, for youth group, we had Southern Virginia University's a capella group, Accolade, come and perform for us!  They were so fun and everyone enjoyed hearing them!

Their beatboxer is named Colton (!) and his family lives in our ward now, so he did a little bit where he showed the kids the basics of beatboxing and then asked Topher, who also beatboxes, to come and jam with him and they were AWESOME together-- I was so impressed!

They started by just doing a much of their songs straight through-- I think it was a nice chance for them to practice, but dang, they were good!

And here they are with our ward-- what a great group!

Two days later, my parents came to visit us!  They'd been up in Ohio for Rachael's oldest son's baptism, and then we were their next stop.  What made this an extra special visit, was they just happened to be here for my choir concert.  I was already excited that they could actually come to one of my concerts (although they are great about livestreaming them from home!), and then my Mom asked if this was our "Together in Song" Concert (it was) and if that meant she could sing with the choir, too.  OF COURSE SHE COULD!!!  So she was one of over 70 community members who joined us for the second half of the concert.  And that was SO FUN FOR ME!  It meant we got to stand singing together for both the 3-hour Saturday morning practice together and the concert.  (We also spent a long time on Friday going over the music, which was really good practice for me, as well!  😂)  What a fun, happy thing to get to do with my Mom, all those years after she spent hours and hours driving me to and from voice lessons!

There's me when just my choir is first getting on the stage

Here's my choir plus the community singers-- what a huge group!!!  If you zoom in close enough to find me, you can also see my Mom standing to my left!

We were doing some fantastic music-- did you know that the traditional "Here Comes the Bride" song is by Wagner???  We were singing it in German, so that was exciting.  And a couple Italian numbers you're probably familiar with-- Va pensiero and the Bell Chorus from Pagliacci.  (What a delightful happy song for such a sad opera!)  We did the opening prelude from Sweeney Todd (and I've been listening to the new Josh Groban recording ever since-- so great!), and a mash up of "You'll Never Walk Alone" from Carousel with "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" from The Sound of Music.  And then, as if that wasn't all amazing enough, we ended with "One Day More" from Les Miserables.  It was an incredible concert and I was so happy to have my Mom there with me, and Craig and most of the kids (poor Kendra had a competition) and Dad and Tom and Donna all smiling at my in the audience.  Truly a delightful way to spend another gloomy, rainy (and cold!) spring day!

The following day, Sunday, we had all our usual church meetings, and then the youth had a fireside that night.  The great thing was, with my parents here, I could leave Colton and Camille home and not keep them up super late like we tend to do all the time now.  The bad news was that I was in charge of leading the discussion for the fireside, something I was excited to do, but had not realized it would be the same weekend as my concert and my parents' visit when I volunteered for that date.  That was a LOT for me for one weekend.  I ended up talking about dopamine, drawing a lot from this YouTube video.  I was pretty nervous about the whole thing, and when I would notice the occasional kid not paying attention it made me feel like I was doing a terrible job, but Craig assured me after the fact that it had gone great.  He's much more used to dealing with other people's teenagers than I am, so I'll take his word for it.  I was glad to have it all over with!

I wanted to get to show off our beautiful temple to my parents while they were here, so we went on a gorgeous warm morning-- and they loved it, too, which made me so happy!  We were able to spend some time wandering around admiring the artwork and stained glass windows and just how beautiful the interior is.  It was a really lovely way to spend a morning.  (And lunch at Chuy's afterwards was pretty great, too!)

The same day we went to the temple was also...  Colton's birthday!!!

He wanted to help decorate his cake

And did a great job!  (I did the writing-- he got to do the velociraptor)

Speaking of dinosaurs, he was thrilled with this amazing lego set from two of his aunts!

Colton had requested that we eat at Mission BBQ for his birthday, so even though I was still pretty full from Chuy's, I made the sacrifice and ate a bunch of ribs.  In honor of my son's birth, obviously!  And then that evening, once the little kids were in bed, I brought Mom and Dad to Kendra's indoor drumline practice so they could see what that was all about.  I had no concept of this until watching it, so it was fun to see their eyes be opened to just how cool it is!  It's especially fun because the group has almost tripled in numbers since last year (33 students, as opposed to 12 last year!)-- and while they worked really hard last year and did a great job, it's just more impressive when you've got a larger group all making noise together!

My parents left the next morning, heading to Leah's house next.  I took Colton with me to drop them off at the airport and then we went straight to his check up.  And once I'd taken him to school, I think I took a long nap!

The following day, Friday, was a Young Women's temple trip.  We were missing a few girls, and somehow everyone ended up in different cars, which didn't really vibe with my vision of this being a great bonding experience, but what can you do?  I try.

Madeline, Liberty, Teagan, Kendra, Marianne, Lilyann, Ember, Lydia, and Julie.  (We're missing Ella and Violet, who left as soon as we were finished, and the Bowes girls, who didn't come...)

Here you can see the girls better!

This is terrible on every level, but I wanted one with the participating Smiths and the angel Moroni!

The next day we celebrated Colton's birthday with Tom and Donna by getting lunch at Tip Top Diner, opening presents, and then having Krispy Kreme doughnuts.  Colton knows how to celebrate!

More legos!

Nice photobombing by Camille there...

A lot of green doughnuts since the following day was St. Patrick's Day!

Sunday was a much more restful day, with Kendra and I sitting out on the deck watching the sunset and chatting for a good long while.  I have to remember that occasionally I just put my feet up and spent time with my kids...

... because things were about to get even crazier!