Introducing Charlie

Remember how I said that Colton got to play with our friends' bearded dragon, just to see how he liked it?  A few weeks after that, they asked us if we'd like to have their dragon!  They're having another baby (kid #4!) and the son who owns the dragon hasn't managed to take care of it without a lot of parental help, and mom and dad were feeling overwhelmed.  We were delighted-- Colton had really liked their bearded dragon, and we had figured out that the pet store only carried them sporadically and they were a surprising $80 or so to purchase. So, yes to the free dragon!  But this put the pressure on Colton to learn the hymns on the piano that he'd promised he would do to "earn" his new pet.  He worked very hard over the next few weeks and managed to pass them off, so now we have a bearded dragon!  

Meet Charlie!

He has a very pleasant sort of smirk on his face

Leland and Mabel were happy to see that Charlie (formerly known as Rio)(and now officially known as Charlie Rio Smith, so he shares the same initials as Colton!) was going to a good home.  We promised them they are always welcome to come and visit!

It's always exciting when you can get him to ride around on your shoulder

He enjoyed bath time

And then getting dried off (he blends in pretty well with that towel, actually)

We never manage to just have normal pets... but we do get, we have a lot of fun with!

Bach's B-Minor Mass

That same week was concert week for me, so I had lots of late-night rehearsals.  It all sounds so exhausting when I'm marking it on my planner, but I'm learning how to make stuff like this work better for me-- I cut out my early morning workouts so I could get a bit of extra sleep (I didn't have a lot going on during the day, so I could still get my daily walks in, just later), and that helped a lot.  But, also, it turns out that Michael was right when he promised us that this was the greatest music ever written.  Sometimes I have to really work to love the pieces we do (like when we did Rachmaninoff's All Night Vigil), but with this music the love came easily and early on.  And when you're standing around singing absolutely gorgeous music, it's sheer delight.  I was sad each time rehearsal ended!  

Bach's music was also wonderfully therapeutic to my life in general.  One time I had the practice tracks playing while I worked on my blog and-- as I sometimes do-- I got distracted reading old blog posts and suddenly I was crying over my best friend's death (this happened thirteen years, so it's not exactly a fresh wound, but that doesn't mean I don't still miss Carla something awful at times).  Suddenly, I realized that the song I was listening to was the Resurrexit portion of the mass and it was a lovely reminder that I believe in a literal resurrection and will get to see Carla again.  Even the rather soullessly robotic practice tracks managed to be perfect.  As I got some other difficult news during rehearsal week, being reminded of Christ's atonement and our ability to be forgiven became more and more important and I was able to find a real respite in the music.  It was much more personal than these concerts sometimes are for me.

Some things I learned-- Bach put all of this together late in his life, sort of like his own Greatest Hits album.  He begins with two different Kyrie movements and they're both gorgeous.  Can you imagine having so much amazing complex music swirling inside you?  I really can't.  Just being able to hold both tunes in my head so that I could switch between them was something of an accomplishment for me.  (At one point during concert week I played the Kyrie from Mozart's C-Minor Mass since I couldn't remember how it went any more, and it felt so dramatic after Bach's music!  Like, it was almost shocking.  Was that how people experienced Mozart's music when he first came on the scene???)  Bach also repeated some of his own music within the Mass-- Gratias agimus tibi is the exact same notes as the final, Dona nobis pacem.  This was awesome since the music is gorgeous and it meant less for me to learn!  No complaints here!  The Osanna portion is also repeated-- this one was a little harder to get excited about because both are near the end of the whole piece and we really were getting tired.  

I should say-- as much as I loved the whole thing, singing the entire mass felt like a marathon.  It's LONG, even if it is all amazing.  Fortunately for us, we actually got chairs on the stage and could sit during most of the solo numbers.  Michael very rarely does this (I think he figures that since he's standing the entire time, we ought to be able to, also, but we just aren't used to it like he is!), so we were all very excited for this concession!

Anyway, here we all are-- seated-- inside UVA's Old Cabell Hall:

My family were all seated up close and right behind the bass, so they got to hear him really well!

There's me smiling to Craig as we all get situated!

The concert went beautifully.  I think Michael was actually emotional as we finished, which I have never seen before, so that felt like a huge accomplishment for everyone.  I'm so grateful that I could spend so much time immersed in this music, it was such a wonderful experience.

Donna, Colton, Tom, Kendra, and Camille seated outside the hall.  Craig, Bentley, Ryder, and Adam all also came, but we didn't manage to take any pictures of them somehow...!

Trying to Wrap Up the School Year

The last week of April was a flurry of activities--

Ben Hughes (the same person who let Colton come and play with his kid's bearded dragon) offered to take Ryder and Craig rock climbing and they had THE best time

We had a welcome back dinner for Bentley with the Smiths at Citizen Burger Bar!  It was kind of a long wait time (it's hard to get a table for 8-- and that was only because Kendra was busy!) so Donna decided we should get milkshakes while we waited and I was definitely NOT going to say No to that:

Chaps-- one of my many happy places!

Dinner was great and the weather was perfect.  My only issue was that my salad came at the same time as my burger-- that was fine, as I'd told our server I didn't care when it came-- but then once I had both items sitting in front of me (and a milkshake already in my tummy) there was just no way that the salad was going to win over the burger and fries.  So I took it home and ate it the next day and it was still delicious.  But I did feel a little silly boxing up an entire wedge salad!  

Colton was hoping Kendra would pay him another nickel to eat the pickle.  Gross, huh?

The reason Kendra didn't come to dinner was because she was busy going to prom!  She had a fun time getting her nails done with her friends, although we forgot to take pictures of how cute they turned out.  But seriously, how pretty is she?

And now we are currently really in the thick of it with "Maycember"-- so many band concerts and things to attend to!  I'm also trying to go see some of the girls in YW and support them in their extracurricular activities, so that ends up being A LOT.  The first weekend in May, I went to the Fluvanna High School choir concerts (where Jadyn and Megan R. were singing and Sabrina accompanied the choir on piano-- and I hadn't even known she played piano!), and the next evening I got to see Ember performing in her homeschool Shakespeare co-op's production of A Comedy of Errors (this is kind of funny, because Craig and I just saw the same play at Blackfriars in April AND I was in it when I was in high school-- that's getting to be a lot of experience with what is considered Shakespeare's worst comedy!)  This was a very fun evening because we made it a double date and had dinner at Torchy's with the Huffs first!  And then, since this co-op is made up of members of our stake, we got to run into all kind of random friends we don't see very often, including Chris Shaw's parents who Craig grew up knowing in New Jersey, who were there to see their grandson performing!  (And, actually, that grandson played Ember's love interest and they were super cute together, so now I feel like this story has come full circle!!!)  The homeschool crowd did a GREAT job with the play, and getting Crumbl Cookies afterwards made for a perfect evening!  {Chef's kiss!}

Craig with Chris, David, and Barbara Shaw!

The next day Craig chaperoned Ryder and Colton's band field trip to King's Dominion.  He only took two pictures and they're not terribly interesting but here you go:

Kendra, meanwhile, was also on a band field trip, except her trip was an overnighter at Hershey Park, so she had a grand time and did not sleep at all (and then immediately was sick for a few days after--shocking, I know).  Camille had a primary activity in the morning in Waynesboro and Megan offered to take her, so that left me and Bentley free to attend the Fluvanna Arts Festival.  This entailed a short "best of" of the choir concert I'd just attended, and then we wandered around with Missy looking at all the artwork they'd set up in their gym, where two of our YW (Marianne and Luci) had been awarded first place prizes!  So that was very cool!  I headed home, and then later sent Bentley to retrieve Camille.  He stayed long enough that the Huffs finally just fed them dinner, which meant I finally ate dinner all alone.  I honestly can't remember the last time I did that...  It was kind of weird, honestly.  But not in a bad way...

The next Tuesday the youth were doing more fundraising, this time at Doris Dudley's home (Doris, at age 99, is THE oldest member of the Rivanna Ward!).  She spoke last year in sacrament meeting and went on WAY longer than she was supposed to, and when various people (bishopric members and her grown children sprinkled throughout the congregation) tried to get her to wrap things up, she refused to stop talking, saying simply, "This is the last talk I'll ever give!"  It was pretty funny, even if we did run over by at least 15 minutes...  Anyway, it was a beautiful spring evening at her home, and the kids actually had a great time working-- it was fun to see!

Our previous bishop, Steve Morgan, with Doris.  Steve was born and raised in the Rivanna Ward, so he's known her his whole life!

The YM are busy mulching and weeding

While the YW are staining an old picnic table

I love how their shirts are kind of rainbowy here, and McKinley and Jadyn are opposites!

On Friday Craig and I stopped by the temple with Bentley and then got dinner at Chuy's, so that was a fun evening:

Also going on at the same time... (and the subject of my next blog post)?  My spring concert!

Grandparent Time!

The rest of the time with my parents felt like our same crazy levels of busy, but with Grandpa Rex and Grandma Patrice folded into the mix.  I really wish we could have done more special stuff just with them, but you can't cancel band concerts and fundraising activities just because you have out-of-town guests.  They did manage to steal Ryder and Colton from school one day and take them to lunch at Tip Top, and then the next day they nabbed Kendra and Camille for lunch at Citizen Burger Bar.  That was special!  And I managed to get quite a bit of ice cream and Torchy's with them, so I was very happy. 

And it was fun that they could see Ryder and Colton at their band concert:

They combined the bands at the end, so you can see both my sons here!

Weirdly, this looks like I photoshopped Ryder into this picture, but I swear I didn't!

But then we actually had to leave early so we could get this guy from the airport:

Welcome back from BYU, Bentley!!!

And then the next day my parents were heading to New York and I realized I hadn't taken any pictures, so we took a bunch before the kids left for school trying to make up for it-- and honestly, these pictures totally crack me up, so I'm glad we at least did that!

Don't let him fool you-- Colton is totally standing on his toes for this picture!  He hasn't gotten taller than Grandma yet!

I'm not sure why we did a serious picture here, but unsmiling Bentley and Grandma is the funniest thing ever.  Also, their outfits are so coordinated!

Add Kendra to the mix and everyone is happy!

Here they are smiling!

And back to serious.  They look like they will absolutely kill you.

And Craig and my Mom are also matching!  (They have a fun history of doing this-- this is actually one of their better pictures for the matching category!!!)

Anyway, it was a quick trip, but we're glad we got to see my parents for a few days!!!

DC with the Maddens

My parents were coming our way to do a church history tour with my uncle, so obviously they had to visit me and my sisters while they were here!  They had their dates all organized when I realized that they would be leaving my house the same day that Bentley came home from BYU, except they'd completely miss each other!  And since he's leaving on his mission soon after, that meant they wouldn't see him for two years!!!  SO I asked my sister Leah (who they were going to go see next) if they could stay an extra day with me.  Leah agreed to the new plan and was very generous about losing a day with them.

So when we realized that she would be in DC over the weekend with her family and we could probably meet up, I felt like I really owed it to her to try (even though driving to DC is the worst).  And we actually managed to make it work!  My parents and I left the house at 7am and met up with the Maddens at their hotel in Old Alexandria (thank goodness the hotel let me park there AND I'd driven the truck, which is much more maneuverable in a small parking garage than my bus van!).  From there we took the Metro into the city and visited the Spy Museum:

Leah, Theo, me, Eliot, Mom

I wasn't able to get tickets for the exact same time, so we sort of did the Spy Museum separately, but it was still super cool!  Craig had taken the kids there a few years ago while I was busy with a choir concert, so this was my first time going! 

I thought that their spy disguise for Theo was AMAZING:

Now he's going to want green hair when he's older!

And my disguise got a fun film noir vibe that I absolutely loved:

Why am I not styling my hair like this?  And wearing a fedora?  And living my life in black and white???

From there we grabbed lunch at a nearby food court before heading to the Museum of Natural History:

Gotta love giant sharks!

Brian, Theo, Eliot, Leah, Dad, me

I crack myself up

After that we sort of wandered.  There was talk of walking past the White House, but Theo was getting pretty tired, so we stopped and rested while my parents dashed into the Museum of American History to check out the Nauvoo Sunstone (they couldn't find it, though, and I couldn't the last time I was there, either-- is it just a myth???) and a display of First Lady's dresses.  By the time they were done, we'd decided not to bother with the White House since it was the wrong direction for our next stop, and instead headed to the wharf where we'd scheduled a water taxi to take us back to Old Alexandria.  We had just enough time to get ice cream before we boarded our taxi, and the ride was really nice.  (It did make me laugh-- as I was boarding the boat and sipping on my chocolate milkshake, the guy checking our tickets asked me rather sternly if my drink had alcohol in it.  When I told him it didn't, he said, "You need to have rum to board the boat!" 😂)

Leah had made a reservation for us at a pizza place called Emmy Squared and it was delicious (everything we ordered was top notch, but I was especially impressed with the salads!)-- definitely hit the spot after all that walking!  Old Alexandria was PACKED so I was glad she'd gotten a reservation-- finding a table for 7 might have been difficult!  And then once we were absolutely stuffed, we walked back to their hotel.  And then Mom & Dad and I got to drive back to Charlottesville!  We got home around 10:30pm, so it was a long day, but everything had gone really well (and the weather was perfect!!!) and we were so glad we'd gotten to spend time with Leah and her family!  Definitely a day well spent!

Miscellaneous Photos

A few other pictures I want to share so they don't get lost...

Along with growing five inches this year, Ryder hit another important rite of passage-- he got braces!!!

Goodbye, crooked teeth!

Hello, metal mouth!

Our orthodontist has always given us some sort of family discount, but since Ryder is the fourth kid we've brought his way AND a friend of mine started taking her kids there after my recommendation, they gave us an even bigger discount than usual.  So that was nice, at least.  I'd be more excited, except literally the week before, our dentist announced that Colton also needs braces.  I can't say this was a surprise, but it still seemed kinda mean...

In other news, Camille went on a field trip and someone sent me this cute picture of her and Mara sitting together on the bus:

And, a few weeks ago, as I went for an early-morning walk, the moon came out from behind the clouds and it was pretty awesome:

In a rare stroke of luck, I haven't managed to kill off my flowering dogwood yet and it makes me so happy:

More soon!