Saturday, November 21, 2015
We have never taken our kids to a BYU football game so when I heard a deal on the radio for some discounted tickets for their last home football game, I talked DH into us going with Luke and M&M. It was a fun experience - although it got a little cold towards the end of the game! They also won which made it nice - although it would have been more exciting if the game had been a little closer! We also enjoyed watching the marching band!
Saturday, November 14, 2015
Tuesday, October 28, 2015
M&M and Luke both had their winter band concerts on the same night so DH and I had to split up.
I don't have any pictures of M&M's band for the concert - except for some blurry ones!
Saturday, October 24, 2015
Luke and a friend of his decided to go to the Multi-Stake Youth dance together. It was a Halloween dance so they were able to dress in costume if they wanted to. Luke and his friend are both really big Dr. Who fans so they each dressed up as one of the Doctor characters. I had a hard time finding a suit coat for Luke that fit the style he was going for and that fit him. I finally found this one at one of the local thrift stores and it wasn't too huge on him. He sewed a little pocket on the inside of the coat so that he could put a sonic screwdriver there. We also had a hard time finding the right bow tie. My dad had a couple that Luke took a look at and decided on a solid red one. Here he is with the completed look:
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
I went up to Kaysville to help with Luke's band for the Davis Cup Invitational. I met the band up there so that I could stay and watch M&M's performance later in the evening. Blondie went on a field trip for her orchestra class to shadow the marching band during the competition. They rode up on school buses and followed the band around and were able to go up into the stands to watch them perform. Afterwards they stayed and watched some of the other groups before they left. I was able to get permission to have Blondie stay with me instead of returning with the rest of the students. Unfortunately Blondie's nose started bleeding for some reason while we were in the stands and it just kept bleeding and bleeding... At one point I had to go back to our car to get a tissue box for her! Poor girl!
Luke's band got 2nd place and took the visual caption. M&M's band got 2nd place again too - which they were really excited about! They also took the percussion caption.
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| The props for Luke's band that we had to wheel around to the field and off again. They were very big and took several people to push/pull them. They looked really cool on the field. |
Saturday, October 3, 2015
This competition was held at Luke's high school. Both Luke's and M&M's bands were competing. I volunteered to help with Luke's band and DH brought the younger kids over to watch both of their bands. My parents came as well. After I was done helping Luke's band I was able to go up into the stands to watch M&M's band. Apparently we didn't take any pictures of Luke's band at this competition. DH was video taping it and I was on the sidelines helping out the band. Luke's band was one of the few groups that it actually rained on! It was cloudy before they performed and then it rained during the first part of their show and then afterwards the sun came out and it was nice weather after that!
M&M's band got 2nd place (out of 2 bands). It was nice for them to actually place but it will be nicer to see if they are still able to place when there are more bands!
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| M&M had to carry on one of the side props this year. |
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| M&M is just to the left of the person with the baritone that you can see. |
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| M&M with her baritone - front and center! |
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| The skies looked awesome after the storm that went thru during Luke's band. |
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| M&M is the front person in the line just to the left of the 50 yd line. |
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| M&M is the left-most person in this block. |
Saturday, September 26, 2015
I went with Luke's band to Payson for the Nebo marching band competition. (M&M's band did not compete at this one - they had an all day clean-up rehearsal instead.) Luke's band is competing at the 2A level this year (M&M's band is 4A). I thought they did really good for their first competition. I helped assemble some of their props and then with getting the band on and off the field. We then fed them before we left to return to the school. They didn't stay for awards because there was a school dance later that evening - which is unfortunate because they came is 1st place!! I think it was out of 7 bands! They were super excited! Apparently the band director dropped her phone when she was texted the results! The show is called Scheherazade and tells the story of a prince who selects a wife but she is in love with a commoner. At one point the prince and the commoner fight and the commoner is killed. I'll have to post a video of the show. Here are some pictures that I took from the sidelines:
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| Luke is just one of two clarinets in the marching band. If you zoom in on some of these pictures you can probably pick him out - he is the clarinet with glasses on and he is a little bit shorter than the section leader. |
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| I loved these gold flags! |
Monday, September 21, 2015
Here is Luke in his marching band uniform! This was at a family night showcase that they did before the competition season started. (And M&M's band had their family night showcase the same night so I went to Luke's and everyone else went to M&M's - since this was her last one.)
August 28, 2015
Luke was able to play in the pep band for his first football game! The game was at the high school - which is right across the street from our neighborhood - and was against M&M's high school! DH was out of town at a scout camp out so M&M and I walked over to the game to watch it. The game was packed because the two schools are relatively close to each other and yet they are not in the same division for sports. M&M met up with some friends there and they all came over to our house afterwards to watch a movie and hang out. The band sounded pretty good and I was impressed with their sound for being so small.
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| Luke is in that band group somewhere! |
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
With the middle schools they have the 7th graders start a day before the 8th and 9th graders to give them a chance to figure out their lockers and where their classes are before the school gets super crowded. That is why Blondie started yesterday and Luke starts today. Luke is in the 9th grade this year which is still in the middle school but he is allowed to participate in things at the high school - such as the marching band and any school sports.
Friday, August 14, 2015
It is weird having Luke in a different marching band than M&M! We will see how things go once the competition season begins! Luke's high school got a new band director at the end of the school year last year (and it is a relatively new school) - so they are starting fresh this season. The band is quite a bit smaller than M&M's band so they will compete in a smaller class size. It will be interesting to see how the new director is and how the new band will do things compared to M&M's band.
Luke's band did a family preview/parent meeting at the end of their 2 week summer band camp so we could see the progress that they had made up to that point. They were pretty close to having the whole show put together - I think they had all but one of the three movements on the field. Here are a few pictures from it:
July 29-August 2
DH, M&M, Luke and Blondie stayed one more night at Bear Lake and then the next day headed off to visit DH's mom in Vancouver. They were able to have some fun visiting her as well as DH's grandma who lives in Portland. The younger kids were bummed that they couldn't go to visit them as well but this was the only time that we could make anything work out this summer with our crazy school schedule. They drove up on Wednesday and came back home late Sunday night. They were also there for M&M's 17th birthday. They went out to dinner with her and saw the movie Ant Man which they all enjoyed.
Friday, July 24, 2015
This year our local school system decided to put together a combined parade band for the state's annual Days of '47 Parade. We were kind of excited about it because this would be the one time that M&M and Luke would be able to march together for band. Since we moved out of M&M's high school boundaries, Luke (and the rest of the kids) will attend a different high school.
M&M has decided for marching band this year to switch to the baritone! She stayed after school towards the end of the school year to learn from one of the other baritone players. So this was her first time marching with the baritone!
The band students practiced all week long the week of the parade. Here are some pictures after the parade:
July 7-11, 2015
This was Luke's first year going on a High Adventure Camp with scouts. DH decided it would be a good experience to go with him so he took the time off work and went as well. They went to Moab, UT and camped out in tents and did mountain biking (in the middle of July!). We were very nervous about what the temperatures would be like for them down there! Thankfully it was one of the coolest weeks temperature wise that they have ever had in July! I guess our prayers paid off - DH does not like the heat!
So although they had some nice(r) temperatures for July, they also had a few torrential rainstorms while they were there! They would have a nice morning/early afternoon and then the clouds would come in and it would just pour on them for 10-20 minutes. They did a little bit of hiking, went on a couple of mountain biking trips and went river rafting as well.
We bought Luke a new bike before they left - he had outgrown his old bike several years ago... DH and Luke traded off riding the new bike and an older one that they borrowed from someone in the ward. Unfortunately Luke had a spectacular crash that bent up the bike a little and gave him several battle wounds. Thankfully nothing too serious and DH was able to take the bike into town to get it fixed before their next ride.
There was one storm in particular that caused quite a bit of damage to the campsite and equipment. DH was at camp with several of the boys (including Luke) while the other leaders took the rest of the boys into town. While they were gone a very violent squall hit the campsite and damaged several of the tents and shade canopies. There are some pictures below that can give you a little bit of an idea of the extent of it. They also had a rainstorm hit them while they were river rafting!
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| Getting ready for one of the bike rides. |
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| Playing some hacky sack |
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| A storm on the horizon |
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| The squall hits! |
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| Some hail mixed in with the rain! |
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| Some awesome looking clouds! |
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| A morning devotional |
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| Luke in front of an arch |
