"Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat"

Anybody else think the title of this musical is ridiculously long and hard to spit out?

Rebekah and Julianne, after months and months of rehearsals with their community acting group, danced and sang their way through "Joseph...." (see above for proper title) in four performances this past week. I was rather pleased with my seats... a few rows back from the stage in the center section of the high school auditorium where said performance was taking place. I whipped out my camera, prepared with the long range lens in place, ready to take all sorts of fabulous pics of my talented girls....

....until I heard the opening announcement informing us that cameras and picture taking of any kind was prohibited. What?? This isn't a professional theatre. It's a children's community acting class...and they weren't going to let us take pictures of our kids? I was peeved. I calmed myself to think that maybe at the end I could get some good pictures of the girls before they changed out of the costumes, at least.

The play was great and I was really impressed. Rebekah played the wife/girlfriend of the youngest son Benjamin. Julianne was tapped to be in the ensemble because of her awesome dancing skills. Both were marvellous and I was a ridiculously proud stage mama.

I rushed back to get some pictures after the show was done, only to have both girls decide to change out of their costumes BEFORE coming out to greet Bryan and myself, and also my parents. (Grumble, grumble....)

So you can bet I was pleased when a week later the girls brought home an order form of sorts for a CD of pictures. Which means this is not the last post you will see about this play. (Once again...refer above for correct title...) But here is one sneak peak at Julianne's Egyptian costume and a sweet picture of the girls after the show with their grandpa.

It's a good thing she's cute....

I should've realized earlier that nothing good tends to come from a toddler that is too quiet for too long. Lilian emerged from a good thirty minutes hanging out under the kitchen table looking like this:
She knows better than this. She also knows that she will be in some serious trouble if and when her dad finds out. (I guess I'm more or less outing her by posting this on the blog, aren't I?) She's in the tub right now with instructions to start scrubbing.

While we're on the subject of Lilian...she had a preschool field trip to Wheeler Farm
yesterday. It was hot, it was dusty, and there was a lot of walking. But we got to see a new baby lamb born that morning, feed the ducks and take a wagon ride so it all equalled out I suppose. Lilian had a great time and that's what really matters.

"Square Temple"

We took a family outing to Temple Square yesterday. Or "Square Temple" as Lilian kept calling it. It was absolutely gorgeous...which was to be expected, of course. Temple Square at Christmas with lights and during Spring with tulips is one of my very favorite places to be.
Be forewarned...I got a little bit of shutterbug fever while we were there....
Also, you may notice that we are missing a certain member of our family in these pictures. Brandon is on a vacation with his grandparents and cousins.

And so, without further ado...our temple trip in pictures:

Yanni

Pyrotechnics, choreography and super-sized projections have become standard for most concerts, giving extra bang for the buck to those willing to pay premium ticket prices.

But it was the music that Yanni fans came to hear Saturday night at the Maverik Center in West Valley City. The Greek musician’s loyal audience turned out in force, and their boisterous response showed why he has made the Salt Lake area a regular stop on his international tour schedule. (Review from the Salt Lake Tribune)

That loyal audience the newspaper reviewer talks about? Yeah, Bryan and I are a part of that group. We have been Yanni fans since high school. I wrote a music review about him for my college newspaper. We took one of his CDs with us to listen to while I was in labor with Rebekah. I think we own every CD he has released over the years. But neither one of us have ever seen him in concert. Well, unless you count the various concerts that have been produced as a TV special. (Live at the Acropolis was my favorite....) So when tickets went on sale back in December I thought they would make a great Christmas gift for Bryan. Last night he was finally able to redeem that gift.

Umm, wow! Live, in person, is cool!! Yanni's band/orchestra is made up of a bunch of absolutely amazing musicians....most of whom played elaborate solos. (I've never seen the harp played quite like that....) Yanni was at his prime...standing between his two keyboards, big smile on his face, directing his band with funky wrist and finger motions. Bryan and I shared a few smiles every time Yanni flipped his hair. It was a great concert...we had such a fun time!

BYU Women's Conference

I went to BYU Women's Conference yesterday! Amazingly enough, I had never been before. Which is strange on a variety of fronts.
First...just about every woman I know makes it an annual tradition to go with friends or sisters. I have four sisters so you would think this kind of thing would be right up our alley. But nope.
Second...I've actually sung at Women's Conference twice. In 1999 and 2003 I performed with Lex de Azevedo and the Millennium Choir at the big Thursday evening concert that they always hold. But despite having to drive down for those, it never occurred to me to go earlier so I could attend some classes beforehand.
Third...the conference used to be a huge part of my mother's life for many years seeing as she had been hired by Deseret Book to be the editor and compiler of a yearly Women's Conference book. When I was pregnant and soon to give birth to Rebekah I remember my mom telling me, "Sarah, you know I will drop everything and come when you go into labor. But if you really want to be convenient....it'd be great if you could wait until AFTER Women's Conference." :)

Despite all of these things, it wasn't until yesterday that I got my first taste of what Women's Conference is all about. I went down with five other awesome friends from my neighborhood and we had a great time. I'm not sure I've ever seen that many women in one place before. Thousand and thousands of women all packed into the Marriott Center for the opening session by General Relief Society President Julie Beck (kind of fun to see her in a little less formal of a setting, actually. She's pretty funny...) and then spread across campus attending the widely varied workshop/class offerings.

The three classes we chose:
1. The Tongue of Angels or Sounding Brass: Communication in Marriage
2. "He Has Borne Our Griefs, and Carried Our Sorrows": The Power of the Atonement
3. "Like Lionesses at the Gate of the Home"

All three were great and we took copious notes...especially Didi who was the only one us that was smart enough to bring a laptop. I don't don't know about you but I type much faster than I write. I had a ridiculously hard time trying to keep up with all of Elder Bednar's fabulous quotes in the closing session. He was spouting off gem after gem of amazing stuff and I couldn't get it all written down. Guess I'll have to wait for the transcript. Or hope Didi's flying fingers got more of it than I did.

Didi, Sita, Brooke, Emily, (me) and Ann

I look rather ridiculous in this picture...and the picture (not the weather) is somewhat foggy because, well, I don't know why, really. It was Rebekah's camera. But whatever. Picture proof of our fun and spiritually enlightening day.
(Special thanks to Bryan for taking the day off work so I could be gone all day! Is he awesome or what?)

Favorite Photo Friday: More London

November 1999

I know that I talked a bit about my London adventure a few months ago in a previous post... But in honor of the BIG WEDDING today, I thought I'd post a few more pictures from our trip. I don't know if I should admit to a guilty pleasure or declare it with pride...but I am a House of Windsor royal watcher. Have been since I was in Jr. High. Maybe it's silly seeing as the royal family really has nothing to do with us here in America. Escapism, maybe? The whole fairy tale, princesses and castles of it all? The pomp and circumstance and grandeur? Or maybe just the foreignness...figuratively and literally...of the whole thing. Well, whatever it is, I set my Tivo to record the grand event and am looking forward to watching it after I get home tonight. Maybe I should make scones and tea?

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday was a much calmer day after the happy chaos of Saturday and its egg hunts. We do it that way on purpose...so as to focus on the real meaning of Easter.

Back story: When Easter rolled around during Bryan's and my first year of marriage, I had all sorts of plans to fill an Easter basket for him. Candy, a book, a CD, a new video...just some fun little gifts. At the time, I was working at The Book Table which had a custom framing shop in the upstairs portion of the store. The more I thought about my upcoming plans for Easter, the more I realized that maybe I was going about it all wrong. We were living in a new apartment and still little by little trying to decorate...we didn't yet have a nice picture of Jesus Christ to hang in our home. So instead of picking out a bunch of odds and end unimportant sorts of things, I climbed the stairs to the framing department and had a talk with my co-worker. He helped me pick out a picture, a mat and a frame and then he put it all together for me. General Conference was on Easter that year. I still have very fond and tender memories of giving Bryan that picture (which he LOVED) and then cuddling up on the couch to watch conference together. That picture has followed us through 17 years of marriage and many moves and hangs on the wall in the hallway just outside our bedroom today.

That first Easter experience was a decision making one for us. We decided that we wouldn't teach our kids about the Easter Bunny. That we would make sure that any kind of egg hunt part of the Easter holiday would be on Saturday. And that what they would find in their baskets on Sunday morning would be church related. For example, years past have included new scriptures, CTR rings, their favorite scriptures in vinyl lettering to hang on their walls.

So Easter morning was calm at our house.




In the past Easter Sunday also meant fancy, new church clothes. The older kids don't care so much about that anymore so Lilian was the only one with a traditional "Easter dress." (She had a pretty little white sweater on as well but shrugged it off after church and refused to put it back on for pictures....)

After our big Easter dinner, we colored Easter eggs together as a family. I am proud to announce that Lilian did not crack a single egg...although she did spill the dye a few more times than I would've liked. While the kids were meticulously working on their eggs, I read them a talk about the Easter story. And while I was a little frustrated at times when outbursts such as "Hey!! That's the color I was going to use!" or "Don't touch my eggs!" would occur while I was in the middle of trying to explain something...all in all, I think they were listening judging from the questions they asked.

My favorite part of the talk (from my Dad) that I read to the kids...

"Unlike the words of the Christmas story, the words that we read at Easter are often hard and foreboding and violent and heartbreaking But in the end, the words of the Easter story are the words that make the Christmas story important. Because the words of the Easter story tell us that the baby of Bethlehem really was the King of the Jews, the Son of God, and the Savior of the World. And, in the end, the words of the Easter story may be the most joyful of all because they tell us that when the women arrived at the tomb, the stone was rolled away and the tomb was empty. As the women looked about frantically, an angel appeared to them and said, 'Fear not ye, for I know that ye seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said.'" (Matt 28:5-6).

Overall, it was such a great day and I was spiritually renewed. How amazed and thankful I am for my Savior's sacrifice and oh, how I hope I never take it for granted!

Hunting Eggs

Last year it snowed. The year before that Easter was in March and was cold enough that we had to postpone the big hunt till May. Easter being so late in April this year, we thought we were golden but rain and cold threatened all the same. We persevered and the great family egg hunt went on as scheduled. When I say great...I mean, not only fun and fabulous but also great in terms of size. This is Bryan's side of the family. His siblings and their children. But also his aunts, uncles and cousins...and THEIR children. Some serious kudos are due Bryan's parents for planning and hosting this event every year. I took oodles of pictures but here are just a few of my favorites....


Three different hunts took place. Lilian was in the "Under Kindergarten" age group. Here she is hunting through some of Grandma's bushes. This was her second hunt of the day....we had another little one earlier that morning in the common area/park of our neighborhood.

Brandon was in the "Big Kids" hunt. I chased him around for awhile, trying to get some pictures of him actually picking up an egg but he was so fast I could only get pictures of him sprinting from here to there.


The "Teen" hunt was made all the more exciting by the fact that there was money in many of the eggs. That was some serious egg hunting incentive for a group of kids that normally think they are too old for this sort of thing.


Here's Julianne meticulously combing through the bushes, irises and daffodils. It was because of her patient searching, rather than frantic darting around that she ended up with over $30.



Rebekah gets the prize for being one in mind and spirit with the most creative/tricky egg hiders. Inside the frame of the swing set? Who would hide an egg way up there? And yet, Rebekah figured it out. I guess she knows her uncles well.


After lunch was consumed and all the eggs had been found, things settled down a bit and we were all able to do some photos with Grandma Berneda...the matriarch of the whole clan. She is Bryan's grandmother...my children's great grandmother. She's a great lady and I'm so glad that my children know her.

Egg Drop

The 4th graders had an egg drop today. For the uninitiated...the idea is to wrap, pad and otherwise safeguard your egg in any way you choose so as to keep it protected while being thrown off the roof...as it then bounces, crashes, splats to the ground.

Brandon had wrapped his egg in packing foam, packed it into a tin can, stuffed napkins in every nook and cranny around it as tightly as he could and then taped the lid back on. Some kids had attached a make-shift parachute to soften their egg's descent. One person had wrapped the egg in diapers. Another had stuffed the egg into a roll of toilet paper. There were a lot of fun looking packages, a lot of great ideas for padding that ever so fragile egg.

The school had arranged for the fire department to send a truck and some firemen to do the actual chucking of the eggs off the roof. Brandon's egg was one of the first to come down. It made a rather ominous splatting sound. The whole crowd groaned...it seemed fairly obvious that the egg had not survived. I was worried that Brandon would be disappointed. But amazingly enough when he untaped the package and rooted around for the egg, a smile spread across his face when he realized the egg had actually made it through unscathed.
(Yes, Brandon is wearing a pink tie with his t-shirt and sweats. I'm not sure why, exactly. He's been wearing a different tie every day this week. New fashion statement, I suppose.....?)

By Brandon:

My family is a sandwich

My sister Lilian as the pink ham loving her color.
Julianne as the lettus, not alwase happy, not alwase mad.
Rebekah as the mayo, alwase sweet, happy, and loving.
Somewhere in that sandwich is me as a pickle, sower, taking over and alwase wanting to compete.
My dad is the bread, always pretecting us and my mom almost like the bread...my mom is the wheat.
They are together, they couldn't be one without the other.

(The assignment: to write a poem that compares the members of your family to something...a thing, a place, etc. Our family is a sandwich. Apparently Brandon was hungry that day....)