Pops Concert

 Little Lady had her first concert of the season and she performed in both choir and orchestra.  She was so excited to have a solo in choir.

Time Capsule

 This week I went up to the Stake Center to clean out the Stake Young Women closets, and boy oh boy did we find relics of the past.  I could not believe all the things we found.  We found a program of Greater Than Us All from 1997 with my name in it from high school.  There were napkins from When Its Love circa 1994.  My personal favorites were the VHS on Sports Regulations and the chastity pamphlets from 1986!!

I couldn't believe the amount of stuff that was crammed in there. 

We threw out 6 bags of trash and donated another 4 bags.  It was a successful cleaning!

Regional Theater

It's fun having a regional theater so close.  Little Lady is part of a student group going to the whole season at Syracuse Stage.  BB got to see Come From Away for a school field trip, and Joel and I went to celebrate his birthday, so almost everyone in our family saw it.  We all enjoyed it.  

Baby Piano

When I was growing up my mom would always say "if you want something nice buy it before you get married." I took it a little too much to heart and bought myself a baby grand piano right after college graduation.  It probably wasn't the smartest financial decision ever, but that piano has traveled with me over thousands of miles in 5 difference states.  I've had it for 23 years.  This time it's not making the trip to New York with us.  I traded it in.  I honestly was a little sad when they hauled it away.  I've had it longer than I've known Joel.  Bye Bye, Baby.

Many Goodbyes

 It's been hard saying goodbye to all of my students.  I pretty much cried or got emotional all 33 times.  

I love my students so much.  BB said good bye to his piano teacher.  He really loved Un Chong.

The boys had a surprise going away party and had a lot of fun.  

Cello Goodbyes

Little Lady has really enjoyed her time with Ho Ahn as her cello teacher.  He's taught her a lot in a very short time.  She improved quite a bit and finished an entire Saint-Saens Concerto.

Under the Sea

 My student, Alyvia, was cast as Ursula for the Teen Theater in the Park, so of course we had to go.  She and the cast did such a great job!

Last Lesson

With Little Man graduating he's finishing up his final classical guitar lesson.  He's had Kevin for 7 years and absolutely loved it.  He wants to continue guitar in college he's enjoyed it so much.

Final MAMA

A couple days later we packed again and headed to St. Louis.  Sorry Stella, you can't come.  The music festival was a bit more stressful and odd this year.  The voice participants accidentally got put on the wrong day, so we had to stay for 2 days and didn't get to go to the second award ceremony.  Half of the trophies were mailed to us later.  They originally messed up and said Little Man didn't get a superior rating for guitar, so he was confused and upset.  We got a phone call later saying they had made an error for him and other student from KCSM.  One of the voice judges was crazy ridiculous with her judging, so a lot of my beginner students were upset with their score.  We did still celebrate and have a good time even with all the bumps and challenges.

 

Kelly!

Kelly has ruined me for other concerts.  I could not get over how well she sang, and how she got better as the night went on.  She saved one of her hardest songs for the end.  I was blown away.  I was maybe 6 feet away from her.  Melissa waited in line a couple hours early to get in the center of the pit.  (I had almost just as much fun people watching while waiting for the concert to start).  The whole thing was incredible.  I loved how much energy she had and how comfortable being herself she was.  It was so much fun, and I also loved the full band and orchestra.

We had to get up at 4am to catch our flight home, but it was worth it. 

A Long Time Coming

 Melissa and I had tickets to see Kelly Clarkson's residency tour in Las Vegas last summer, but it was cancelled 48 hours before we were supposed to go.  We still went and had a fun time, but we've been waiting to see Kelly.  The concert was rescheduled for this July.  We were so excited!  The other concert the two of us really wanted to attend was Sarah McLachan, but we found out she was going to be in Kansas City while we were in Las Vegas.  What are the chances?!  We found out she would be in St. Louis the day before, so we hatched a plan to take the train to St. Louis and then fly straight to Vegas from there.  It worked, and we had a fabulous 48 hours!

First stop - St. Louis!

We headed to Union Station to take the train. The Amtrack was relaxing.  I read a book, and then we hopped in an Uber to the hotel to check in before heading out for the evening.  We went to a nice Italian restaurant next to the venue, and then walked around for a while.  Sarah McLachan still has the voice of an angel.  Her voice is so soothing, and I really loved hearing the background to her songs, and I also liked her new music as well as the songs I grew up on.  

We loved it, and then we hopped on a plane in the morning to Las Vegas!