Ari and I had the AWESOME opportunity of going up to Page at the beginning of the month. I directed the Northern AZ Junior High Honor Choir. It was quite an honor to be selected to do this. Of course I had to have Ari come up with me and be my accompanist! The kids were great. We sang the songs: River in Judea, I Believe (olympic song), South African Suite, and Over Hill, Over Dale. It was great to spend time in beautiful Page, AZ. We ate down by the lake on a floating restaurant! I'm so grateful for these types of opportunities! I also directed the Deer Valley Jr. High Honor Choir this month so my guest conducting/directing card was quite full. Ari did a wonderful job accompanying that choir as well. We make quite the team. I'm one lucky guy!!
Sittin' on the dock of the bay. . .:)
As the weather started to warm up, I had to take advantage of our location. We lived just 20 minutes away from one of the best water parks in the country- Wet and Wild! It's right across the street from the new Phoenix temple. I decided to be sporadic and take the boys one Saturday in early May. The problem was, we were having a little bit of a cold spell and it was FREEZING! It was low to mid 70's all day with quite a chilly wind. We were all pretty miserable, but there weren't many people at the park so it was kind of fun to have it all to ourselves.
This wave pool may look glorious but it was freezing! No heated water at this park. I think the water had to be in the 60s. It felt like the whirl pool you would ice a sprained ankle in. We didn't last long in it. :(
The worst part of the trip would have to be standing in line for the huge Mammoth Falls tube roller coaster ride. I had my eye on this ride for months and could not wait to ride it. It was all going smooth until we got near the top. The wind was INSANE! I thought we were going to blow off, and to make matters worse the mist machines were on so I think we were getting hypothermia. I don't think I've ever seen Jaxon so cold, whiney, and cry-ee. (And that's saying something). The ride kept breaking down because the tubes were getting stuck when they were going up the conveyor belt and a worker had to put on a harness and climb up a ladder and free the tubes. This happened multiple times and people were giving up and leaving the line. I was persistent and intent on riding this ride. Much to Jaxon's dismay. I swear he thought I wanted him to die or something. Kodee seemed to make it through this whole ordeal ok. It was finally our turn. We got in the tube, and I had a panicky thought. Here I am- 200+ pounds riding this tube with two boys under 50 pounds each. In my mind I pictured our tube tipping over and us all falling to our deaths right as we went over the edge. Needless to say, we survived, and we will probably never go to Wet 'n Wild again (at least not until the boys are older, and the weather is piping hot!)
Oreos for HER! Sad to say, but I think they were eaten in a matter of hours by the fam;(
A new teal wallet! With Ari, a sure fire bet is teal anything. If you remember that- she'll love you forever!
A new "tealish" purse to go with the wallet. Thank you Wal Mart!
Breakfast for a princess! Dad always makes her french toast on mother's day, and the boys picked the flowers!
Good morning sunshine!
Lottie's first french braids. These were crazy hard to do- but had to try!:)
Ari's magnificent fruit pizza. This one was quite a cool pattern!
I have the best, most supportive family ever! Joanna, Jim and Kim came to my final concert of the year! They were so good to support me while I was up in the valley!
Glad to be done with this concert!
Broadway Bound performed an "In The Heights" set. It turned out really well. I felt like we worked on it for a million years. It was pretty much the only thing this choir was able to do in this concert, so it was hard to make the days exciting for the kids. That was one of the hardest parts about working at Boulder Creek. I was only allowed to have this choir sing a short set in each concert so keeping them busy through the year was tough. I was so used to working on TONS of songs of all types of variety. Hitting the same 4 songs every day for almost 4 months was almost unbearable and the students did not enjoy living groundhog day EVERY day. I wish I could say the year ended well with them, but there was only a handful of the kids that seemed grateful for what I did. It really depressed me that they didn't show a little more appreciation. Oh well. C'est la vie!
This student loved Lottie SO MUCH! All year she would ask about her and only her. The questions were always the same: "What is Lottie up to right now?" Usually this was the first thing in the morning so I always said she was sleeping in her crib. I also got, "What makes Lottie laugh? What is her favorite thing to watch on TV? What does she eat? Where is she??" Ha ha. This student was SO talented though. She has a form aspergers autism, but is extremely high functioning. She was a regular at the classical All State choir and could sing the heck out of her solos and sight read with the best of them. Definitely an insightful teaching experience!
One day we decided to have a fun family day and go play laser tag! The boys loved it! Lottie and Gemma- not so much. Maybe next time, it will be a boys only event.
Finally- graduation! I cannot say enough how ready I was to get out of Anthem and get away from Boulder Creek. It's sad to say, but this year nearly did me in. I was SO excited to get out here and make dreams come true and work hard with this school and take it to the next level. It took only a few weeks to have the rug ripped out from under me. I found myself in an impossible teaching situation. I was under the impression I was going to have a lot more say about the things the choir program did, but I found myself very much not in the loop. The whole reason I went to this school was to have a successful touring program, but within just a few weeks I was told that would not happen. I felt like I was constantly between a rock and a hard place. I'm sure losing dad in September did not help, but I was not prepared for the spiraling depression I found myself in during my time in Anthem. It felt as if everything I thought I was good at, and confident in, crumbled and I didn't know who I was anymore. Everyday was a trial and a struggle. I'm incredibly grateful to Ari for lifting me up and supporting me through this lowest of lows time for me. This was definitely my rock bottom year in our marriage. I'm doing so much better now, but there was a time I could not see any light at the end of the tunnel. I'm so glad to be on the up and up, and thank my Heavenly Father every day for putting me on the path that I am on and back to a job and school that I love teaching at.
It was pretty cool to have graduation at the Cardinals stadium. Not ever school in AZ get's such a neat experience.
As I sat there, I could not help but think about Katy Perry flying around on her little remote control helicopter/shooting star at the super bowl half time show. This is where dreams are made people!
One thing I will definitely miss in Anthem are these beautiful people! We LOVED our piano and voice students! This was at our final voice/piano recital in our humble abode. I sincerely loved working with Jordan Raban, Emma Suttle, Jayda Mendiola, and Brody Wurr. All of them were hardworking and truly gifted. I cannot wait to see where they end up! Jaxon also performed in the recital. We tried to keep his piano lessons up, but we are so grateful he is back with Celeste now. He does so well with her!
Ari loves a good party! A few years ago we started a tradition with the Tregaskes' to do a Cinco de Mayo party, so we brought that tradition up to Anthem. We loved hanging out with our ward member friends. That was the other thing we loved most about Anthem!
Another great thing about Anthem- the parks! This community park is one of the best in the country, no doubt! It is what attracted us to the community when we first visited.
Ari took the girls for one last train ride. . .
Selfie time!
Poor Lottie is the female Kodee. She gets the WORST bumps and goose eggs on her head.
The pics that we will be sure to show their future fiances! Ha ha! Good old sibbling bath time:)
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