New Practicing Record!

Oh our little Emma. I didn't know there was such a thing as a kid who LIKES to practice their instrument. I swear she has never complained once about practicing.

Way back last January Emma had this one week where she practiced all seven days of the week, including the day of her lesson. She was so thrilled when she brought her practice chart to her next lesson and got rave reviews from her teacher, The Becky. She decided to do it again the next week. And the next. And then decided to go for 50 days in a row. That went by faster than we thought it would, and soon she was racing ahead in her repertoire. I couldn't stop her from deciding to practice for a solid 100 days. Wow. Amazing.

I think it was Romney who put the idea in Emma's head that she could double that with no problem. And you know what, Emma totally did. She practiced every single day for 200 straight days, all the way from the end of January through August. It was amazing. On vacation, on her birthday, on the last day of school. No stopping!

And then....The Becky let Emma know that she now had permission to take a break. That's the thing about streaks. The longer they go the more stressful they get and the more nerve-racking it feels to miss a day. That's also my little Emma - she takes after her mom and can be kind of susceptible to anxiety. Honestly, that first day of not practicing was a little hard for her but she really did breathe a big sigh of relief.

We are so so proud of her and the way she has really soared ahead. She's now just about done with book 2 in her Suzuki method. She loves playing the violin and that's really the most important part. Music makes life sparkle.

It is important to note also that both Chase and Romney are in a very great music spot as well. Chase, as I noted in the Jam Bands post, is really loving the guitar and practices all the time just because he enjoys playing. Romney took a long break from the cello but started up again with a new teacher in
April. She really needed that break - it taught her how much she does love playing the cello. She's such a better practicer now too and is really making breakthroughs in her musicality. I'm so proud of all of them.

TSFY vs YC

Yea, those acronyms. They can be obnoxious. Especially because TSFY really should be YTU but since it was TSFY when I attended, that's what I'm going to call it.

TSFY: Theater School for Youth, which has now been changed to YTU: Youth Theater at the U
YC: Youth Conference

We had a close call with Theater School this year. That's the month-long camp that Romney attends at the UofU with the most wonderful theater director for kids, Penny. This was to be Romney's fourth year attending and she was really excited. You know, we all sort of give up a lot so Romney can attend. Not only is it money, but we really didn't travel this summer because we needed to be around for this and for Chase's weekend volunteering gig at the zoo. She was excited for theater school, though, and of course had no second thoughts about attending. That is...until she found out that our ward's Youth Conference was to be the same week as her performances and on days that she could not miss at theater school. (Youth Conference, by the way, is the name our church has for the annual summer trip for kids from 12-18.) Romney has grown so very close to the girls in her church group - really a wonderful circle of friends. And we thought she'd just miss one day of youth conference but AFTER YTU started we found out that we had the dates wrong and she would not be able to attend any of it.

Well...I'll just say it was really bad. Sobbing sobbing sobbing. Romney had to choose between YC and YTU and she very nearly gave up a whole month of camp in order to not miss the conference. We even talked about her not being a part of the performances at the end of camp so she could take off whenever she wanted to. My heart was breaking for her!! This has happened several times, that she has been heartbroken about something (the school play in middle school, missing youth conference, quitting cello) and there's just nothing I can do but be in her pain with her and that is partially just annoying to her I think. (It's actually happening again right this very minute as she had some disappointing news today about auditions for a play at East....) It hurts so much! It hurts her, it hurts me. And her dad. Even her siblings feel for her.

I could do nothing but let the decision be up to her. She took a couple of days but decided to not go to Youth Conference, even though it caused many more tears. And then...I offered to do something really really SUPER nice which was to drive her to Youth Conference at Bear Lake (about 2 1/2 hours away) one afternoon right after theater school, spend the evening there with her, and then drive home again that night. That is a lot of driving for one day, believe me, but Romney accepted happily. I was so glad that this became our plan.

Romney had a wonderful time at YTU, which I knew she would. She had a great time playing her role in her final performance, a melodrama of Robin Hood. She played an old crazy beggar lady and was hilarious. She's so good. She's SOOO good! I just want her to have her shining moments. I know, I'm such a MOM. But I just want her to get her chance to really be the star of a show and show off her skills! She'll get her chance, I know. And she loves her theater experiences. (Except in middle school which I'm not sure counts.)

Youth Conference happened during that last week of school, and I dutifully picked up Romney at 3pm, taking along with us Emma and our friend Bob and his son Thomas who wanted to spend the evening up there too.

We were sad we couldn't stay longer because that group of kids truly is amazing and it was a really fun evening. Romney got a chance to be with her circle and get a taste of the trip, and not miss out on a month of wonderful YTU. (TSFY. Whatever.)

I put some serious miles on our new tires, but it was totally worth it.

Keeping up with kids is hard. Keeping up with their emotions is even harder. I'm doing my dangdest though!

Romney and I needed a little therapeutic dessert dates to process the situation.

The night of her performance. Old lady makeup looks awesome on her.

Cast members!

Chase did go to all of Youth Conference. Man does he love the boys in our ward as well. We are very very lucky and happy and grateful for the good people around us. He had a ball and I was so glad to shoo him out of the house for a few days. He was one of the big men around - he used to be such a cute pip-squeak 12 year old! But he took on the boating day and loved rough housing out there on the water. Great great weekend and I'm so grateful for the leaders and planners!

Jam Bands

Chase has been taking guitar lessons since sometime in 8th grade. I think. Gotta say - I can't quite remember. But in any case, he's been taking from Christian, the son of one of Troy's very best friends from high school. He's such a nice kid and has really helped Chase love the guitar. He's just Chase's speed.  He's also the lead singer in a fairly ROCKING band called Acacia Ridge. Lots of screaming. But like musical screaming, so you know, screaming in a good way. Turns out Christian is a total rock star.

Anyway, Christian has been involved with a summer camp for a number of years called Jam Bands. I think he attended it as a high-schooler and is now one of its teachers. They get kids together for a week and during the week the kids divide up into mini-bands. Each kid gets to be a part of 4 bands. They spend the whole week learning a song (so, four songs per kid) and at the end of the week there is a concert at an outdoor amphitheater. 

Chase expressed a lot of interest in going so we set it up. At the beginning of the week he knew absolutely no one and I think I was a little sorry he had done the camp. But as Chase always does he made all these great buddies and memories and had a lot of laughs. He was super excited to go in the mornings and spent the whole day learning how to be a true lead guitarist.

Friday night rolled around and our family headed to the theater and I'm not going to say the performances were amazing - these were pretty young kids. Chase was one of the oldest kids there. But it was so fun to see them having such a good time being rock stars. Chase absolutely loved it, and we loved watching and listening to him.

His bands played Shut Up and Dance, Renegades of Funk, Heartbreaker and Dream On.

He's asking to go back again next year and I think he really gets the vision now so I'm guessing he'll put in some more practice time on the songs he'll have to learn before camp starts. It's such a cool concept - a band camp for rock stars.

July the 4th

Okay, so Independence Day. We did not have big plans. We did not have any people to make plans with. The kids came up with a great plan, and that was to load up Inigo the Cruiser with all our fishing gear and head up to the lakes along the Mirror Lake Highway.

This day turned out to be one for the books. We had so much fun. It was just wonderful to head to the mountains and paddle around the lake and catch fish.

Yes, that's right, I said CATCH FISH. Usually, we just go fishing. Actually catching fish has not always been what goes along with the fishing. I mean yes, we have caught a fish or two or even three from time to time. But this day was epic. We got into our canoe - I can't believe all five of us fit in there with all the equipment - it is a bit precarious to say the least. But Chase and Troy know what they're doing thank heavens - Chase has gone to Yellowstone enough times that he really feels confident in his canoe skills which maybe seems like not a super big deal. Trust me, it takes skill and we are happy to have it. We paddled to a one shore where we had a little luck and then over to the dam.

We could not stop catching fish! Emma and Troy were especially successful. What a fun day. We got lots of sun but I think we all avoided getting burned. We maybe should have brought our lunch with us in the canoe because we stayed out on the water until like 3pm or something and we were pretty dang famished by the time we returned to shore. Also we had one mishap of leaving half our stuff like the nets on one shore after heading to another, but since I don't have a license and can't fish, I took myself for a long walk to go get it while the rest of the family kept snagging fish.

I think we ended up keeping six of them and barbecued them the next day. Chase was such an awesome man and did the gutting. I think it was all him. (As you may have guessed I'm blogging this way way way after it happened.)

What a wonderful day we had! We grilled our fish for dinner and then most of us (we left our tired Troy at home) headed over to the country club for another great year of fireworks. This year was especially great since the fireworks actually HAPPENED, unlike last year. So yay for that. Lovely evening!