First Piano recital!

On Thursday, Dawna played in her first piano recital. She played one of the "Variations on a theme by Mozart," also known as Twinkle Twinkle little star. She memorized a little speech and played so wonderfully! As a reward for her practicing and work, she earned a stuffed Rapunzel doll. I was very proud of her. Obviously this recording is before the recital, since we had the recital in the chapel. Dawna was amazing! Quite the musician!

Top 10 Memories from Easter in Utah.

10. Moses and Kaylee!

I havn't had many opportunities in my life to meet celebrities, so when I saw Moses and Kaylee at the reception... woah... I became totally star-struck! Completely incoherent, googly-eyed, and silly... yes, that's how I met Moses and Kaylee... I adore them. But in spite of my goofy behavior, Moses was very gracious and Kaylee very sweet and I have even more admiration for them after meeting them in person than I did before, which is something that I don't think I could say about many super-stars. But here it is, a picture with me and MOSES and KAYLEE!!! WooHoo!

9. Lehi Legacy Center

On Monday, Heather took me down to the Lehi Legacy center, which is a lovely community place complete with pool, track, weight room, and yoga class! I paid $5 for me and Dawna (thanks for a BoGo coupon) for a whole day of exercise and fun! Heather and I ran a 5k on the track in the morning, then Mom and Dad met up with us and the kids for a swim. We had a couple minutes in the weight room, and then in the evening, Rob volunteered to put the kids in bed so Heather and I could go to the 8pm Yoga class. And that was AWESOME! I discovered I really like Yoga... and may find a way to get into a class around home...

8. Old friends, new places
Throughout the week, Sarah Jean, Edwin, and Leeland accompanied us on several outings, including the Lehi Legacy Center, BYU campus, and she even invited us to the Easter egg hunt she was putting on for her "music-makers"-like class in her ward. As always, she added life, energy, and fun to our trip, not to mention beauty :) But Sarah wasn't the only old friend we found in Utah... We also got to hang out with Stephanie, Kora, and Brighton! We were quite the sight at the swimming pool... all these California girls swimming in the middle of snowy a Utah spring... it was almost a full joyschool reunion, but unfortunately, we missed seeing Angela and Talmage :( darn kindergarten got in the way! Next time though... because there will always be another trip to Utah... there's just too many things to do and too many people to see for one week... this one was the "friend" trip... in July we're coming out for the "family" trip...

7. Attached at the hip...
This would describe Larry and Isaac most of the time, but Hannah and Dawna every waking second of the day... and even some of the sleeping seconds of the day as well. From dress-up to restaurant to Queen and servant even unto trips to the potty, they didn't ever leave each other. Side by side they vacationed, up to the last night, when the two of them amazingly slept in the same twin size bed, side by side. They were the best of playmates and incredibly cute! The boys echoed the fun with their twin "I dig dirt"s in the yard, wrestling on the trampoline, and casting their new fishing poles (courtesy of Papa Severson) over the back lawn and down the stairs to the basement.

6. Down by the river side
For FHE, we all trekked down to the river to throw rocks and try out the new fishing poles. We had a really fun time, even though we nearly lost several of the plastic fish that were tied to the poles... all were recovered though, thanks to the fine efforts of Abbie, Emma, and Heather, who braved getting wet to save the items floating downstream. Only one unlucky person had wet feet by the end of the evening... and we will leave his identity undisclosed.

NOTE: No Emmas were harmed in the making of this picture :)

5. 11 Years ago...
On Sunday we celebrated Abbie's 11th birthday... 11... Really, Abbie? I mean REALLY?????? sheesh... her birthday was complete with angel food cake, roller blades and a new CD player. I got to reflect on my sophomore year of high school, when I was visiting Utah during spring break and Abbie was born. At the beginning of the week, Rob was talking to a tummy and by the end of the week, we were talking to the baby... it was crazy how quickly things changed, I thought. Abbie was the most beautiful baby I'd ever seen (I am partial, however, since she was my sister's baby). But she's never ceased bringing a quiet dignified beauty to her home, her friends, and her whole life! Love you, Abbie girl!

4. That was Emma?
And just like that, Emma grew up. "That was Emma?" was my comment upon hearing her practice piano. She plays the piano extremely well, she plays with her little cousins extremely well, and does pretty much everything extremely well. Emma let me do her hair almost every day for school and I had a great time with that! Her hair reminds me of mine-- I love it long and braided. I'll probably be begging to play with her hair once my goes all gray and frizzy... it will make me feel young again... wait a second... I think I just saw a movie about that! Aaahhhh!!!

Anyway, look out world, Emma is coming!

3. Old companions, new babies!
Oh good old Sis. Boren... or Groneman... or whoever... I'm so glad she had her baby early so I could come see little miss Lindy and her new mama! I must admit that I was a little nervous driving up to her place; it's been a long time since I've seen Katie and I can be a little socially inept sometimes... but as soon as I walked in, I remembered why I love Sis. Boren so much: she just makes everyone feel good about themselves, no matter what! Such an amazing example to me! I had a wonderful visit and got to hold the baby and everything! Such a cute little strawberry blondie! So So So good to see them both!

2. Quilting marathon with my sister

Can you believe I kept Heather -- HEATHER -- up till one in the morning, TWO nights in a row, working on a beautiful quilt! This was a serious quilting marathon, which included two days of piecing the top and one day where we borrowed quilting frames, mounted the quilt, tied the quilt, took it off the frame and did the binding... WHEW! It was a piece of work... and it generated a piece of art, containing the pants of Rob, Abbie, Emma, Danielle, Jon... and various unknown others...

Yes... Heather was up veeeeerry late... (that was at the Discovery Gateway, by the way... yet another fun stop along the way... ) but she was a master on the sewing machine by the time we were done! No project too big to take on!

1. Bro. and Sis. Evans!!

Of course the best part of the trip was what we came there to do: see Brooke and Jon sealed for time and eternity in the Mt. Timpanogos temple. We have been the lucky observers of this relationship from day one-- literally-- when Brooke came home and said, "I met this guy, Jon, actually.. .haha! He was pretty cool... maybe he has some cute friends he can introduce me to..." to the "We're in a relationship on Facebook" to the "I love you" to the "Will you marry me?" and right up to the sealing room! (and hopefully we'll continue to be the close followers for many years to come!)

Being re-united with all our Riviera 15 roommates is of course the fortunate side effect of such a wedding. Brooke faithfully attended all of our weddings, and now was the time to return the favor! Sydney and Dawna had a lot of fun, too :) Thanks for getting married, Brooke and Jonny, so we could have such a fun trip!