Lyceum Music Festival 2011

Graig got to attend the LMF held at the Zermott Resort in Midway. He used the money he earned selling tickets to concerts to purchase the food and lodging package so he could stay at the resort for the week.

Graig and Rosie

The orchestra being conducted by David Cho. He is an associate conductor for the Utah Symphony. Graig loves working with him.

Graig and Sherry were duet partners. They got to go and play in the lobby of Abravanel Hall as pre-show entertainment before a Utah Symphony concert.

This is Leah. Graig made friends with her at orchestra camp and now has a date set up with her.

Brad and Graig playing in the Grand Finale Concert

This is part of the room that Graig was staying in at the Zermott. Graig said there were five room in their condo and seven boys sharing the condo. All the boys had their own bed and most had their own bedrooms.
A funny story. Graig said that the first night at dinner they had wine glasses and cloth napkins and lots of silverware and each night the dinnerware got downgraded until the final night they were practically eating on paper goods. Graig said all the special guests ate dinner with the food and lodging kids and one morning they watched David Cho and his wife play ping pong.

Goodbye Chika

One of our favorite things to do with our exchange students is to invite some of their friends and their friends host families over for a bbq. This is Chika with two of the friends they had over.

Tyler and Melanie saying goodbye on Saturday morning.

Mary and Warren saying goodbye to Chika.

The bus to take the exchange students to the airport.

County Swim Meet

The county swim meet started off at the Lindon pool. It was so HOT when we were waiting for the meet to start that I thought I would melt into a puddle and I was wishing for the clouds that were off in the distance to roll in and give us some shade. Roll in they did with a thunderstorm which sent us running for the building two different times before they decided to cancel the meet.

Mom and I waiting for the storm to pass.

Tyler is on the top row in the middle. This is the "Bull Pen" where the swimmers line up for their next race.

Ready to backstroke. Tyler is in the middle.

Tyler's relay team.

Getting ready to dive in for a race.

Tyler is at the top of the picture

These are some of the ribbons Tyler won this year...

Melanie at the Mall

When I asked our exchange student, Chika, if there was anything else she wanted to do in Utah before she went home she said she wanted to go to the University Mall. So, I took Melanie and Tyler to the mall with Chika. When we got there Chika asked if she could go shopping by herself. This is how Tyler and Melanie entertained themselves at the mall while Chika was shopping....

Fun with Chika

It was great fun to have Chika Komatsu stay with our family for two weeks this July.

She is a really sweet girl.

Back: Mary, Tyler, Chika, Melanie, Brina (Brown)

Front: Jessica and Warren

(Doesn't Jessica's hair look cute pulled back into a barrett?)

The Brown's also had a Japanese student but their student was a boy. Brina liked hanging out with our student, Chika, because she is a girl. (Brina has four brothers)

We had dinner at the my parents house with the Atkissons on Sunday, July 24th.

Emily, David and Jessica played ping pong with Chika.

Kara, Graigry, Jessica, and Chika playing Jenga

Chika cooked dinner for us one night. She brought all the spices and sauces she would need from Japan. I don't remember what these were called but they were basically chopped cabbage mixed with an egg and fried in a pan with strips of bacon on top. She then put two different sauces on top and some green spice. It was delicious.

Each year all of the host families are treated to a farewell party. The students get together and in some way share Japanese culture with us.

Chika's group talked about Japanese symbols and what they mean.

It is tradition for the students to sing two songs for the host families. The first song they sing is in Japanese and you can tell it is a very sad song and a lot of the kids cry. When we got home we looked up the song on you tube and found a version with an English translation. The song is all about a teenage girl who is dying of Leukaemia and at the end of the song she dies. The song is about saying goodbye to people you love and so the students are also thinking about saying goodbye to their host families. No wonder they all cry.

At the end of the program there is a graduation ceremony from the home stay program, all of the students and host families get certificates.

RIP little bird - A Sad Story

We sure came to love this little bird at our house. He was annoying (chirped all day and night) but he was so cute and he needed us so much... He really liked to be hand fed. Even Warren would catch him grasshoppers and dig for worms for him. Melanie made him this great bird house out of an old vacuum cleaner box. We were working on helping him improve his flying so he could live in the wild and teaching him to eat from the bird feeder.

Chika with the bird. It was fun the way he would sit on your finger.

Then on July 27, Melanie and Tyler had him in the garage with them. The cat was around but the kids were watching the bird really close. They thought they had him safely hidden from the cat but then the tricky cat pounced on the bird, got it in it's mouth, and broke his neck before Tyler had time to rescue him.

It was very traumatic.

And just like that the little bird was gone to heaven.

We shed some tears and had a funeral.

He is now buried in the flower bed under the back window.

First Annual Neighbourhood Progressive Dinner

We have the greatest neighbours.

I like to tell people, when you have neighbours like ours you don't move and we haven't for 16 years now. We usually get together at Christmas for a party and way back at that party we planned a progressive dinner for the summer.

With a little work we picked a date and this is how it went...

Stop #1

The Colledge's House

Appetizers: Fresh Salsa, veggie tray, and strawberry smoothies

Tina

 Randy, Will, Ben, Warren, and Jessica

Tina had a patriotic word search and paper air plane patterns for an activity.

Chika and Laura

The kids were happy to just jump on the trampoline.

Stop #2

The Henrie's

Salads: Spinach and fruit

Tyler taught us a game he learned at Timberline called "Poison Frogs" played similar to "Maffia".

Stop #3

The Clark's House

Spaghetti and French Bread

Tommy, Jill, and Randy

The kids got right on the trampoline.

Afton with spaghetti on her nose.

Jessica, Dave, Emily, Ben, and the backside of Tyler

Corey, Tina, and Makayla

Randy, Will and Jill

Tyler and Adam

Chika and Laura

Makayla and Tyler

Jill gave us a quiz with trivia about the state of Utah. The kids who had finished 5th grade where they study Utah History did really well.

Stop #4

The Mitchell's House

Dessert

Lemon bunt cake, BTS cake, and Strawberry Shortcake.

Jessica, Warren and Tyler

It started to sprinkle a little bit so the kids made a tent under the apple tree.

We played a gesture pass along game, I'll call "Baa-Chi-Chi", and then the Colledge's shared their fireworks display.

 
 It was a really fun night.