High School Orchestra

We are so proud of our Lillie for always trying her best despite not really being all THAT interested. But she is so talented and is doing so well on the violin. Last night she had her orchestra concert. She is the concertmaster for the 9th grade orchestra. She did really good. You could really see her leading the group. She has really come into her own on the violin. We could not be more proud.

Here she is walking out to tune the orchestra:

Here she is below tuning the orchestra. It was a Halloween concert. So she was dressed as a cow girl. 

Here is a zombie Halloween fun piece:

Braces

After two years of braces, Lillie got them taken off this month!! Her smile looks great and her teeth are so straight!!  Good job Lillie for taking such good care of your teeth!!

First day of high school

Our little Lillie started high school today. Here she is all loaded down with all her stuff. Violin, back pack, lunch, and scriptures for seminary. She gets up at 4:30 now to be at seminary by 5:50. She is such a good girl!!

More pictures from Hawaii

It was so nice to be home and be with family!  We enjoyed our time there!!we also went out with a dear friend from high school. Actually our families have been friends since we were babies. Leigh Ann Chang Siaosi. She is very accomplished and her family is outstanding in every way!!

Pioneer Trek Youth Conference

Before we came to Hawaii Lillie went on a pioneer trek. We are so proud of her. We were nervous because the weather was going to be extremely hot and humid and the youth were going to trek from noon until midnight on the first day. With nothing to eat. So we are so proud of Lillie. She can do hard things and we heard she was a real cheerleader to other youth. We sure love our Lillie a lot.

Grandma passes away

We have been in Hawaii for the passing of my grandma. I sure miss her. I have fond memories of spending my summers with her. We would go gallivanting all over the place on foot and bus.  I don’t think I was appreciative of doing that with her back then, but I am now. Somehow those simple days with her a long time ago were the best!  The funeral was wonderful. Lots of the extende family came out. That was so nice of them to honor my grandma like that. Over 150 people. The program was beautiful too. Simple for my grandma. I think she would have liked it.

When ye are in the service of your fellow beings...

we have started doing some service recently by playing music for a nursing home near by our home. It is really fun and it seems like it brings such joy to the people for a brief hour. Tonight we met a woman who played the piano and said she taught piano to children. The patients see to really enjoy our short concerts. And we love it too. It is such a small sacrifice for us to try to brighten the long days of all these older people.

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Ovations Violin Camp

Lillie participated in yet another year of this violin camp. We make it a family staycation. We all stay in a hotel near the university where the camp is located. We could not have been more proud of our Lillie. She prepare her audition and did so great. She got third seat first violin. We were so elated after all her hard work. Her quartet was good and the orchestra was the best she ever played in.

Happy Independence Day!!

We went to Philadelphia to celebrate a wedding of a dear friend of ours and we were lucky enough to celebrate the Fourth of July as well!!!

Change in Mission Presidents

It is that time again. The changing of  mission presidents. We have loved President and Sister Johnson. He was so missionary minded and created a real missionary culture. He and his wife worked really hard. They sacrificed a lot and were loving in every way. We will miss them very much!!