Playing with COSMIC

When Lillie left for college I thought I would fill some of my time with playing in a community orchestra. So I auditioned and surprisingly got it. It’s been two years now since I have been playing and it has been pretty fun. Will Eaterling is our conductor, and is fabulous!  He is a real professional. Here are some shots from our Christmas concert this year. In one of the pictures, we ask an audience member to come and conduct Sleigh Ride and this year a 12 YO boy conducted. He was cute!!

Thanksgiving 2024

We sure missed Lillie like we always do. She is our greatest blessing that we could ever be thankful for. She was able to spend it with family in Utah. Her cousins and Kim’s sister-in-law. 

Kim and I kept our tradition for over 15 years now of going someplace close and staying in a hotel and eating out at a very fancy restaurant.  We had a lot of fun eating and shopping in DC!!

Meet the new concertmaster of BYU Strings

 

Lillie called us tonight with some pretty exciting news for a violinist. She had seating auditions for her orchestra and played Spring by Vivaldi. Out of the 20 plus violins, four auditioned to be placed. She said she didn’t do as well as this other girl and yet tonight she found she is the concertmaster!!  Our little girl, concertmaster of BYU strings!!  We could not be more proud of her. She has always worked so hard at learning to play her violin. And we know it was not the most fun thing for her to do at times, but she is such a good girl and practiced so hard her entire life!!!  She deserves this great honor in college!!!  

First day of sophomore year in college

Can it already be the start of Lillie’s second year in college?  We are so proud of her. She is such a good girl! 

Back for another year at BYU

After such a special, eventful summer, it was time to send Lillie back to BYU. We love her so much!!  We will miss her sweet spirit here at home!  We had such a big summer, from travels to Hawaii, to working at Calverton summer camp watching elementary school aged children, to medicals and dentals for mission, to playing in a musical together with Dad, it kept all of us busy and the time passed by so quickly!!  It was hard to believe it was already time to say good bye. It never gets easy to say good bye. She had a long day of flying especially since she missed her connecting flight and now would not get in to SLC until midnight. But she is a trooper!!  She will be glad to get into her routine. Same for us. School is starting up for Kim too. 

Cinderella Musical

Earlier this year I was approached to see if I wanted to play in the Summerstock series in St Mary’s County of Cinderella. They needed two first violins, so I asked them if Lillie could also play with me. They said yes!!!  I was so excited to play together with Lillie. She has worked so hard honing her skills, even though it’s not her most favorite thing to do. But she has been a trooper since elementary school!!  And she is probably a little better than me in playing!!  It would require two months of twice a week rehearsals, a week of every night rehearsals leading up to the show, and then four performances. We are in the middle of the performance and we have been having a lot of fun, although it has been a lot of work. Here are some pics!!  I am so proud of Lillie for playing with me!!

The organization gave us a very cool poster of the pit orchestra. Such a commemorative poster!!  

Lillie is home

After a very successful and happy first year at college, our Lillie is home!  And it feels so good to have her back. She did so well in her first year. Straight A’s, a great student job as a media specialist, a side gig as a photographer, made the best new friends that have influenced her for good!  We could not be more proud of her!!

Jack My Violin Student

My student is Jack. He has been such a pleasure to teach. He practices and is generally always interested in learning. He is also just an all around good young man. He signed up to do a solo at his spring orchestra concert, so I told him it would sound good if we did a duet because of all the harmonies. So we played in front of about 350 people in a large auditorium. His first time playing in front of people. Usually we just play in the music store. But he did exceptionally well!!  I was so proud of him. 

Trip to Hawaii for Lillie

After an illustrious and epic first year in college, we thought we would send Lillie back to Hawaii by herself, to visit with family!!  She was more than excited to go!!  We were so happy and excited for her to travel to Hawaii herself.  We were excited for her and all the fun we knew she would have. We love our Lillie and deserves this happiness!!! Below are some pictures from her trip.

First of all not only was she able to see all her cousins,  but she was able to eat all her local favorites.  She was in heaven!!

She was also so lucky to see her cousin's games, and year end concerts.  She went to a state volleyball championship game of her cousin, and they won, which made t extra special.

She loved spending time outdoors.  We think this helped her allergies!!

And look at how beautiful the water is!!

Guys and Dolls Musical

Sometimes local high schools in the area will ask my orchestra to help fill in with some players when they do their school musicals. Such was the case with Chopticon High School. So I thought I would volunteer and see what it was like. Lillie played in two musicals at her high school and it was a lot of work, but I also know she had fun playing the music. Now I have experienced the same thing she did. It’s hard work and the music is fun to play.