USA Trip to See Family: One of the costs of living in New Zealand

USA Trip to see Family:  Part of the Cost of Living in New Zealand

I don't think I've ever had such an "up" month.  Every single day was precious to me.

The Getty Center, Santa Monica Beach, and yummy food with Dan and Megan

Holding hands with Ruby

Aunt Amy, Jones Reunion in Park City
and swimming in Ammon and Kristin's swimming pool

Hancock Flat - hiking over Hightop to Seven Mile

Sharing spiritual highlights at Hancock Flat

Recording Session with Miners and Greg Hansen

Eating and laughing with Sessions, Thanks Julie!

Bonus Day- Boating with Heather and Scott!

AHS reunion

Projects and Cookies, Swimming, Flow Rider, Campout with Ammon and Kristin's Family

Nellie and Johnny gettin' married

With James and Rachel's Family:  Wimbledon, Ping Pong, Swimming,
Building Steps, and a great RS lesson

MoTab

Hang Time

Piano and driving permit

Jones' Family Pictures

Family Pictures

Panguitch Ranch

Canyoneering with Sutherlands

 Then a 2-day drive to Nauvoo, Illinois for the Miller Reunion and Cousins' Camps in St. Louis...

Nauvoo 3-mile Handcart Trek

Forts and Night Games just get better with age

The oldest and youngest Miller cousins

Trail of Hope, ending with a sunset at the Mississippi

Jen, most excellent traveling companion for the drive back west

One final cousins' sleepover with Emi and Danny

Lots of fun times at Amy and Aaron's -
playtime, volleyball, a group date up the canyon, games with Ella.

Book of the Week:

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

Chamber Music New Zealand

Last week was full of chamber music.  Chamber Music NZ sponsors professional chamber music groups that tour the country every other month.  

I took Mercy to a concert on Tuesday night where I'd been asked to give the pre-concert lecture.  

Chamber Music NZ also sponsors an annual chamber music competition that has a very strong following around the country.  I spent 1 hour coaching each of the student groups in Taranaki that entered the Chamber Music NZ competition - 20 groups all together.  Very fun job!

Oak's chamber music group

 The actual competition was on Friday night.  Mike and I took the adjudicator, a well-known pianist from Wellington, out to lunch before the competition.

Music Friends

more music friends...

Danny's chamber music group

Oak's group, Haydn FM trio.
Danny's group - Cui, 5 Dances

Other members of the family...
Noah - lots of dance practices for the Girls High Ball coming up this Saturday.
Joyce - excited to read her first Bob Books!
Mike - doing his part to realign boundaries of the LDS branches in the Taranaki District

Book of the Week:

I enjoyed this book!  And my family enjoyed hearing the stories (or being reminded of the stories) as I made my way through this book.    

Loaded Questions

If anyone were ever going to publicly roast me and make fun of all my quirks, he or she could mention how many opportunities I find to bring out the "Loaded Questions" cards.

Never go anywhere without them!

I am very attached to my deck of Loaded Questions cards.

I keep half the deck in my backpack or the car (always with me when traveling) and the other half of the deck on a shelf in the kitchen (always available when we have guests).

Some memorable times with Loaded Questions...

• waiting at the end of the Ragnar race (Matt H....Mao Tse-Tung's face all over the wallpaper in my bedroom)
• at Newly-wed parties on Valentine's (Becky J....my biggest body part?  "my hair"  or the year when the men wrote down the answer to "How 'hip' are you on a scale of 1 to 10, and then wives had to guess what they'd answered...)
• distracting tired kids so they will keep hiking (Mercy...what two words describe your life?  "adventure" and "Mom")
• when all the YSA's are over at your house on a regular basis (Tiffany, Jess, Hannah, Tui...Did you drive all the way from Hamilton just to come play the question game at Holly's house???)
• on long car rides with family or friends (Holly S....What would you like your nickname to be?  "Ace")
• Saturday night parties with the boys' friends, before the blessing on the food (Gavin...What are you most neurotic about? "these kinds of question games!")
• New Year's Eve parties (What is your favorite charity?)
• a way to liven up dinnertime conversation when the kids were younger and Mike was gone.  (It seemed like a lot of hours talking in circles with little kids back then...)

One Problem Solved...

One problem solved; several hundred more to go...

After several false starts, we have finally figured out a way to get Sage's practice to happen on a daily basis.  It involves waking her up when she would otherwise be sleeping and putting her to bed earlier.

Mercy giving Sage a piano lesson. 

I am Sage's daily practice partner, and Mercy gives the once-a-week lessons.

Danny has an especially good group of friends, and since they don't go to school together, he often is the one to make sure there is something planned so they can see each other.

A day at the U-20 FIFA World Cup

 Noah bought a "skuxx" waistcoat the day of the Ball when he found out that he didn't have to pay for Ball tickets because his date is the NPGHS head girl.

"I promise I didn't know it when I asked her"

Noah asked Mike to chauffeur them to the Ball because I don't have enough driving-chutzpah to get MAVY in and out of Sutherland's long, winding, Kiwi-style driveway.

Noah also jimmy-rigged a disco ball, some Christmas lights and headlamps
to MAVY's ceiling for the night. 

Noah didn't pick the top-secret Ball theme - "Vegas" - but he had a fun time planning and decorating. He also made sure Danny got hired to play the grand piano as people were arriving.

Oak's 4-man team won an adventure race in Kawerau over the weekend.

Classic photo, guys!

I felt proud of Oak doing the organizing and also taking the lead on the nav.

When Mike's home, one way he says, "I love you," is by keeping the fire stoked.

It's that time of year again.

 Half of our home (kitchen and living room) stay nice and warm when we keep a fire going.  The rest of the house (piano studio, bedrooms, bathrooms) remains whatever temperature it is outside, which lately has been in the high 40s and low 50s.  Brrrr!  I remember when I felt that Mom and Dad were crazy to turn down our basement thermostat to 55 on winter nights!

Joyce starts morning kindy and says a temporary goodbye
to her friend, Madeleine, who is still an "afternoonie."