Fun with cousins!

Lesli's family came to visit us for a couple of days at the end of their epic journey.  The kids had a great time together, playing Zoo Tycoon and Galactic Dance-Off and going to the pool.  But the highlight was probably the Rockies vs. Padres game we went to on Friday night.  The Schei girls had never been to a baseball game before, but they were very enthusiastic!  The only one who wasn't excited about the outcome of the game was poor Roger S., alone in his Chargers hat.  But even he enjoyed the fine selection of 80's music provided by the stadium.  We all enjoyed the fireworks display at the end as well.  Thanks for coming to visit, Scheis!


Fireworks!

The little kids at the baseball game

The big kids at the baseball game

Middle school spring concert

These videos are from the end-of-the-year concert at the middle school.  It included all of the instrumental music groups and even some of the teachers and staff.  Unfortunately, I can't remember which song was which now, because it took me a couple of weeks to get everything posted.  But it's fairly self-explanatory.  The man with the "cymbal solo" is the principal, Mr. Goldberg, whom we got to know much better than we wanted to this year ;-)

Swan Lake pt 2

Here are the last three clips from the ballet performance.

Next up will be Nicholas' last band concert of the year, coming up next week.

Swan Lake 2012

After watching Swan Lake, Nicholas asked what the plot of the ballet was.  I told him it was about a princess who was enchanted by an evil sorcerer, so that she was a swan during the day and a girl at night, or maybe the other way around, I couldn't remember which.  He said, "So she's a were-swan?  Or a reverse were-swan?"  I suppose so...

Naomi was a swan (not a were-swan) in some of the dances, and a villager in others.  These clips were from the Friday night performance.  She says that she made some mistakes, and my videography is not the best, but I forgot my camera on Saturday so this will have to do.

There are three more clips that I will post tomorrow.

Naomi's school picture

3rd grade spring picture!

Ballet videos from Naomi's latest performance coming in the next few days...

Band videos - April

In the past couple of weeks, Nicholas had Solo and Ensemble and Mitchell had his spring band concert.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any video of Nicky playing his solo.  He did a great job though-- got a 1.

These two videos are from Mitchell's concert.  It's the high school symphonic band.  You can't actually see Mitchell-- you can get a little glimpse of his trombone slide but that's about it.  But he's definitely in there somewhere!

Hawaii -- Day 7

Our last day in Hawaii was tricky, because we had to check out of the hotel at 10 am, but our flight out wasn't until 9 pm.  We decided to head down to Waikiki, which is the famously crowded and touristy part of the island that we hadn't visited yet.  We started at the Waikiki Aquarium, which was nice and reasonably priced.  Then we walked down Waikiki Beach, and watched people boogie boarding in the waves, then stopped for lunch.

Yes, Nicholas is the tallest in the family...

And this is what Mitchell thinks about that!

Waikiki Aquarium

Waikiki Beach

Cool trees on Waikiki Beach

Naomi liked this statue

We still had the coupon from the boat ride earlier in the week, for another free chance at seeing some whales.  They took us out on a smaller boat this time-- still no whales.  The captain said that they had seen some the day before, so apparently we just had bad timing.  But it was another fun ride.

Another view of the Black Pearl

I took a picture of Naomi on the boat...

And then she took one of me

We headed back toward the hotel, where our bags were being held in storage, and decided to take one last walk along the beach.  The resorts there are spaced along four man-made lagoons.  We walked all the way from our resort, past the Disney resort (and a wedding party taking pictures on the beach) and back again.  Back at the first lagoon, we spotted another sea turtle bobbing along in the shallow water.

Looking at the turtle

Sunset at the lagoon

As the sun set over the lagoon, it was time to say goodbye.  We were happy to return to (cold) Colorado, our own home and our dog, but we will always remember our time in beautiful Hawaii.  We would love to go back someday.