Marching Band Informance!

Last night, we attended the Saratoga High School Marching Band Informance. Jonathan is in the band this year as a freshman and playing the baritone. He gets to wear these cool, black, grippy gloves when he plays. The baritone is a marching version and so his own euphonium is sitting at home for now until concert season.

Jonathan has been attending band camp for two weeks and his days were long! They started at 9:00am and ended at 9:00pm. They would have lunch around 12:30 and dinner at 5:00. They had really nice weather this year! Usually it can be really hot at 95-103 degrees! Most days it was 80-85 degrees. He did have three pretty hot days. The kids drank tons of water!

Since the event was at 7:30 in the evening, the lighting wasn't that great for taking photos with a point and shoot camera. . . . But I think you can find him in these photos. He is wearing brown shorts, and a black polo, like everyone else.

I took a couple of videos with my point and shoot last night, and I am trying to get them to post. However, the videos are taking forever to load for some reason. So, I thought I would just put up some stills with Jonathan for now and will work on the videos.

Sarah's Wedding Buffet Treats

Sarah made treats for a wedding reception that was held last night. She spent the entire week preparing for this dessert buffet table. It was delicious! The items she prepared were chocolate cupcakes, vanilla cupcakes, dipped truffles, and sugar cookies with marshmallow fondant. Everything had to be made in "bulk"! We couldn't find the vary large stainless steel bowls, so Sarah got out the canning kettle to mix her batter. It worked pretty well though.

Using the canning kettle. . . .

At this point, it looks like oatmeal. But in reality, they were delicious vanilla cupcakes.

Dipping 220 truffles.

Drizzled with tinted white chocolate.

Clouds, one of my favorite things

Another thing Ii really enjoyed on my trip home from Utah was the clouds. I stopped to take photos of some of the most fabulous clouds. Utah and Nevada have really beautiful clouds. Some of my favorite things besides clouds are hummingbirds, rainbows, butterflies and flowers.

California Trail Center, Elko, Nevada

On my way back to California this month, I stopped at a new museum that is just a few miles west of Elko, Nevada. I have made three round trips to Utah and back in the last four months! Each time, I have seen the sign for this center and thought it would be great to visit. It is brand new, and only just opened this summer of 2010. They said that the official opening will be next summer in 2011. But since they had a few exhibits already set up, it was open. I stopped because I was traveling by myself and didn't have to ask anyone else about stopping. It was a nice museum, and will be even nicer when all the exhibits are finished. It was also nice to get out and stretch my legs.

At the entrance, this California Trail sign caught my eye.

California Trail in the shape of Nevada.

There were many maps of the trails and is inspiring to think about the people who travelled these trails. Some had some real hardships, especially the Donner Party.

Another nice map of the trails.

I know this is sideways. I really need to figure out how to rotate on this blog. . . . This statue was representative of the "Seeing the Elephant" stories.

There was suspicion that the elephants that were seen might have been from a traveling circus. It was about this time that a circus would travel from city to city.

Building a wagon. I wouldn't want to do it.

An example of the little you were allowed to take with you. You mostly had tools and food supplies. Grandma's china would have to be dumped, or left behind.

An actual photograph of the inside of a wagon.

They had a great exhibit on the Pony Express. It is the 150th anniversary of the Pony Express.

There was also an exhibit on early medicine. As I look at the tools above, I am grateful for modern tools of medicine! The tools were probably not as clean back then either~~even when "sterilized".

These old forceps looked creepy. The stethoscope hasn't changed much.

A case of medicinal properties. . . . . also grateful for new medicine!

This was a very pleasant stop to make. I would recommend to anyone. I will stop the next time I drive back to Utah. Don't know when that will be, but I look forward to seeing the newer exhibits.

Elizabeth is an RN!

Another thing I was able to do in Salt Lake was to visit Primary Children's Hospital where Elizabeth is now working as a full time RN! I am so proud of her! This is what she has always wanted to do. Elizabeth works on the 3rd floor in the children's medical unit. She says it is such a fun place to work and the people there are really nice. Katie and I had lunch with her in the cafeteria on Friday and then we went up to see her work place.

I am borrowing the photo below from Elizabeth's own blog. She had just bought some new scrubs for her job and she looks so cute! She was not so keen on the scrubs that are shaped like a box. But she found these fitted ones with the brand name "Grey's Anatomy". Got to have those nurses on Grey's looking cute! Elizabeth does!

This is Elizabeth's first day!

The post on the wall just as you enter the "huge" revolving doors.

There were some really cute things for decorations inside andout.

This crazy, colorful horse is just one of them.

College Dorm in Utah

We moved Katie into her dorm at the University of Utah on August 19th! It was like "Oh my goodness~~we're here!" It is a good sized dorm room. About twice as big as the one Matthew had his first year at UCLA. Her room is on the front of the building and looks out over the grassy area of the Chapel Glen dorms. Here are a few photos I took as she was moving in.

After we got most everything moved in, we decided that the room lighting was pretty dim. Even with a desk lamp, it was dark. We went to Target and found this cute five light lamp. It made such a huge difference! The light was soft, but made the room brighter. The five light covers were varied pink colors.

The lamp up close. It is so cute!

Setting up her printer. It's wireless! I wish mine was.

I can't get my photo to rotate, but I really like the comforter Katie bought for herself.

I will miss Mr. Moo here at home on Katie's bed.

I think Katie will be most comfortable in her room for the year. She has a cute lamp, comforter, etc. The room is large, even though the closet could be bigger, and there is one bathroom for three girls. Usually there are four girls, but her next door roommate is by herself. Ally is a freshman mentor~~she is there to help freshmen in the dorms.

Have a great year Katie!

"Under the Sea" Jeep, Salt Flats, Utah

So this is the car we saw at the Salt Flats Cafe! It looked like it had been left on the bottom of the sea for ages and was "crusted" with many different and quirky items! The Jeep was quite a hit! There were many people taking photo shots just like we were.

Some of the items used were: chop sticks, glue sticks, buttons, beads, old teapot, figurines, plates, spoons, crabs, skulls, shells, and many more! Have fun looking at the pictures!