Summer Violin Recital

On June 2nd, I had a Summer Violin Recital in my backyard! I had this planned for a while, and it was a great excuse to get my front and backyard into shape! For the past few weeks, I have been out in the yard working very hard-weeding a TON! I absolutly Hate weeds, and that is why I put down 2 layers of weed paper up on my rock wall to prevent them! I got and put down 23 bags of mulch on top of the paper, and put in a ton of ground cover to fill into the rocks! I do have to say that the yard looked GREAT!

This was Riley's very first Recital and he played 1 of the Twinkle Variations: Tucka Tucka Stop Stop! I sat on the side of him in case he needed help, but he did it all by himself and was not scared at ALL to play in front of the big audience. When he was finished, he gave a great big bow and was so proud of himself! He was even so excited to play for the recital that he whipped his violin out and started playing the open strings as people were sitting down! That kid has no stage fright at all!

After listening to his tiny 1/32 size violin and how squeeky it was, I took him to Charles Lui Violin Shop the next day and upgraded his violin to a 1/16 size and already he sounds a ton better! The first thing he said when he played the violin in the violin shop was, "Mom, this is a loud violin!!"

I am excited that Riley is finally getting the idea of how to play the violin! I will teach him for as long as I can, but eventually the truth is that he will need a new teacher! Someone who he will listen to better. I have 15 students currently, and I am so blessed that I am still able to teach the violin! I love it, and it helps our family out a lot!

Riley will be a student at The Intermountain Suzuki Institute in 2 weeks held at Juan Diego High SChool in Draper for a whole week. He and I will be going to Twinkle classes in the morning, and watching performances for the rest of the day! He is getting excited to go to "Violin Camp" and I hope that it will make him so excited about playing the violin! I want all of my kids to be well rounded and be able to play an instrument and a sport the best that they can!

Now that Riley has a new size violin, he already wants Sunny to play his tiny violin! Well, she just turned 2, you never know! Dr. Suzuki says that talent is not born with you, but that it is developed! Well, I figure I am just the person to help them develop that talent while I am at home with them and know how to teach them! Wish me luck on the road of becomming a Suzuki Mom!

Lake Mead

Regan and I went on an aweome Weekend Trip to Lake Mead with some of our friends! We went golfing in Fillmore on our way to the Lake and that was fun to drive the cart. I don't think Regan likes to golf with me too much since I don't know what I am doing! From there, we drove to the Lake. Afterwards, everything in Mesquite was closed for dinner, so we ended up at a Kareoke Place. Not a minute went by when Regan went right up to the front and put his name on the list to sing a song. He ended up singing Light My Fire by the Doors. He absolutly LOVES to Kareoke, but what made this singing experience a little different is that there was a guy in the front row telling Regan to take his shirt off!!!!!

The next day, we were on the lake all day long. It was hot, so I jumped into the water a few times to cool off and that was all I could do since I am pregnant! Regan has improved on his Wake Boarding skills a ton though-he was even getting air! We ate at a buffet that night and had crab legs and shrimp!

I guess we got spoiled with 2 days of awesome weather because the third day had choppy water, so after we had lunch and swam around a little, we headed to Las Vegas.
We ate at the Cheesecake Factory in Ceasars Palace, and then just walked around and watched crazy people-one of Regan's favorite things to do in Vegas!

We stayed in a town house in Mesquitte which was sweet! It had 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms and was SO nice! We had 6 couples with us and the total for staying in the town home from 4 days was $345! Not bad! We had an awesome time and we had a blast being with our awesome friends! Regan and I are so lucky to have such a great group of friends to have a ton of fun with all of the time! I only threw up 1 time on the trip-unfortunatly, it was where everyone could see and hear it! Yuck!

Thanks to my family, especially my mom for taking my little kids! I missed them so much on the last day! It was time to come home; back to reality!