Good times!

We had a bit of shirtless wrestling last week. It was pretty awesome.  Daniel was all over his daddy.  I love the male bonding!

Choir rehearsals have begun again.  We have missed them this summer.  As we were driving there, a huge wall of dirt was coming at us.  It was crazy how beautiful the sky was on one side of the wall and how ominous it was just beyond.  With in seconds we went from sunny skies to very low visibility from the dust and dirt. 

This is the same view seconds later.

We got through it fine, with a little cautious driving.

Sara's group at choir starts an hour before the boys, so we usually go to Costco while we wait.  The boys fell in love with the giant teddy bears.

Another evening we had Makenzie and Kenadee Anderson over for a game night.  This is the kids waiting for Daniel to hide for a game of Sardines.  If you don't know how it works, everyone is suppose to find the person hiding with all of the lights turned off, so it is completely dark.  Then when you find the hider, you hide with them until everyone is squeezed together. The last person to find everyone loses. It's pretty fun.  They continued playing different games until the wee hours of the morning.

Tim Lost His Wisdom

Tim's wisdom teeth have been coming in for well over a year now so we finally had them pulled.  It wasn't too big of a deal since they had all erupted and were not impacted.  We had it done at the dentist office instead of the oral surgeon.  I didn't think we would see the funny drugged side of Tim since he wasn't being put under for it, but I think he was funnier than the other boys.  The drug they gave him made him super relaxed, floppy and loosey goosey.  It was a wonderfully entertaining morning.

He got a little emotional a few times.  He was just so sweet!

He was jammin' to Maroon 5 while he waited in between teeth.

After we got home, I told him I would get him a smoothie from Costco while he rested.  He really wanted to go and tried to convince me that he could walk around the store with me.  He needed help getting settled at the piano but played pretty well for being drugged.

Then, against my wishes, he tried to show me with some acrobatics.  Crazy boy!

Needless to say, he stayed home and slept while I went to the store. 

He is back at school today and feeling pretty good.

Cinematic Pop Concerts

This last weekend I got to perform with my fellow Cinematic Pop members at the Mesa Arts Center.  It was AWESOME!  Two sold out shows!  Rob Gardner, the director / composer, is a genius at arranging and orchestrating iconic pop songs into something moving and beautiful. It is such a privilege to be part of this group and it is SO MUCH FUN!

Our biggest Youtube hit is Halelujah, with almost 1.3 million hits. You can see all 6 of our videos at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkyCGwxwh1F2Y3d1397A11Q.  And we have 9 songs on Spotify.

For these concerts we added 10 songs to the 9 we previously recorded.

The full concert list was:
Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Tears For Fears)
Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana)
Friday I'm in Love (The Cure)
Chasing Cars (Snow Patrol)
Sail (AWOLNATION)
Listen to Your Heart (Roxette)
Somewhere Only We Know (Keane)
First Light ( New Song by Redhill)
Human (The Killers)
One (U2)
Titanium (Sia)
Like Memories Do (New Song by McKane Davis)
More Than a Feeling (Boston)
Rolling in the Deep (Adele)
So Low (New Song by Redhill)
Sound of Silence (Simon and Garfunkel)
Reign of love (Coldplay)
Fix You (Coldplay)
Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen)

Silly boys

They are so handsome, when they want to be.  ;)

Tim with his beautiful date, Rebekah.

Sam with his lovely date, Makenzie and Sara and me.

  

I love these cuties!  Ben and Dandi

Ben came with my pretty Momma.

I was glad Sam got to talk with Rob for a few minutes.  Rob is one of his heroes.  His music, The Lamb of God, has gotten Sam through some of the tougher times in his life.

Jen and Jason, who didn't lean in for the picture, came also.  I love Jen and that I got to share the night with her.  

I wish I had gotten a better picture with Nelly and Lilly, but mysteriously we had extra tickets so they got to join us last minute.  It was awesome!

We had several other friends come that didn't make it into pictures, the Megan and Joey Fechter, Darrin and Julia Yazzie, Quinn and Suzanne Kellis, and a bunch of friends from the Millennial Choir my kids are in. It was an amazing night!

West Coast Swing Flash Mob 2016

On Saturday the kids did a flash mob at Tempe Marketplace for West Coast Swing.  It has become quite the cool thing to do, it's not just the Youngs and the Algers anymore. The Buhanan boys, Branden Strong, Kiowa Miller, Brandon Mounteer, Sarah Magill and Brianna Watkins all go to West Coast now too. They have been practicing for months.  

Pat, their teacher, and Gwen

Daniel and Susanna

Lilli and Heidi, and yes Heidi is taller than Lilli now!

Branden Strong and Lilli

Susie dancing with Daniel in the back ground, Heidi and Freddy in the front.  You can also see Branden in the middle.

Rayanne ? and James Buhanan

Seth Meyer and Gwen

Thane Buhanan

Gwen and Todd

Little Tori

Tim and Lilli

Tim and Heidi Dancing, Brandon Mounteer on the left and Rich and Daniel on the right

This weekend they have the Desert City Swing Convention at the Arizona Grand Hotel.  It is tons of fun and all the famous West Coast dancers come so it is fun to watch them and to have the kids dance with them.

Back to School

They keep growing!  I guess that's what I want them to do, but it is happening so fast.  Here are this years first day of school pics.

As soon as the camera comes out the kids get silly.  I got a few good pictures here and there and a lot of silly in between.

Susanna is starting 3rd Grade and is in Mrs. Fox's class.

Laney is in 5th Grade and is Mrs. Hodge's class.

Daniel is in 7th Grade.  I can't believe he is in middle school. :(

Andrew is a Freshman.

Tim made eggs for everyone.  Such a sweetie!

Freddy is a freshman.

Sara is a Junior and only has three classes at school, then she leaves campus to go to Cosmetology school from 11:45 to 3:45 everyday.  She will graduate with her license in 2 years and be able to pay her way through college.

Tim is a SENIOR!  No no no no.  I'm not ready for him to leave me in a year.

This year I have 4 high schoolers!!! It was still dark outside when they got ready for seminary at 5am. This new to Freddy and Andrew.  They didn't want to go to bed early and said they didn't need that much sleep.  Sara laughed and told them in a week or so they would be crashing as soon as they get home from school and start going to bed early.  We shall see.  I miss them, but it's nice to get back to a routine.