July, Part 2-San Antonio Trip, End of Summer

The El Paso Winds band that I play in was asked to perform at TBA in San Antonio. We knew about it the entire year leading up to the summer. We premiered a symphony written by Julie Giroux and we spent a week recording it as well. I had never been a part of a recording before. It was tedious and time-consuming, but fun to be a part of. Julie is a horn player, so she had written some fun horn parts. The Symphony we recorded and performed in San Antonio was her Symphony No. VI: The Blue Marble. Everyone else was busy the week I needed to be in San Antonio, so it was a girls trip for just me and Taryn.

We stayed with my parents, but Taryn was able to stay at Scott and Nevla's house and the cousins were so excited to have her there to play. She spent most of her time playing barbies, dress up, Rock Band, or cars while I drove back and forth to my rehearsals and performances. 

Because of COVID, we hadn't seen Scott and Nevla's family in person for a long time. I was so excited to get to hug these cute kids and get pictures with them. We FaceTimed Tyler and the rest of the girls a lot so they could all see their cousins. Here's Nadia and Haley. I was glad that even though it had been a couple years since we had been together in person, the girls remembered me and were happy to hang out and smile for my pictures.

Here's what we looked like on stage for our performance. It's like the new era of band music. Her symphony was complete with videos and pictures that you watched while we played the music. There were even sonic boom sounds that rumbled from the stage and some computer generated sounds like rainforest noises that you heard during one of the movements. It was really remarkable and we received a lot of compliments.

Here's the horn section after our performance. I ended up playing 4th horn with Rachel instead of 1st horn with Katy because the UTEP horn professor ended up playing with us. But that's ok. It was fun to learn a different part since I played 1st horn for the recording.

My dad drove me to and from downtown for all of my rehearsals and he even registered for the convention again this year since I was going to be performing. I took a picture with them before the performance. I also took a picture from my spot on the stage during our rehearsal since it was a once in a lifetime opportunity for me. I was so happy that I got to be a part of it.

Scott and Nevla even brought the kids for the performance since it was free. They were good and they enjoyed the videos that went along with the music. I think it made it more entertaining for all ages. I didn't realize until after the concert that some of the videos may not have been appropriate for their younger ages, but I had only seen a preview of the videos for the first two movements, not the third. However, the third movement was more about life, death, and survival, so there were some pretty graphic death pictures that I didn't know about to forewarn them, so the kids kept referring to the pictures they saw. Oops. Other than that, the kids had a great time.

Taryn and Chloe baked cupcakes and had fun in the kitchen whenever they could get enough time away from the little kids. I'm glad Taryn came with me. She had a great time and some awesome one on one time with the cousins that she normally wouldn't get. Nevla even caught a picture of me playing a game with the little kids. I love my nieces and nephew.

 

John and McKaye came into town for the DCI, Drum Corp, competition. Paul and Joseph also came, but we never all got together at the same time. Here's a picture of all the kids without Paul while we visited one morning.

And then later that day we were able to go to dinner with everyone except John and McKaye. We ate at the Mexican restaurant El Chaparral that's close to Scott's house. It was yummy and the kids were good.

 

Taryn and I ended up staying one more day so I could go to the DCI show too. Melody and Rebecca were sick so they didn't travel, but that left an extra ticket for me to use. We took a picture while we were in the Alamodome waiting for the drum corps to begin. Scott wasn't able to come, so here's another picture with almost all the kids.

One of Aubrey's birthday presents was to go see Stray Kids, a K-Pop group, which Aubrey loves. Tyler tried getting tickets to their performance in Fort Worth, but those sold out too fast. He kept an eye out and was able to get tickets to their performance in Los Angeles, so while Taryn and I headed down to San Antonio, Tyler and Aubrey had a daddy, daughter trip to California. They drove over and spent the day shopping and at the beach and then they went to the concert that night. Aubrey is obsessed with K-Pop and listens to their music constantly. She learns all of their dances and knows everything about all of the dancers and singers. She loved that she got to go to a concert and they had a great time together.

As the summer came to a close, the workouts picked up. Tessa was running with her cross country team pretty much every day. Before school started, they had a trial run that parents could come and watch. Tessa was the 9th fastest girl on her team which is awesome. The top 7 are on the varsity team, so 9th place was really good! I took this picture as the girls prayed before starting their race. Usually, Brooke McCune, another member of the church says the prayers, but when she's not there, Tessa gets to pray. She loves that they say a prayer and that she sometimes gets to do the prayer. They also ran at an Eastwood 5K race before school started. I didn't get to see Tessa race, but I did get this picture of her as she crossed the finish line.

Besides cross country, marching band was also in full workout mode. Tessa made tenors, so it was an all-girl tenor line with her and Gisele. Gisele is her closest friend in band and the only other girl percussionist. They worked out all summer long together to strengthen their back and legs to be able to hold and carry the tenors during the season. They're both very dedicated and had a good time together as they prepared for marching season.

The youth in our ward had a temple trip to the Juarez temple before school started. They needed an extra driver so I was able to go as well. It was a good group that went and we had fun taking pictures after the baptism session. All three girls were able to go, so we got a family picture outside the temple - just missing Taryn, but she'll be able to go to the temple next year! Abby loved her .5 camera angle so she took a lot of pictures with that view. Here she is with Braelinn and Logan.

She showed me how the camera works and took this picture of me, her, and Aubrey. We took some with all of the Mesa ward youth who attended the temple. We have a small, but mighty youth group and I love that they all get along pretty well.

Here's another group photo with everyone from Abby's angle and then another one with some more people from the ward. We love the temple.

Abby took a picture with Sam Kasallis that turned out really cute especially with the temple and angel Moroni in the background. Tessa wanted some pictures by herself outside the temple too. The sun is always shining right in your face that early in the morning, so it's hard to get pictures with the temple behind you without everyone squinting from the sun, but this picture of Tessa turned out really good.

The Mesa ward young women who attended the temple: Aubrey, Rianne, Abby, Ashleigh, Braelinn, and Tessa.

The week before kids started school, there were a lot of teacher meetings and staff developments. Abby, as senior class president and Tessa, in the drumline, were very involved. Abby even dressed up as the Franklin cougar mascot to welcome the teachers back to campus. She found Tessa and had someone take a picture of them together, which I love. I'm so proud of Abby for being willing to do whatever it takes to make her senior year a great successful one.

EPISD had a huge convocation for all of their employees that was mandatory for everyone to attend. As a secretary, I went with the employees from my elementary school, but we had to sit with the other schools that feed into the same high school. The fun part was Tessa and the drumline were there as well, so I got to see her.

It was a huge deal with thousands of EPISD employees. The superintendent and another guest speaker spoke about education and basically pumped us all up for the new school year. It was pretty cool. Lundy employees were sitting down at the front, so when Tessa and the drumline marched in, they stopped right in front of our section and Tessa was right in front of me.

I was cheering so loudly for her, and it was fun to see her perform and be where she was. It was basically like a huge pep rally and we had a lot of fun. It was definitely a big hit and got everyone pumped up for the new school year. I love my job and I love being able to see my kids do what they love.

July, Part 1-Summer Camps

We had a ladies lunch to celebrate Jenna McGowan. Her family moved to Quincy, Illinois, so we got together for a lunch at Julio's. It was fun to visit with everyone and get to have lunch again. I miss those lunches with my friends since I'm not available during the day anymore because of work. This is Holly, Toni, Jenna, Audrey, me, and Kristina.

We were actually in El Paso for the 4th of July this year. Because of the girls' church camps and school workouts, we weren't able to travel to Utah like we normally do. So while the older girls were gone to FSY, the rest of us walked in the 4th of July parade for Tony's dental practice, Agave Dental. Aubrey wanted to dress up as the tooth, so the kids thought it would be fun as well.

We passed out otter pop popsicles as we walked along with the decorated truck. It was fun to see people we knew. I had to take pictures of Tessa's drumline friends since she wasn't there to see them. We saw Gisele and her family and also Steven and Josh. Aubrey loved being the tooth because everyone wanted their picture with her. She said she felt like a celebrity.

We walked with Grandma V and the Kasallis family. Verna and I loved all the corvettes that were in line behind us in the parade. We took a picture before we started on the route.

Since Aubrey wouldn't give up being the tooth, Sam decided to be the toothbrush. They looked cute together and they walked the entire way, so they took the chance to sit while we got into position to start the parade route. After the parade, we went with the Kasallis family to Top Golf and had fun golfing. We had a good time and it was nice to have a little vacation while at home.

We sent the teenagers off to Arizona for FSY - For the Strength of Youth. It's the new church camps like EFY, but for everyone. Our stake went to FSY in Thatcher, AZ at Easter Arizona College. As a part of the stake YW presidency, I helped organize the youth and we made sure they got on the buses and headed on their way. I also made sure to get pictures of the girls with their friends before they boarded the buses.

Since I wasn't at FSY, I only got to hear about it from the girls, but they had a great time and made sure to take a lot of pictures which I love. They sent me their favorites and so I've included some of them here so we'll have them to remember. This was Abby's group. She roomed with Anna Dixon and they had a great time. There weren't a lot of older kids, so even though they normally split the youth up between over 16 and under 16, they didn't get to do that this time. She said she was one of the oldest ones in her group and almost all of the boys were in the 14-15 year old range. Besides the lack of older boys, she still had a great time making friends and getting spiritually fed.

Abby did say she got to know a lot of the kids in our own stake a lot better which she enjoyed. A lot of those kids came back talking about how awesome Abby was, so she was definitely a good example and a light to all the youth in her group and at FSY overall.

 

 

Abby and Tessa were in different companies, but they still did see each other around the campus. They even sang together in the talent show. Tessa played the ukulele and they sang a duet together. They sang Count on Me. They didn't get a very good recording of it, but I heard from a lot of people that it sounded really good and it was one of the best acts.

Here are pictures from Tessa's group. She roomed with Audrey Pierce and they had so much fun. They've become really close friends since spending that week together. Tessa helped design and draw their company's banner, so she was very proud of that.

Here's Tessa with her three counselors. I love sending the girls to camps like this because not only do they grow spiritually and make new friends, but it also really pushes them outside of their comfort zone - especially people like Tessa who can be shy when she's around people she's not comfortable with. She came home with lots of stories of how much fun she had, so I know it was a great experience for her.

One of the nights while the girls were at FSY, we made one of their favorite meals, enchiladas; so we hade to take a picture and share it with them. They were sad that we ate it without them, but they were happy to hear that we had made enough to save some for when they got home. During the summer we went and visited Abby at her work, Formula. She made Tessa one of their fancy ice cream desserts and Tessa wanted a picture because it was so pretty.

Aubrey was able to participate in a dance camp that the school district put on during the summer. It was free, but she was only able to attend one day since it was held the same week as Girls Camp. The district posted some pictures, so even though I didn't get to see Aubrey perform anything, I was able to find her in this picture they posted from their rehearsal that first day.

I helped drive up YCLs to girls camp. They go a day early to help set up camp and get ready for all of the young women campers. I gave a spiritual thought to the YCLs before we left the stake center and we had fun on the drive up to Cloudcroft, New Mexico. I didn't get any pictures while it was just the YCLs since we were all busy setting up the lodge and preparing activities and campsites; but once the rest of the girls made it up there, I was able to be there for the first full day of campers and get lots of pictures. Aubrey's 2nd year girls did a dance and skit that was really cute. And I was able to get a picture of most of the girls from our ward. Here's Anna, Aubrey, Braelinn, Sy, and Abby.

There was a Photo Booth that I made sure to get some pictures at before I headed back down the mountain to go home. I wasn't able to stay the whole week because I couldn't miss that much work. But I was happy that I got to be there for the time that I was. Tessa wasn't able to attend camp at all because of drumline and cross country practices. Abby was super sad because she decided to be a YCL of the 4th years because she wanted to be Tessa's YCL.

The girls worked on their skits and had a fun night getting to know everyone in the stake. They even had a Just Dance party one of the nights. Everyone had a lot of fun.

I drove home after the first full night of campers, but people sent me pictures throughout the week of my girls. I was happy to see that they were having a great time.

They had an axe-throwing station this year, so I was happy to see the girls giving it a try. Here's Abby and Anna and then Aubrey and Rachel with their awesome axe throwing shots.

Our ward was small but mighty and the girls all had a lot of fun. Sis Aldaz came with her niece, Sy, so the girls were happy to make a new friend and include her in all of the weekly activities. It was a good experience for all of them and I'm happy Abby got to be a YCL and Aubrey was able to go and be spiritually uplifted as she made new friends in the stake.