Orchestra Recital

Last night Trent had his first Orchestra Recital. He is currently in his first year playing the cello and he absolutely loves it! I wasn't able to go to his recital so Darin recorded it for me. It was BEAUTIFUL!! His musical ability has always simply amazed me! He began taking piano lessons when he was little from Elizabeth and then took a few more years from another teacher before deciding to try the cello. His piano skills have definitely helped him with the cello. He has actually kind of been bored with the ease of it. He is looking forward to next year in hopes of more of a challenge. I love to listen to him practice! He enjoys taking primary songs and transposing them to play. We also enjoys playing other music he received for Christmas. Now that we know that he is dedicated to playing we plan on getting him a personal tutor. It really is amazing to me how just a few months ago he didn't know anything about the cello and now he sounds so beautiful on it! I think these musical teachers they have at school work magic or something! Great Job Trent!! Trent at his recital. He looks so grown up!!

Spring Break Camping at Wolf Creek

This year for Spring Break I decided to take Eyn, Trent and Amberly and join 20 other families in our Ward and go camping. Trent heard about the camping trip from several of his friends and we were excited to join the group. We had such a great time!! I was a little apprehensive about going without Darin, but it was a bad time to take off work for him so we went without him. Elizabeth also had to work. The two of them got to enjoy time together at home.

Wolf Creek is a State Park located nearly 2 hours North of here off of Lake Livingston. It was beautiful there! Our group had all the campsites on a hill cul-de-sac. It was nice because we could just let our children run around and have fun. And fun they did have! I have never seen Amberly and Trent as dirty as they were! It was nice to be able to relax and just enjoy ourselves. The weather was chilly at night but absolutely wonderful for camping! Eyn was my fire builder. The first night Amberly and I were attempting to build a fire and he came over and saved us and built a nice one for us. Eyn put up the tent with the help of Brother Stansel. I didn't even mind having to cook. We missed Darin and Elizabeth, but it was nice knowing I could handle it myself! Everyone said I was brave to come alone, but the brave one was another father who brought his 3 little ones without his wife who was home not feeling well. HE was the brave one! He looked warn out! Eyn spent his days there playing basketball, football, or just hanging out. Trent enjoyed playing with the airsoft guns, tag, football, and hanging out with all his friends. Amberly enjoyed getting dirty! :) She enjoyed making new friends, playing games, and just having fun! I enjoyed it all! We hope we get the chance to go again next year!

(my pictures were uploaded backwards in order.. )
For some reason this mound of dirt was incredibly popular. At this time it was being used for King of the Mountain. Notice Amberly's jeans. They were filthy! She had to soak her hands in water to get all the dirt off!

Snocone break! Everyone went together to get snocones. I think Stacy told one child about going to get snocones and he zoomed off announcing Free Snocones! It was like magic! You wouldn't believe how quickly the kids came running!

Yummy Snocones!

We arrived at the snocone shack and found Trent there with some others in our group. "Oh, Hi Mom! Do you have any money for me??" Trent really enjoyed the freedom I gave him!

In line

Time to go get snocones! Some of the kids got to ride in the back of the Richards truck to go get snocones.

Amberly and Marin goofing off

As soon as Eyn got our fire going it was amazing how quickly lots of kids showed up. Brock was asking Amberly if she wanted to see his armpit. She was disgusted with the idea!

Wild Child!

Getting the fire going

Trent with a few friends

Eyn didn't want to go on the camping trip. I guess you could say I "forced" him to go. I made him take time off of work to go with us. I just really felt he needed to get away. I'm so glad I did! He didn't enjoy sleeping out, but I really do think he had fun during the days. I really appreciated his help.

Our campsite. We ended up in an overflow area, but it was great!

This flat board was really popular! They would ride down the hill right in front of our campsite on it. We only saw a few wipe outs!

Camp Redheads!

Card playing was always going on around camp. We had 8 women playing cards at this time. It's amazing what you learn about people when playing games...

More dirt playing

A few families came ready to camp in style! They had a sweet hookup so the men could watch the BYU basketball game one day and then the next day they watched A&M. Luckily both teams won so everyone was happy! I told Eyn they were watching the game and he sure got there fast! (It didn't matter who was playing!)

Amberly took her bike with us. Trent decided at the last minute not to take his and I think he really wished he would have had it. Luckily he has a sweet little sister who let him ride hers a lot. He didn't care that it was a girls bike!

Thanks for all you did to organize the trip Richards!! It was enjoyed by all of us!