American Harp Society National Competition

This past Sunday, Kate played her harp in my ward. Since we don't have very many musical numbers, everyone loved it. They probably would have loved it anyway, but the lack of music just made her playing all the more poignant. As always, she did a beautiful job. This recent performance reminded me that I have not mentioned what an amazing harpist Kate is. Kate exhibited her great talent in the American Harp Society National Competition held a Westminster College at the end of June. Although she did not win, it was an incredible honor even to be chosen as 1 of 8 finalists out of 38 harpists to compete in the competition. I was able to attend the competition to hear her play. I was nervous for Kate, but I shouldn't have been because she did exceptionally well. Kate said she wasn't even nervous at all and thought it was the best performance of her pieces she had done yet.

She worked so hard and right before the competition, she did a series of small performances. One of these performances was held at our house and my mom invited friends from our ward and a few relatives that live nearby. Everyone enjoyed it and Kate held an impromptu Q&A session. Not many people are familiar with the harp and they are always stunned that a harpist has to push pedals up and down during a piece in order to achieve sharps and flats. It is a complicated instrument and I'm so proud that Kate has mastered it so well. She has a passion for music and I know she will go far.

Here is a picture from Kate's performance at our house answering questions and then one from her performance at Westminster with her friends from Harp Fusion.

Summer of Birthdays

4 out of the 7 kids in my family have birthdays in the Summer months. The other 3 (including myself) have birthdays in the Winter. The most recent birthdays were Emily on June 25 and Jacob on July 10. I've tried to post pictures where it's just me and Emily and just me and Jacob, but with as many siblings as we have, there's always bound to be another kid thrown into the shot. But I found quite a few. I'm not always good at doing these birthday blogs and I'll probably quit doing them soon. It just seems like someone is always having a birthday.

Anyway, Emily and I are number 4 and 5. Growing up, we were either the best of friends or the worst. I'll try to focus on the times when we were friends. We both had sticker collections and one of my favorite things to do was to trade stickers with her. Sounds lame, but I loved it. We also both had American Dolls. I had Kirsten and she had Samantha, whom they don't make anymore. We use to have little tea parties with our doll's miniature porcelain. I don't know why, but hours and hours would pass when we played with those dolls, or so it seemed. We shared a room and had bunk beds; mine was the bottom. Sometimes Emily would come to bed after me, but I'd still be awake and I'd grab her legs while she was climbing up and ladder and scare the crap out of her. She was already scared of the sharks since we were convinced the bedroom floor turned into the ocean in the dark. Children's imaginations are so funny.

Now that we're older, we usually aren't even living together, let alone sharing a room. The last time we were under the same roof for an extended period of time was before she graduated from Med School and I moved home after I graduated from BYU. That only lasted 2 years though. Now she lives in LA and I just got a chance to visit her, as you can see from 2 recent posts I made. She just moved into a new apartment. It's more like a duplex because, although it's attached, it has two-stories and a garage. It even has a little backyard with grass! The best part is that the house is literally across the street from the temple. Now, every time she goes anywhere, she will pass the temple. Anyway, she's an amazing person with so much ambition and perseverance. I wouldn't last one week doing the things she's done. Obviously, she's quite accomplished. She has both and Bachelor's and Master's in Harp Performance and now she's a doctor! Emily, you truly inspire me and I'm proud to call you "sister." Happy birthday. I love you.

Me, Mary and Emily in our playroom in Vacaville. We had a lot of fun in the room.

Me, Emily and Jacob on our deck in Vacaville.

Me and Emily. I don't know where we are.

Me and Emily at the Sacramento Airport with matching dresses. I love Emily's sweater :)

Me, Emily and Kate. I'm not sure what year this is.

Me and Emily in Lisbon last Spring. We were in the castle going down this narrow spiral staircase crammed with a bunch of smelly Europeans.

Jacob is my closest sibling in age. We have always been really good friends and played endlessly together growing up. Most of my childhood memories with him are when we played in the backyard. We use to pull the trampoline under the swing set, then climb to the top and jump onto it. I loved doing that. I really need to go skydiving. We also put the trampoline underneath the basketball hoop so that we could dunk. My favorite was gathering up all the balls (we had about 20) and putting them on the trampoline and then jumping while trying not to get hit until all the balls were on the ground. We also loved to read scary stories when we slept out on the trampoline in the summers. Is this about my memories with Jacob or the trampoline?!

Jacob came to live with me in Provo the year before his mission. I wish I could go back to those days. I loved it. Now he's getting married next month and although I'm happy for him, I'm going to miss him. I know he's not dying, but our relationship will alter. He'll have someone he'll need to put before everyone else and I'll never live with him again. It's bittersweet. He's really done well since he's been home from his mission. I'm talking about an A in Organic Chemistry among other great grades! He's taking the DAT on Wednesday and I know he's going to do well. He's such a hard worker and really knows where he wants to go in life. He's not letting anything hold him back and I admire him for that. Jacob, good luck with your test. I'm so excited to see you home soon (he's been in Maryland since May) and I love you. Happy birthday!

Me and Jacob playing in the playhouse in Vacaville.

Me and Jacob on the boat in McCall, Idaho. I always thought it was funny that Jacob sucked his finger rather than his thumb.

Jacob got this Jeep for his birthday one year. We use to take turns driving it.

I thought this picture looked so funny. We're cruising down Cheyenne Drive in Vacaville.

First day of school. This is a signature face of Jacob's. To this day, you'll find him doing it in a lot of pictures.

Me and Jacob at the Salt Lake Airport in 2005. We were headed to Maryland to visit my Aunt Janet. Actually, that's exactly where Jacob is now.

Me and Jacob on Ellis Island.

Fourth of July Fun

Thanks to all the rain we had in June, we haven't been able to take our boat out. July 4th, despite the threatening clouds, we took the boat to Utah Lake. It turned out to be an awesome, warm and sunny day. I went with Kate, Briton and Melissa, and the two kids. We enjoyed wake boarding, skiing, swimming and the Big Mable. Cole was a bit hesitant with the swimming and Big Mable, but he ended up loving both. Caroline turned into a little fish this year and loves jumping off the back of the boat.

After boating, we had a BBQ at Briton's house. Blue Cheese Hamburgers, white corn, watermelon, guacamole salsa, chocolate cupcakes, star-shaped sugar cookies . . . a true American meal! Cole had to go to bed before the fireworks, but Caroline was so excited. She liked the Sparklers, but got scared when they burned down close to her hand. We all had a great time. Thanks Briton and Melissa.

My parents weren't able to spend the fourth with us because they were in LA helping Emily move to her new apartment. The weekend before, my dad drove with Danny to St. Louis and helped him move into his new house. Hopefully those two will stay put for a while and the moving will be limited to every couple of years rather than every year! A couple of weekends ago, we almost had the whole family home (only Jacob was missing) for about a 2-day window. It was Emily's birthday, so we had a family celebration. I love it when we are able to get the family together like that, especially since those occasions are getting less frequent.

I had Friday off since the fourth was on a Saturday. Kate and I went to Steiner to swim. When we went to pay, the guy asked us how old we were. I said 25 and Kate said 19. The guy looked surprised and said never mind. We asked him how old he thought we were and he said 17 and 15 tops. Really? Do I look 8 years younger? I decided this underestimation of my age was due to my lack of makeup. Later that night, we went to Public Enemies and because it was rated R, I got carded! So with makeup on, I look younger than 17? I'm sure it was just a case of CYA on the theater's part, but still! My mom thinks we all look younger than we actually are because of our 25% Danish blood. I don't know. Maybe I'll appreciate it when I'm older.

Here are some pictures of the above events. Enjoy!

Los Angeles Trip, Part II

Emily had to work over night from Monday to Tuesday. It was pretty dull without her and I was too scared to leave the apartment to go anywhere by myself, so I watched John & Kate Plus 8 to find out what the big announcement was. No surprises there. Anyway, when Emily got off on Tuesday around 1 in the afternoon, we went to lunch in Westwood Village where they were setting up for the premiere of Public Enemies at one of the little theaters. There were already a bunch of crazy people waiting in line for a chance to see Johnny Depp/Christian Bale that night.

After lunch, we went to The Getty Center, which sits up on a hill near Bel Air. It was beautiful architecture with numerous views of the city and gorgeous gardens. Oh yeah, the art inside was pretty cool too! It was a nice sunny day, but it was a little bit chilly up there. That night, we went to Santa Monica Pier and walked around a bit. Pretty cool, but really touristy. I know I was a tourist, but still!

Wednesday, Emily, her friend, Nick, and I went to Conan O'Brien. We went to Universal Studios and walked around the shopping area for a while before the show. We watched some kids doing that fake skydiving thing. Pretty funny. Then we went to Conan where we stood in line for a couple hours and then finally got into the studio where it was freezing! Note: if you go to Conan, make sure you take a sweatshirt, no matter how hot it is outside. Anyway, we were on the second row right across from Max Wienberg and the band. Conan had an animal expert on, so they brought out a black bear cub, a bob cat, a white python, a timber wolf, a vulture and an elephant (awesome). They also had a little baby zebra that they brought in at the end of the show. I wasn't familiar with the second guest or the band, but it was still pretty cool to be there live.

Here's a little cafe area at The Getty Center with the city in the background.

Emily is pointing to wear she lives. The tall, white building to the right of her finger overlooks her apartment.

There were some pretty cool water features at The Getty Center. I really liked this one.

Another view from the top.

We had a few of these. Raspberries and shaved white chocolate. Mmmm.

Santa Monica Pier.

Me and Emily with the Santa Monica Pier Ferris wheel in the background.

Emily and I didn't really get any pictures when we went to Conan (except the one of us at Universal Studios at the very top of this post), so I decided to include this one of when Jacob and I went to Conan in New York back in 2005. There was no photography allowed, but I somehow managed to get this one without any of the pages seeing. If that guy in front hadn't put his stupid hand up, you could have seen more of the stage. Oh well. At least I got Jacob's big face in there.

Los Angeles Trip, Part I

I flew down to LA on Friday after work. Emily picked me up at LAX, which was a madhouse, and then we went to a movie. The Proposal was actually pretty good, despite the negative reviews. Emily and I were definitely laughing, especially at the naked scene. Anyway, on Saturday we went shopping at The Grove and then at Beverly Center. Later that night, we walked around Westwood Village since it's so near Emily's Apartment. They were showing a movie on one of those big blow-up screens and all of the little theaters were showing LA Film Festival movies.

Yesterday, we got up and went to the Farmer's Market. We got some amazing, white peaches, nectarines, apricots, strawberries, white cherries, and asparagus. So good! The gloomy morning cleared up so we decided to go to the beach. Emily lives about 3 miles from Santa Monica Beach, but she drives further so she can go to Manhattan Beach, her favorite. She actually bought a surfboard and is teaching herself, but we didn't bring it. We just went to soak up the sun. It was glorious. I've missed the sun in stormy Salt Lake. Escaping with only a few burn spots, Emily and I went to her ward, which meets right behind the temple. Of course I wanted pictures, so we walked around the grounds for a while. It was beautiful and peaceful.

There's more to come. Enjoy some pictures in the meantime.

This is The Grove. It's an outdoor shopping center and they have about any store you can think of.

Emily and I thought this was so funny. When we were growing up in Northern California, we had a grocery store by us that had Thrifty's ice cream and the scoops were cylinders. We were excited to see this unusual ice cream shape hasn't completely died out.

Here's Me and Emily at Manhattan Beach. Across from where we're sitting are a bunch of beach houses. Emily says that once she's a rich doctor, she's going to buy one. I'll be visiting a lot. :)

The front of the temple with the reflection pool in front.

There were these beautiful rose trees.

So we both had to take pictures by them.

The gardens all around were gorgeous and very Southern Californiany.

The entrance to the temple.

Come Again Another Day

The latest downpour is rumbling to a close outside my window. Jerry was interested in the distant sounds of thunder so I put him up in my window so he could watch the storm. Lucy just gets crazy when she hears thunder, so I'm glad Kate's home to take care of that. It's funny that just a year ago I was blogging about there not being enough rain. Now, however, we've had rain everyday for about 2 weeks and I'm fed up with it. Where's the sun? I want to go boating. I want to get tan. Luckily, I'm going down to LA next weekend to visit Emily. It had better be sunny. Emily, you're in charge of that and I'm holding you responsible! I hope that when I get back, this Seattle-like weather will have moved on.

It's kind of funny that when I really have nothing else to blog about, I start blogging about the weather. I'll try not to make this a habit!

Kathryn's Nineteenth

Today is Kate's birthday. Yesterday, Briton and Melissa came over with the kids for dinner. We had such a good cake from Normandie. Today, we went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. It was beautiful, but it was so hard to take pictures because of all the wind. Only one more year and my mom will officially have no more teenagers, just twenty and thirty somethings who can't seem to get married.

I'm so glad to be able to spend the summer with Kate. I've been kind of lonely living at home with just my parents. Don't get me wrong. I love living and spending time with my parents, but there's nothing like living with a sister. She's my little sidekick. She joined my singles ward, which I love, and also my gym, which I love even more. Happy Birthday Kate. I love you!