Honey Festival is SWEET!

Take Note was asked to sing for the Firestone Honey Festival. I always love singing for community events. I especially love when we can perform in the air conditioning and with a good sound system. It was great to have some of my awesome friends come and support us sing, but other than them, the audience was a little unresponsive. It was still worth it though. Ken is incredible (as usual) and was able to step in and play the piano for us because two of our pianists were unable to make the gig. Thanks HONEY! :)

It was fun to find out Sunday morning that Take Note was one of two pictures that made the Times-Call newspaper article about the event. Got to love free publicity!

Where did the summer go?!?

I admit it. I get as excited as the kids do about back-to-school shopping! When we returned home from our vacation we realized that school was starting in just a couple of weeks. We began preparing; getting school supplies, buying new clothes (especially for Trevor -- he is growing so fast!), trying to go to bed earlier, and doing lots of fun activities during our last few free days.

Before we knew it, Back to School Night was upon us and the Kids got to meet their teachers. Trevor is loving being in Mrs. Zamudio's 1st grade class and Morgan is doing great in Mrs. Higerd's 4th grade class.



They were both so excited to start the new school year and were up early the next morning. They were apparently "too cool" to have me walk them. They wanted to ride their bikes instead. Are we to that ALREADY?




I am so excited for my kiddos and all that they will learn this year and the new adventures they will be having! I love them both so much and I know they are going be fantastic!!!

Two places at once...

We stopped in Wendover for a little lunch and had to get some proof that the kids could be two places at once as they straddled the state line between Utah and Nevada. They thought this was pretty fun!


Speaking of lunch, on several occasions we gave Cooper a treat to keep him occupied during our long hours in the van. Check out these messy faces (and hands, and arms, and legs...)!

"It's a Small World after all!"

I am still amazed how small the world is! While we were bowling in the Wilkinson Center, I looked up at the guy taking his family to the lane next to us. I thought he looked just like Mike from high school, but then again I hadn't seen him in about 17 years! So I started to look because i knew he had married another of our friends. She looked familiar too, but I kept telling myself that it couldn't be them. After all, they live in Atlanta! I finally went up to them to ask their last name when Sherri turned around, looked at me for a second and said, "Carli Adair!", in a very surprised voice. It indeed was them and it was really fun to catch up on the last 17 years. We even both had sons named Trevor. :)

I think we were destined to meet up again. They had even been in Monterey the weekend before while we were there for Clint's wedding. So crazy -- a family from Colorado and one from Georgia meet bowling of all places. What a small world we live in!

Me with the Sherberts.

SLC visits

On either side of our journey out west, we were able to stay with wonderful friends in Utah.

On the way out we stayed with the Garrards. We took the kids to visit Temple Square, ate at Los Hermanos, let the kids run in the fountains at Gateway, and played Ticket to Ride. Ken and Morgan even went on a daddy daughter date to go see Music and the Spoken Word.





On the way home we visited the Allreds. Rochelle had just had baby Logan about two weeks before and I can't believe that they wanted all of our chaos to even enter their home. I was able to get 7 meals in the freezer and make most of the meals, so hopefully the chaos was worth it. :) We moved pretty slow, but we were able to do a few fun things like shopping at Ikea and Rod Works, meeting up with Kirsten and Jamie and letting the kids play at Thankgiving Point's Children Discovery Garden, eating at Brick Oven, and taking the kids to BYU bookstore and bowling at the Wilkinson Center. Ken and Shane went golfing and kayaking down Provo River. I also got to do a photo shoot of sweet baby Logan! It was hard to leave our dear friends and come home, but I am sure they were glad to have their home back to normal!

Grandma's house

On our long drive from Monterey, CA to our friend's house in Utah we knew we had to stop and visit my grandmother, Donna Christiansen. She is an amazing woman who has been through so much in her life and handled it all with an overwhelming faith in the Lord. We always joke that she has the red, direct line phone to Heavenly Father. It has been difficult for me (and many in our family) to watch this vibrant woman getting older and afflicted with so much pain. I am also a little sad that my children (and even some of my younger cousins) do not know the Grandma I grew up with. Makes me grateful for the Resurrection and that someday, they will.

I knew we needed to stop and spend some time with her despite our long journey. She was so excited that we were coming, even though it was a rough day for her. She ordered pizza for us and even had the fixings for banana splits. The kids were in heaven! For me, it was an opportunity to reminisce. Almost everything in her home has some memory connection for me. It was cool to take a photo of Cooper playing on the same rocking horse that I did as a child.



Just before we left I really felt like I wanted to sing for her -- she has always been so supportive of me as I try to develop that talent. Luckily, I travel with an amazing accompanist. I chose to sing "For Good" from Wicked. Can I just say, sometimes it is really hard to sing when you are thinking about the words you are singing. As I sang, "because I knew you, I have been changed for good," it was really difficult not to brake into the ugly crying.

I love my dear grandmother so much and it was a treat to spend some time with her!

Gotta go back there!

Ken and I have never been to the Monterey area before and I am certain we will have to visit there again! It was absolutely beautiful. Thank you Clint and Audra for giving us an excellent reason to make our way out to the coast!

Monterey Bay Aquarium

The morning of Clint and Audra's wedding we took the opportunity to take our family (plus Beverly, cousin Shara, and Audra's daughter, Reagan) to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It was incredible and I am so glad we took the opportunity to go even though it was packed. I think I could have spent hours watching the jellyfish displays. I was completely transfixed! My only complaint was I wish we would have had more time there, but we had a wedding to get to! :)

Peyton trying on some dolphin fins.

Morgan overlooking the bay.

Trevor "hands on" with some sea creatures.

Splash zone!

Clint and Audra's wonderful wedding

On July 24th, my brother Clint was married to Audra at a picturesque vineyard in California. It is clear to everyone who sees them how in love they are. I am so happy for them that they have found each other! The ceremony was beautiful and I was tickled that Clint and Audra asked me to sing Nat King Cole's "LOVE" as they exited down the isle.

The dinner was AMAZING and the presentation of everything was gorgeous! After dinner and the toasts, we danced the night away. It was such a fun party!

Me with the groom before the ceremony.

My beautiful new sister-in-law, Audra.

Audra's awesome kids, Keely and Avery. (Such a great addition to our family!)

Sweet Reagan!

Cyle giving the best man toast.

First dance as man and wife!

Audra thought of everything and threw a pizza party for the kids with gift bags
full of fun things to play with.

Clint shared a sweet dance with Grandma.

While we were dancing, an incredible full moon rose over us. How did they arrange that one?!?

Hooray for family!

Every two years we do a family reunion with my mother's side of the family. It is an absolute blast! I love catching up and hanging out with my fantastic aunts, uncles, and cousins. It is especially fun that my cousins have kiddos about the same age as ours and it is great watching them play together.

For the reunion we went up to Lake Tahoe again and we couldn't have asked for better. The place we stayed at had cabins with a nice open space where we did our giant group meals and a pool and hot tub steps from our room. (It was great to put Cooper down for a nap, crack the window, and play with the kids at the pool.) Lake Tahoe is beautiful, even if the water is a bit cold. Almost everyone was able to attend and we had around 50 of us -- quite a crew! We loved spending time together in such a beautiful setting.

It was also a treat to be there for my cousin's wedding. She chose a beautiful spot right on the beach. We loved being there to support her and her super, cool new husband. After the wedding, most of us just changed into our suits and played at the beach. So fun!

We didn't want to the party to end, so the next day we packed up and headed to Monterey so we could continue the party down at Clint and Audra's wedding. (To be continued...)

My mom and her awesome sisters!