Update

Last weekend, Kent finished painting blue on the side of the house. His next project is to paint the white... which will take some time!

Now with the gutter painted blue we only have a few projects left on the back of the house. The upper windows need to be painted and the chimney fixed. It's so exciting to get close to a nice looking house. I think that is what keeps us going on these projects... we can see the "end" in sight!

I heard the news about the middle school pep assembly and got my camera ready to capture Kent as he rode his bike home. Because they won 1st place in the parade last weekend, he ended up with orange and black hair (in front of the entire middle school).

This morning we are off to Wenatchee again for the Grand Apple Blossom Parade. Kent's band is #66 and my band is #111. We're hoping to take 1st and 2nd again this year... wish us luck! :) By the way, after seeing Kent's hair, I really don't feel like getting 1st...

Today Kent decided to start working on cleaning and painting the side of the house. The first step was to power wash the dirt and loose paint.

Above is a photo of the garden in on the side/back of our house. Our cherry trees are now in full bloom along with several plants in the rock garden (right). We have had cold weather for the last week (20's and 30's) and have noticed some of the cherry blossoms have turned brown. We hope we get a good batch of cherries this year!

Above and below show our garden in front of our house. There is more and more green popping out of the ground every day. Hopefully the warmer weather this weekend will get the garden more on track!

Youth Apple Blossom Parade

Yesterday was the Youth Apple Blossom Parade in Wenatchee. We both had our 7th and 8th grade bands marching in the parade. It was a beautiful day with 70* weather and not a cloud in sight. Kent's band did a great job and won 1st place this year!

Annie's 6th grade colorguard and band in the background. Next week we'll be back here for the Grand Apple Blossom Parade with our high school bands.

That evening Kent performed with the Wenatchee Big Band on the main stage of the festival. There was a great crowd of people and very good smells from all the food vendors. We split a elephant ear after his performance that was very tasty!

Wenatchee Valley Symphony

Bing and Britta (Kent's parents) came down to see Kent perform this weekend. He was featured on the Wenatchee Valley Symphony's final concert for the year. He performed "A Quiet City" by Aaron Copland. The photos are from the dress rehearsal the day before the concert.

After the concert, Kent got a chance to talk to the principal trumpet player from the Spokane Symphony who was in attendance that night. On the concert we also performed Beethoven's 5th Symphony which turned out very well.

23 Weeks

I get asked every day how I am feeling by teachers and friends. After bringing my bands out to practice marching and a day of teaching, my body feels so tired! I'm keeping active and overall feeling great. Only 16 more weeks to go!

Spring has arrived!

Spring arrived last weekend! We enjoyed temperatures in the 70's all weekend long. Kent worked really hard on the back of the house. He replaced the wood that held the gutters in place. It was practically falling out in places because it was so rotten. His choice in wood will last much longer than the fiber board that was there before. We bought an outdoor fireplace last weekend and enjoyed hot dogs over the fire last weekend with Caitlin. We love a campfire, so you can't beat having one in your backyard!

The tulips and daffodils are now in full bloom and the garden is becoming more green every day. The trees in the neighborhood are starting to get leaves. I love this time of year!

The other project we had was to paint the back of the house. Kent power washed it and then we went to work. We couldn't believe how bad it looked once you put up the new white paint!!!

We are now so proud of our patio in the back! Below is a photo of a window in Scotland that we were reminded of when we looked at our new clean white and blue house! (Now for the flower boxes...!) :)

California

For the last few days of Spring break we took Annie's high school band down to Anaheim, CA. They had a great time visiting Universal Studios, Hard Rock Cafe, Disneyland, California Adventure, and the Santa Monica Pier.

They attended a great workshop at Disneyland that simulated being a professional recording studio musician and on Friday they performed for a 1/2 hour at the Disneyland park. Students were well behaved and we had a great time in the warm weather.

Enjoying the beach and the Santa Monica Pier.

Patio Furniture!

Will anyone play with me? Please!?!

This is our new patio furniture that we bought at Costco this afternoon. We're really excited for the weather to warm up so that we can use it! Last year we finished the patio but it was too late in the summer to find patio furniture in the stores!

My camera lens is "stuck" in after I took this photo... this may be the last photo for a while! :(

I Thought It Was Spring!

Winter does not want to leave! We had a blanket of snow cover our tulips on Friday. The weather report looks promising with highs in the 50's for this week. Hopefully it will melt all of this snow!

We have one flowering tree outside. What a sight; snow piled on the blossoms!

Baby update

Baby's head is in the center, the mouth is to the left. There is a leg or arm off to the left pointing straight up!

Yesterday we went in for our 20 week ultrasound. It was nice to hear "looks normal" over and over again. The baby wasn't in the right position to get very many good photos... but above are the ones were the best she could get for us. She gave us the due date of August 18th... a little later than the other due date of August 11th. I guess we'll have to wait and see on this one! She also told us that our baby weighs 10 oz.; over a half a pound. Lots of fun!