the old gang

A million years ago (okay, maybe more like 14) four young folks met in Evanston, Illinois during grad school.

They became great friends.  They hung out a lot, they even took mini vacations together after they graduated.  Then, jobs, families, etc. took over our lives and...

BLAM...

10 years went by.

This month we met up for an extended weekend in Arizona.

We did a little touring around.  We hiked in Sedona and visited Taliesin West -- Frank Lloyd Wright's final home and for lack of a better word commune -- which I highly recommend checking out if you are in the area.  We also saw the Heard Museum and ate at a lot of great restaurants.

But mostly we just caught up with each other which was really great.

Clearly I need a wide angle lens.

And, yes I finally got an iPhone (the guy at Radio Shack literally chortled when I produced my antiquated phone from my purse during the purchase).

So here are some shots I took with my fancy new phone.

performances galore

This year has been filled with a number of stage performances.  (This post will probably be most appreciated by the grandparents).

Most recently Katie played Annie (again) in a talent show.

Unfortunately she didn't wear the wig during the performance (she thought people would laugh at her).



In a milestone performance Katie actually talked her sister into performing with her which was huge as Maddie seems to shy away from the stage.

Here is their rendition of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" from the Lion King.



I also realized I hadn't posted her talent show performance from earlier this year for those of you following Katie's career closely...

best of the best

Katie made a little book at school for Mother's Day.  

This was my favorite page by far. 

And, to clarify, I'm telling Papa Wickie to stop snoring (this is according to the artist).

Hope you had a good one.

mo and her fighter

I was quite the tomboy growing up, always playing with my brother's G.I. Joes, watching Transformers, constructing spears out of bamboo in the backyard.

I've been realizing lately that we have a very girly house.

We recently received purple swords at a friend Jake's ninja party and these are recent tidbits of conversation from Mo.

"Mama, you hold onto this part, and boom with the other purple part."

"Where is my fighter!?" (referring to the sword)

"Mama! (crying) Sissy says this isn't a gun!!!" (waving the sword around for me to see)

uke school

Halmoni was gracious enough to give us some spending money for our vacation last month.

With her permission we decided to buy ukuleles -- one for Katie and one for me and Papa Wickie.

Ironically, we bought our ukes from this guy (below middle) whose picture we saw at the nearby Kaliua music store.

Later we bought his album which is pretty good!

We purchased a soprano uke for Katie and a concert uke for the grown ups.

We have been having a ball with them.  We've been trying to get Katie to strum with her pointer finger, but she's intent on doing it her way for now.

Our friend Will has promised to give us some actual lessons soon which we are looking forward to immensely.  But until then...