Culminating Project #2

The weekend after Lauren's and my little recital, I managed to finish up my own culminating project by... inviting 30 people over for dinner!  My culminating project, as some of you may know, was to learn how to cook food from the countries of our heritage, namely, Ukraine, Germany, Italy, and Scotland.  (I didn't end up cooking much for Scotland, following Jord and Char's advice, but I did make some delicious sticky toffee pudding.)  Anyways, I spent a few days cooking all the dishes- it was a TON of work!  But in the end, it was all worth it.  Everyone had a great time, and the food was all delicious too.  Of course, I couldn't have done it without Mom and Dad and some friends, so I am eternally grateful to them.  But it was a lot of fun and I wish you guys all could've been here too!  

Senior Recital

A couple weeks ago I had the chance to have a little senior recital with my friend Lauren, who plays the piano.  We invited our friends and their parents, and we played some solo pieces and a duet together.  It was Lauren's final culminating project for school.  It ended being a lot of fun!  I'm so glad I could have my friends listen to my violin playing, because a lot of them didn't even really know I played the violin.  Overall the program was about half an hour, most of it being Lauren's pieces, but I also got to play one with Mom accompanying me.  She did great as well- it's nice to have a mom who you can play music with!  Anyways, here's a few pictures of the event!

Happy St Patricks Day from the Emerald City - Not

Happy St Patricks Day from the Emerald City!

Seattle is known as the Emerald City, but that name hasn't stuck this winter!
Afte the first white Christmas in decades the snow has just kept on coming. Rachel has enjoyed a record number of snow days and late starts and cancelled seminary classes during her senior year. When we arrived at stake conference this Sunday the parking guy called out "Merry Christmas!" That's because even in March it decided to snow and cover up the daffodils which are just now - about a month late - poking their heads out. But I really can't complain. The snow has also made for some awesome expeditions in the mountains with my hiking friends. Here's a photo of Jennifer Buckmiller and I in the Cascades a couple weeks ago.

Animal Farm

A couple other moms and I went to this little animal farm and all the kids LOVED it. I thought Oliver was going to explode with excitement when he found the bunny cages.