Lake Powell Lifestyle

Earlier in the summer Leisha and Jared's cousin Taylor Morley came to Lake Powell to hang out with us for awhile. He, Jared, and I climbed all over the place.














The great Risk game: Leisha and Jon pwned Jeff and Jared big time! Laura provided moral support by making popcorn for both teams.










Leisha and Jon on one of their hikes. Jon won the "mountain goat" award for effortlessly running (floating) up steep hills with no apparent effort in about 1/10th the time of the rest of us!
















The kids and I on top of the world....














Poor babies were tired after a windy/rainy night that sent everybody fleeing off the top of the houseboat into the interior in the middle of the night.
























We were at Lake Powell with Leisha, Jon, and Jared at the end of August. The weather was comfortable, even though we got hit with a couple of big rainstorms and windstorms.
We all hiked on the surrounding red sandstone cliffs. It was stunningly beautiful and serene!

Wedding Day

This picture was taken on Jon and Leisha's wedding day.  I love how happy they both look.  Leisha's hair was done at 7:30 a.m. and was still going strong looking good at 7:30 p.m.  

My Gorgeous Daughter....

The way they were...

Here are some pictures of Leisha and Jon when they were kids. (Jared is in the background--he had been happily eating dirt and Leisha had been happily playing in it.) Both of these have been put in a slideshow put together by Leisha to be shown at the wedding reception.

Leisha has done her own flowers and centerpieces, her own slideshow, and her own music CD.

These two kids are the BEST! They are a perfect fit for each other!

Bridal shots

Last week Leisha went in to the Salt Lake Library to have her bridal shots taken. These are just a few I snapped while the photographer was working.

The library is listed as one of the top 100 buildings in the United States for architectural design. It has winding staircases, glass ceilings, banners, plazas, unique rooms squeezed into small spaces, and is generally fascinating. It was a great place for Leisha's pictures, and it was fun to walk around and see people gawking at the girl in the wedding dress in the middle of the building.

a very B-A-A-A-D Cattitude

Our cat Rontu spends each night in a basement room--a nice room with a couch, a window, and a litter box. He enters it happily enough each night, but each morning he acts as if he has spent the night in Alcatraz and can hardly wait to get out.

Jared snapped these pictures of Rontu's morning routine: step 1: insert your snout into the narrow door opening; step 2: slowly draw your snout downwards and begin to push your skull into the opening to make sure your owners won't shut you back inside.

Jared's solo and ensemble (mis)adventures

Two weeks ago, Jared was selected to play in the state-level solo and ensemble competition. He advanced to state by receiving a "1" on his region-level competition. The song he was working on was the first two movements of a Vivaldi piece: I was his accompanist and so we had rehearsed together many times. He had this song DOWN! He could play it very movingly and with great attention to dynamics, vibrato, etc.

On the day we went to play at the state competition, as he was tuning his cello, his a-string slipped and almost came loose. To tighten it back up, he had to keep cranking and cranking the tuning peg--practically breaking it off! It took about 3 minutes, during which time the judge kept saying, "You're still flat... You're still flat..." The clock was ticking, and other contestants were watching. It was very intense. By the time Jared got it tuned, he had started to sweat, and had to remove his tux jacket. I could tell he was completely discombobulated by the whole thing--it doesn't take much to throw your concentration and mental state off.

He did NOT play well. It was so disappointing! He hit the first note wrong--which he has NEVER done--and his playing was hesitant and cautious. He felt really bad and embarrassed. I tried to buoy him up as much as possible, but I had to admit that it didn't sound nearly as good as it could. Last week he got his score back, and it was a "1-", which I thought was very charitable on the part of the judge. The score made him feel a little bit better, but he did not qualify to go on to the higher level competition, and he still felt bad about it.