Caution: Objects may appear larger...

The other day, Sarah came into my room as I was folding laundry.  I had just happened upon a show on PBS.  She sat down and we both watched for a few minutes.  It was a new production of A Room With A View, something I have never seen but thought might be interesting.  Sarah reads like no other and I suggested she might be able to get the book for her Kindle for free.  (Books that were published prior to a certain date are free, otherwise the older books are sometimes a dollar or so)  Sarah did find it and read it in just a few days.  She loved it! 

I knew I had seen the movie listed on Netflix so I thought that would be a good Friday afternoon activity.  We loaded it up and began watching.   Lovely!  The dialogue is wonderful, the locations and costuming gorgeous.  The actors  (Judy Dench, Maggie Smith, Helena Bonham Carter, Rupert Graves, Daniel Day Lewis)  were excellent.  It was  going swimmingly until some of the male characters decided to actually do some swimming in the pond-  all very innocent.  We thought we might see a brief flash of backside but NO!!!  We were, to quote a new favorite exclamation heard on Antique Roadshow from a British guest, Absolutely Gobsmacked!!   We screamed, squealed and averted our eyes.  We glanced back thinking the brief nudity was over... nope!  More screams.  Just then,  Emily leaps up while saying, "I've got this!"  She grabbed a dishtowel laying nearby and did her best to cover the offending parts. Where's the remote when you need it?!?  The characters were jumping in and out of the pond, leaping about etc.  Guess how close 'things' look on a 60 inch screen?   The dishtowel wasn't providing sufficient coverage so Emily grabbed a  throw and held it up in front of the screen and firmly stated, "This is a crack free establishment!"    So funny.  We laughed and laughed and the girls kept saying, "My eyes!"  Awesome.



Emily helping to maintain our standards.  (Shades of Louise Carling circa early 1980's during Kramer vs. Kramer at an exciting Young Adult activity)

Smiling

I'm smiling today because...

- the sun is shining.

- my house is clean. ish.

- no one in my family is sick.

- my wonderful nephew just got engaged to an amazing girl.

- even though I have painfully slow internet service, I have internet service.

- there are horses in my bathroom.

I don't know why there are horses in my bathroom.

I'm just glad they're there.

Horses in your bathroom mean you still have a youngish child.




Thanks for the horses Em.

Tchaikovsky and Willam Christensen. Perfect.

I just got home from a wonderful evening at the ballet with my daughters. It was beautiful and dreamy and so fine. All three of us loved it. I was transported back to the early 70's... a little girl seeing the Nutcracker at Ballet West for the first time. Magical.

I've stolen a few pictures from Ballet West's blog. Tres convenient. I've also grabbed a little bio of Willam F Christensen, the founder of Ballet West, from Wikipedia.

Snow Queen and her Cavalier. The girls want her tiara.

Willam F Christensen (1902 – 2001) was an American ballet dancer, choreographer and founder of the San Francisco Ballet and Ballet West in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is known for bringing the complete version of the Russian ballet The Nutcracker to the United States, as well as staging the first American performances of Swan Lake and Coppélia. Christensen's Nutcracker was first staged in 1944 in San Francisco, where the ballet remains an annual tradition, though the production now staged there is not necessarily the Christensen version. (Ballet West's Nutcracker is the original Christensen version and it is in my opinion, the best)

Christensen left the San Francisco Ballet in the care of his brother, Harold, to help choreograph a stage production at the University of Utah in the summer of 1948. While there, he was asked to stay on and help the University create a department of ballet. He agreed, and spent the remainder of his life working in Utah and the Intermountain West. The University of Utah was the first accredited University to have a ballet department in the United States. While in Utah, Christensen also founded Ballet West.



Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier.



Sugar Plum Fairy en pointe with rockin extension.



Waltz of the Flowers. Yum.




More chicas from the Waltz of the Flowers.

As a little girl, I dreamed of being Clara; dancing with the handsome prince, being whisked away to a magical kingdom. I don't dream of being Clara anymore. I have a handsome prince who loves me and our amazing daughters and treats us like royalty. Thanks Rich for the curbside taxi service and thank you Sarah and Emily for wanting to go tonight. Thank you to my mom for helping me love ballet and carting me to dance lessons all those years.

The everyday stuff makes me happy.

I walked by Em's room the other day and found her nestled in bed, enjoying a good book.  Don't we all want to throw convention to the wind, put on a tiara and a pair of warm gloves and just read?


The following scenario took place in mid November.  Emily was doing some homework (note the turkey) whilst sporting her light-up Christmas antlers. 


Emily's justification for wearing the fabulous headpiece was that the radio stations were playing Christmas music before Thanksgiving and  she could start celebrating too.    Excited much?



She wore them for several days. All day.

What does Sarah do for fun these days?  Sadly, no exotic headwear.  She does have her darling girlfriends over to watch flicks and make cookies every now and then.

Kristine, Michelle and Sarah with Wasatch Mountain Ranger Cookies. 

Yum.

St. George Springtime - Part III

I know, I know... enough already with the vacation pics.  I can't help myself.
Here are some pics from the pool in Green Valley.


Emily, Sarah and cousin Hillary










I'm watchin' you. 



Rich was on dive toy duty.  He has a better throwing arm than me.


A gaggle of goggled girls.



After some fun in the lap pool, it was time to move over to the diving pool.  The deep, unheated pool.


The plan:  "Let's hold hands and jump in together!"






Not so much according to plan. Sarah's name was mud for a while.


This child cracks me up.  Esther Williams  just rolled over in her grave.


Complete and total abandon.  Check out that smile.




I love water.  I took this one when we were at Sand Hollow Aquatic Center in Santa Clara.  The girls had a great time there as well but its an indoor pool and the pics of them were  grainy.

School Pics

Emily - 5th Grade

Sarah - 8th Grade

I could swear I was just taking pictures of these little girls at their preschool Halloween programs. The annual school photo shoot sure makes the growing up of my babies  seem more  real. Dang.

Serene

I nabbed this glorious photo of Sarah off facebook.

I saw it for the first time today.

It took my breath away.  Then it made me feel  peaceful.

She looks serene and regal. 

Sunset at the Bountiful Temple...  a great idea for a YW activity.

Sarah was a great idea too.