Eyrealm: Music and Sports with the Grandkids

WOW! Grandkids are so fun! Last week we had a grand time with the Looslis and the Pothiers as they participated in many learning activities with music, sports and tumbling. We are having a grundle of fun with these great kids. It seems like yesterday that they were babies and suddenly they are classical music enthusiasts and outstanding athletes, among a lot of other gifts and talents!

Last week we got our fill!

I hadn’t had a Grammie Date with the twins, Oliver and Silas in a long time so we got together along with their mom Saren, who drove them there from Ogden… to Symphony Hall, to hear the symphony perform Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokoviev. Those boys along with several of their cousins had acted out that fun piece of music together at Grammie Camp. So they knew the story line and, having listened to it many times, could sing the themes of each of the characters represented by the music before they got there. Besides the main attraction, we heard three delightful stories based on fables, beautifully narrated while the music of the orchestra created the stories in our minds.The twins loved it! Oliver could still hear the music with his eyes closed (see below).

As much as they enjoyed the music, I think they loved being in that gorgeous building even more. They climbed the stairs to the top and reveled in the beautiful gold leaf and creative architecture. It was a good chance to tell them the story of Grandfather’s hand in that building as he ran the successful bond election many years ago that made ti possible to build Symphony Hall. They got to meet the Statue of Maurice Abravanel and who adored their grandfather whose talents to get the community on board through the election made the creation of the hall possible.

A couple of days later we were off to Arizona to see our champion volleyball player, 17 year old Max and our undefeated tennis player, 16 year old Elle play for their high school teams! It slammed me back into the days when we spent myriads of hours a week sitting in the bleachers watching our boys play basketball and hockey in High School. I regret that we didn’t get our girls more involved with sports when they were teenagers.

But Elle is doing a fine job making up for our failures. Here she is with her tennis team (the beauty 3rd from the right) including her cute (much shorter) doubles partner (2nd from the left). They play #1 singles and Elle plays #3 Singles. They are undefeated! We got to see a terrific two hour match where Elle came out on top 7/5, 7/5. Elle’s grandfather, who is a tennis “nut” iis thrilled and I am amazed!

Even thought this Highland Volleyball team lost by two points in a five set match (due, of course to some rrrrreally bad calls by the referee), it was a joy to see Max play! Shawni and Josh got better pictures than I did, but this is all I have of the magnficent #10! This team came in 3rd out of 37 teams at a Volleyball tournament in California last week during spring break. Max was elected to be on the All-Tourney team. We (and his parents) of course, are “bursting our buttons.”

Blurry below because he was moving faster than the speed of light as he went for the kill. Richard figured that he made at least six kills and too man blocks than we count! Can you believe he can get that 6’7”, 215 pound body that far off the ground?

Below Max is the tall guy in right in the middle of the huddle. I have no idea what that snowman is doing there. In Arizona? I don’t think it’s their mascot. LOL

We went straight from the games to “Tumbling” (we love that word)! This cute Grace and her little Sister Claire didi incredible forward and backward flips, backbends and positively astonishing feats with their bodies with such competent (and demanding) instructors. Such fun to watch!

As you can see, tumbling is pretty important to Claire. this is the schedule she has posted by her bed:

We squeezed in quite a lot of other fun too! We took these three to Cinderella, even though two of them had already seen it! What a movie. I lost a lot of tears over that beauty! We thought it was simply delicious! Couldn’t have taught a better moral to the story: Have Courage and Be Kind! Awesome!

Family devotionals are at 6:40 a.m. There’s such a nice spirit in the room, even though it may look as though some are still asleep! They are pretty smart scriptorians!

Helping with homework was fun too….especially braille homework!

This awesome mama may look gorgeous but she doesn’t feel very well! She has Valley Fever, which she got from inhaling spores somewhere in the desert. That developed into pneumonia which sent her to bed for about five days, unable to lift her head! With Hoshimotos, her immune system is down and it has sent her for a loop! She has had two CAT scans and we are waiting for results on the second one any day. She is exhausted and just keeps on keeping on! She’s really trying to get more sleep which would help! She is one tough and gritty cookie! We love this girl!

We arrived back to SL just in time to head for Ogden the next evening for a fabulous music program they have organized there for kids. It’s called Music Detectives designed for 4-6 graders.

Four times a year the Utah Symphony travels to Ogden and clever instructors teach the kids what they are going to see and hear before the concert starts (among other musical things) After a half an hour orientation they are sent into the Browning Center to hear the Symphony. In this case they heard a brilliant pianist play the remarkable Beethoven 2nd Piano Concerto. Armed with clipboards where they can draw what they heard and answer questions about the music, they sat mesmerized by the music! The twins and Eliza were engaged and delighted with what they were learning!

They even gave the kids binoculars so they could see up close and personal during the performance!

Alter they heard the Concerto, they were ushered off to the same room, singing the theme of the piece and while Saren and I heard an incredible rendition of an orchestral suite based on The Ring by Wagner, the same instructor had fun with the kids, talking about what they had heard and playing music jeopardy, which they were thrilled by (and so were Saren and I).