Ana is 15

On her actual birthday (Tuesday, May 24), she went to school and then to her Young Women activity.

On the Sunday before her birthday (May22), we invited family over for dinner and cake. 

We had pineapple chicken and coconut rice for dinner, and Ana made herself a gorgeous chocolate raspberry cake. (I offered to make her birthday cake, but she was more than happy to do it herself.) Aunt Rachel and Uncle Justin were in Italy, so their kids came with Grandma Susan and Grandpa Dennis. Uncle T and Aunt McKall forgot about the dinner (they have a newborn, so they're allowed to be forgetful), but they brought a bag of Lindor chocolates for her later.

We had hoped the weather would cooperate so we could have the dinner outside, but it was unseasonably cold, so we hosted everyone inside.

Lighting 15 candles on her cake while Hudson watches.

Then she opened presents: a card with cash from Grandma Susan and Grandpa Dennis, a gift card to Joann from her parents (she also received a LEGO bonsai tree on her actual birthday), a beautiful art kit from Aunt Rachel's family, and a shapeshifting box from Grandma and Grandpa Scott.

Her cute popup card from Grandma Susan

Opening her Amazon box on her actual birthday. Surprise! (She had picked it out herself.)

Andrea and Ana with our array of sauces at Super Chix for Ana's birthday dinner. Ana likes to try new places out, so we got chicken tenders and fries after she decided to eat here on Saturday, May 28.

Then on Monday, May 30 (Memorial Day), Ana invited some friends over (Jacie Klingler, Lilli Mickelsen, Samantha Park, Emelia Bare) to play Jackbox games, eat pizza and watch Heart and Souls. We didn't go fishing at Henry's Lake this Memorial Day weekend because the weather was cold and snowy in Island Park. So it was easy to get things ready for her friends to come over on the last day of the three-day weekend.

Piano recital

 Okay, so this happened a while ago, but I didn't get the video edited and uploaded until recently.

Ana performed in her last piano recital (we have the girls take lessons until they're finished with their freshmen year, then let them decide if they want to continue), and Miriam and Winnie performed in their not-last piano recital. All the girls did an admirable job, and we're proud of their hard work.

One of Miriam's songs was a duet, and I got to play the secondo. It's the first time I've performed in a piano recital since I was probably younger than 8. We had a false start (totally my fault), but it was fun to be able to play with her.

Standing for a final (silent) ovation in the St. Leon chapel on Sunday, April 10.

You can watch the girls perform their numbers here.

End of the year concerts

 Band! Ballroom! More differenter band! Fencing at band!

Rebekah had her final jazz band concert of the year on Thursday, May 5 in the Little Theater at Bonneville. 

Soloing from this angle.

And soloing from this angle. This is probably my favorite shot of Rebekah from her concerts this year. The Little Theater has more ambience than the gym.

Then on Saturday, May 7, Rebekah competed in state solo and ensemble at Madison High School in Rexburg. First she performed her solo in the library.

 

Playing her solo with the judges in the foreground.

Getting feedback from one judge.

Grandma Susan and Grandma Hendricks watching/listening.

Winnie reading on her Kindle while Grandpa Scott, Grandma Scott, Miriam, Ana, Grandma Susan and Grandma Hendricks listen.

Then she performed with a brass quartet in a classroom. Matthew Sorenson (who, we found out, is the son of someone Grandma Susan used to babysit in Rexburg back in the day. Grandma Hendricks and Matt's grandma had a lovely chat while waiting for their progeny to perform), Alex Randall, Rebekah and Caiden Anderson.

Then we booked it home so Rebekah could go on a day date (escape room) and then get ready for prom.

Seth trying out his tactical laser on Rebekah's sequined dress. It was very reflective.

Rebekah pinning a boutonniere on her date, Ashton Murdock.

Couple picture taken at Jacob Brigg's house. The group ate dinner there, then went to the dance at The Waterfront at Snake River Landing.

Miriam had her band concert on Thursday, May 12 in the newly remodeled Rocky Mountain Middle School auditorium.

Seth and Miriam hold up their sticks during the concert. After playing a few numbers, Mrs. Bull invited the students to retrieve one guest from the audience so they could come up and get a quick tutorial on their student's instrument and play "Hot Cross Buns." Seth felt like he lucked out getting to play it on the marimba.

Miriam playing percussion during their last number, a tune from Pirates of the Caribbean. 

On Monday, May 16, Ana had her final ballroom concert of the year. 

JV Cabaret "Superman," which Ana was an alternate for. She got to dance in it that night.

"Sax."

"Dance with Me Tonight."

"Betty Boop." This was a new number that we hadn't seen before. A kid on the silver team choreographed it. Poor Ana didn't have a partner because the kid she was paired with didn't ever show up to class.

Ana received "most improved" female on her team. She got a T-shirt and some recognition for all her hard work this year.

Green team's lindy. This is a fun, cute number.

"Bugle Boy," another new one that included all three teams.

And then Ana and a few other ballroom volunteers performed "Jai Ho" during the Idaho Falls' choir concert at the Colonial Theater on Wednesday, May 18.

The girls got to do fun hair and makeup.

You can watch the dance here.

Rebekah performed with the pit orchestra during Bonneville's spring musical, "Anastasia." We went on closing night: Saturday, May 21.

A blurry photo of Rebekah standing on her chair so she could see out of the pit before the musical started and the crab puppet Alex was manning in the corner of the pit.

Rebekah emerging from the pit during intermission to visit with Miriam, Grandma Susan and Ana.

Playing music in the pit after the bows.

Ana and the ballroom teams performed numbers at several elementary schools, including Fairview. I sneaked in after watching Winnie launch her rocket (post to follow) on Monday, May 23 to see the ballroom team teach the 1st-3rd graders how to dance to "Cotton Eye Joe."

"To the right."

And Rebekah had her final symphonic band concert of the year (combined with orchestra for a few numbers) in the Bonneville gym on Wednesday, May 25.

Rebekah laughing during their number with a guest performer, the head of the tuba department at BYU-Idaho. They played "Party Potatoes," which was written for this professor, and includes the longest tuba solo you've ever heard.

Rebekah shaking hands with her band director, Mr. Bull. Rebekah received the "Outstanding Service" award for the year.

Rebekah playing clarinet during the combined symphonic band/orchestra numbers. 

Rebekah and her friend Kiera Bake were the surprise during the final number of the Rocky Mountain Middle School Band concert on Thursday, May 26. While the band played "Pirates of the Caribbean" (a number that every band played this spring), Rebekah and Kiera performed a choreographed fencing duel.

Rebekah posing in her pirate costume with a fire truck in the background. This was the second time in a week that fire trucks had been to the property north of us to take care of a fire. 

Kiera and Rebekah fencing during the number.

You can watch their entire duel here.

Winnie at General Conference

 Traditionally we have taken each girl to a session of General Conference in Salt Lake after she has turned 8. Unfortunately, COVID prevented us from taking Winnie to her session of Conference until she was 9 1/2 years old. (Conference was not open to the public in the duration.) So as soon as we heard that the Church would be issuing a limited number of tickets for the April 2022 Conference, we asked the stake to be put on the list of interested members. We were the first ones to do so, so when they received tickets, we got our pick of sessions. 

We left Idaho Falls for our hotel in Salt Lake on Friday, April 1, after I had volunteered at D.I. and driven the 6th grade band carpool. We spent the night at our Hampton Inn in downtown Salt Lake (Winnie was excited to get an entire queen bed to herself), then enjoyed breakfast before packing up and heading to Temple Square. The Salt Lake Temple is going through a major overhaul, so it's completely surrounded by scaffolding, and most of Temple Square is torn up and inaccessible. We walked around to take it all in, then tried to find a suitable place to listen to the Saturday morning session. 

Winnie taking pictures of the statue in front of the Assembly Hall while Seth watches. The Assembly Hall and the Tabernacle are the only parts of the west side of Temple Square that aren't completely torn apart.

Winnie and Andrea at the fountain in front of the Assembly Hall.

The three of us with the temple in the background.

Seth lifting Winnie so she can see how far down they've dug out next to the temple.

In the past, we've listened/watched it on Temple Square, but with the scarcity of grounds right now, we ended up going across the street to Brigham Young Historic Park. I've seen the park many times before while driving/walking past it, but this was the first time we'd actually gone inside it. It is a beautiful little haven in downtown Salt Lake, and we enjoyed listening to this session in this idyllic setting.

Winnie spent most of the time during the session coloring in the book I got for her from Deseret Book or the packet she received from her Primary presidency.

But she also spent time snuggling with me on the bench.

And snuggling with Seth on the grass.

We tried to visit Brigham Young's grave, but that entire little park is under construction as well, so this is as close as we got:

Then we went to the City Creek Mall where Winnie chose Sbarro pizza for lunch and Seth and I had Indian food. After eating, we drove to the Salt Lake Cemetery to do our prophet and ancestor grave scavenger hunt. In the past, Seth has brought a GPS that has all the gravesites marked. This year, we didn't think to have him bring it. We were ill-prepared, and I was despairing at the amount of time it was taking to track down just the first few graves without the proper maps. Seth worked his tech voodoo (he had dumped everything from his GPS to the cloud a few years ago, so he found that and two websites necessary to convert that information into something usable for us) and saved us. Once he had all the coordinates available on his phone, we had a much easier time.

Winnie enjoying the cookie she got with her pizza at City Creek Mall.

Winnie at the prophets' graves.

Winnie's at her ancestors' graves.

After the cemetery, we went to Tucano's for dinner. In the past, we've taken the girls to the restaurant at the Gateway, but when we tried to get a reservation for that one, we found they were pretty well booked that night. We learned that they have another one in Farmington, so we made a reservation there instead. Winnie loved the fried bananas, Brazilian cheese bread and bacon-wrapped pork. Seth and I drooled over the different varieties of beef.

Eating a quail egg at Tucano's.

The next day (Sunday, April 3), we got dressed and ready and emptied our hotel room. We put everything in the van, then walked down to the TRAX stop. When we got off at the Temple Square stop, a random man loudly told me I shouldn't let my daughter were her Puma hoodie because that animal is evil. With all the other shouting and protesting that goes on around the Conference Center around Conference, it just kind of blended in. But it was an interesting and noteworthy experience.

We got to listen to Music and the Spoken Word, then the Sunday morning session. Afterward, we jumped back on TRAX, walked back to the hotel, then drove home and listened to the afternoon session on the way. 

Riding TRAX Sunday morning.

Exterior Conference Center selfie.

Interior Conference Center selfie.

Our view from the balcony.