Backlog of Events !

Just to tell you right up front - this may be the biggest post I have ever done! There were a couple events that had happened in the month of April that were very interesting but I was finding it hard to find the time to sit down and download all the pictures! Well, that time has come! I hope you enjoy.
Side note: I did not attend these events personally. I will share what was shared with me and all of the pictures were either taken by Tanya (Rob's wife and one of the partners of Committed Caseworks and Events) or by Hailey with Tanya's camera.
Thanks again Tanya for the use of your camera and the disks of pictures that you share!

Jane Goodall - April 9Th, 2009

Grandma had bought some tickets to see Jane for herself, Hailey and Hayden. Hayden was also to have his Middle School Orientation the same night so Hailey invited her friend Mallory who plans on being a Zoologist. What is kind of funny about this, is that the company that Kurt works with ended up getting the job of putting up the stage and sound system!
This was a great lecture Hailey said.

Happy to be there!

Hailey showing Mallory the ins and outs of running sound!

Kurt and Rob hanging the speakers on the truss. After they put the speakers on, the trusses will be raised up to the ceiling.

Hailey explained that this was a bunch of stuffed elephants arranged in the shape of an elephant! They sold these after the lecture. Hailey refused to pay $10 for a stuffed elephant. (You go girl, already thrifty but if I was there and buying it she probably would have wanted one)! I thought it was a cute idea. All the proceeds, I believe, went to the Boise Zoo!

From what I hear, Jane was a great speaker and shared a lot about her childhood and how she became who she is. Hailey said she was a great imitator too- she imitated monkeys - their actions and sounds. Kurt's Mom said that she has followed Jane's works from the beginning and really enjoyed the lecture also!

Grandma is never at a loss for interesting things for the kids!

This picture is rather blurry but was just showing that even though Grandma, Hailey and Mallory left after the lecture, Kurt (or it may have been Tanya) stood in line to get Jane's autograph on the girl's tickets.

From my sources, I was told that Jane did not leave until she had given an autograph to everybody that wanted one and that she was there until around midnight! Pretty impressive. Wonderful character.

Earthfest - April 18Th, 2009

This was an all day event on a Saturday. The Business was hired to do the stage, sound and lighting and it was in a very interesting site. The Botanical Gardens which happens to be on the grounds of the old Penitentiary! I didn't put all the pictures up but I hope I get across to you how interesting this place is!

You can see some of the old buildings in the background.

Kurt and Rob. I want to say "setting up the board" , but honestly I am not sure what they are doing. But, they are near the mixing board and it looks like they are doing something!

Zach and Gloria (Rob and Tanya's kids) with Hailey - don't they look hard at work?

These is the word "Recycle" made out of metal cages and are full of crushed cans!

This is the picture of the stage after set up! I think it looks pretty nice. The black objects hanging from the top of the stage are speakers! I think they are called Line Arrays. Wow, writing this makes me realize that I don't really know a lot of detail about what Kurt does for a living but I am pretty sure the kids could tell you!

Hailey is helping with things. Both Hailey and Hayden have often gone with their Dad and helped him with setting up and tearing down at shows. They spent a good deal of their summer last year helping and are looking forward to doing it again this year.

I think this was the first group to play at the Earthfest.

Not sure what the dragon was all about.

Check out the lady in the red dress . . . I am not sure what she is doing but I was thinking about maybe getting me some of those stilt-like things for myself. I would probably at least hit 5'6"!

The kids just hanging out! I like this picture.

Seems like a pretty good turnout! It was a beautiful day!

I wonder if all those knobs really work or if they are just for looks???? If I turned one, could I order pizza from it?

No, Hailey is not trying to do the Spock mind meld here (it's what I thought at first) she is using the span of her hands to show you how big the face on the statue was. At this point the kids were going on a little hike to explore the area.

Hailey and Zack enjoyed these rocks.

As a paranoid parent I could really get caught up into what would happen to my precious baby if an earthquake hit right about now . . . must . . . think . . . . other . . . . thoughts . . .

Hailey LOVES to take pictures of flowers. I only put this one on the post but she had taken several and they were all quite pretty.

Getting late! But for the crew - not quite late for them yet.

I think this picture is pretty neat. They did not finish tearing down everything until sometime around 2 a.m.!!!! Kurt is still going but in the foreground Gloria has obviously given up. From what I am told she is sleeping on some very cold pipes! Aren't kids amazing - they can fall asleep anywhere.

Working by spotlight!

A better picture of Gloria out for the night!

The sad thing about this whole event . . . it was all about reusing and recycling, taking care of the earth - all that kind of stuff, Kurt said it was unbelievable how much garbage was all over the ground! Plastic water bottles were everywhere. He should have taken a picture of that too. Hmmmm, so important to practice what we preach!

Well, I hope that you enjoyed this post.

RMHS Cake And Concert

Hailey has decided to continue playing in Orchestra while she attends High School in the fall. She has been in the school Orchestra since sixth grade and she is talented at playing her violin!

She recently had an opportunity to attend a fundraiser for the Rocky Mountain High School Orchestra. I think it was a good opportunity for her to see how the orchestra is in the High School setting.
They had a really great idea of having a "Cake & Concert" where you could go and listen to the orchestra play while you get to eat dessert. Two of Hailey's favorite things, music and dessert!

Kurt had to work and I was home with a sick kid so she ended up going with a girl from school, Emily and her mother. Emily is a very good violin/fiddle player also. She has been playing for quite some time and has even competed in the Ole' Time Fiddler's Contest they have every year. It's a pretty big deal.
Sad thing is Hailey was supposed to take a lot of pictures for the blog but after this shot one of the organizers from the concert told her pictures weren't allowed.


Hailey had a really good time and came home fired up about Orchestra. One thing though, she is starting to change direction with her instrument since she attended a Natalie McMaster concert about six months ago. She is really feeling herself pulled toward fiddle music than classical violin! She loves the bouncy, happy sounds of fiddle and it is much faster.
We will just have to see what she does with it this year!!!

Feel The Force . . .

The other day Hayden and Tyler decided they wanted to play "lightsabers" before the kids arrived for babysitting. I said they could just for a little bit and I have to say I was surprised at how the neighborhood kids came out of the woodworks with lightsabers to join in possibly the biggest lightsaber battlefest ever!

First I snuck a couple of shots through the front room windows hoping to catch the action live. . .

But I soon just went out into the garage to get better shots because the action kept moving. You should have heard all of the sounds the kids were making. Hayden and Tyler are what I would call "excellent" at lightsaber fighting. They have all the spins and poses down to perfection. They have practiced these a lot. . .

One kid kept exclaiming towards Hayden "Wow man, you're really good - you're just like Yoda"!

(I think Hayden liked that. But I really don't think he looks anything like Yoda).

A kid brought a couple of swords of some kind and Hayden latched on to those right away and I think a little bit of "Eragon" came into play too!

The boy squatting in the grass is actually a kid of about 14 years old and probably close to 6 foot! He was actually leaping around like a huge frog and said he was a "minion"! You could get his "attack service" if you could tap him on the head. He would sneak up behind your enemies and make this extremely weird noise and pretend he was hurting you. It was a little strange so I stayed close by.

Run for your life young Padawan . . . Hayden is coming!

Go get him Ty! Watch out for the "Minion"!

Well, I can't remember how long it all lasted. I am sure longer than an hour and the boys had a grand ole time.

I was waiting for Darth Vader to show up at any minute or maybe some clone droids to drop down and take hostages.

As for some self defense on this. . . . if I didn't have kids and a husband who love Star Wars, I probably wouldn't really know any of this stuff!