Camping and Singing

Weston and Ian had a fun time camping with the scouts. Weston was so tired the rest of the weekend though. They didn't really hike or anything, but Weston said he had fun throwing rocks in the pond near their campsite and making a candle.

Here's Weston and his buddy, Oliver.
Blowing out his "candle."
The boys got home around 11:30 on Saturday and got the car unpacked. I had to be at the stake center by 1pm to take the bus to the Conference Center for the Relief Society broadcast. We rode school buses up. It was the first time this Fall that I was bummed it was so hot since being on a hot school bus in a black skirt and nylons is not very fun. I was pretty sweaty and gross by the time we got there. We went through security and gathered in the little theater backstage. We discussed logistics then got up to the choir loft for rehearsal.

We had to do a little extra practice on Carry On with the french horns. The First Presidency listened to our dress rehearsal recording from last weekend and decided the horn part had too much fanfare, so the horn part was re-written to be more legato and soft. The problem was that the composer who wrote the horn part was in London on a church assignment, so he had to re-write it and email it. The horn players didn't get the new part until Thursday night. Yikes! I thought they did a great job adapting. I also found it interesting that the First Presidency would pay so much attention to detail like that.

Anyway, after we ran through all the songs with instruments and cameras and mics and everything we grabbed sack lunches backstage and had about an hour to eat, use the bathroom, freshen up hair and makeup, and get our corsages on. Then we filed back into the choir loft at 5:30pm for the real deal.

The Conference really was wonderful. I enjoyed all the talks, especially President Monson's message about not judging others. I felt like the music sounded nice and everything went smoothly. It was such a different experience being up in the front. I couldn't see the speaker or anyone in front of the choir loft until the audience. They had a couple screens for us to look at to watch the speaker, but I kept getting distracted by the teleprompter. It was hard to look away and not read what was coming up next. I also had a hard time sitting still for so long. I am fidgety I guess. I am so glad that I had the opportunity to participate in the choir. It was such a cool experience. I may never get to sing in the Conference Center again, so I was trying to take it all in. Luckily we had a photographer in our stake who did a great job capturing us all. Mostly during our dress rehearsal last weekend. See if you can spot me!



When the broadcast was all over we headed outside and onto the buses. By the time we got back to the stake center and carpooled home it was 9pm. I was exhausted. My mom texted me to tell me she saw me during the closing song, so I put on my pj's and watched all the songs on the re-broadcast (that I had recorded). It was fun to see all the ladies from my ward and to see myself too! I say it was a grand success!

Sunday was our primary program. Weston had a couple parts and he was so good about memorizing them. He did a great job! I always get nervous to play the piano in front of an audience. Luckily I have been playing the program songs all year, so they were very familiar. I only made a couple mistakes and they weren't too noticeable, so I was happy about that. Unfortunately Davin isn't feeling too good and has a cough, but I couldn't leave him home yesterday, so by the end of church he was sad and more than ready to go home and rest. Poor kid. I'm hoping he will have time to heal up this week and not pass his cough on to anyone else.

Now I feel like I can relax! Well, sort of. We are leaving for California on Friday afternoon, so I do have that trip to get ready for. Weston has a full week of school and tee ball, and I'm sure Ian will be working a lot to get ready to leave too. Today is library and haircut day. I've been putting Disney movies on hold at the library since there are plenty that we don't own. Today we get to pick up Hercules and Mulan 2. I also have some cleaning to do, but I swear I am still worn out from the weekend. It's 10:30 and I could already use a nap. We shall see how much I actually get done this afternoon.