Prom, New York

 

 So I'v been playing around with the sharp knifes again. Its a standing joke in my family not to give me any knifes because I always end up cutting my self.  Usually its true. This time I wastrying to pry a rice crispy treat out of the pan with a steak knife and the rice crispy broke and the knife jammed forward into my hand. Only 3 or 4 stitches this time.

Well Coming home from Walmart one night with Jessie an older man was driving in front of us on HWY 89 His wife was in the back behind him and another man I am presuming to be his son was in the passenger. He was driving in the far right lane ahead of me and I was in the left lane and he all of a sudden decided to make a U turn right in the middle of the highway. As he cut across my lane the car in front of me barely was able to side swipe around him however I was not lucky enough and barely had time to slam on my breaks and veer a little to the left and we collided with our front corners of our vehicles. When we slid to a stop we were in the turning lane and the nose of my van was just a little onto oncoming traffic and luckily the truck that was in the oncoming lane was able to stop in time or we would have hit him head on.

I was pretty much right up on the drivers door of the car we hit so we had to put it into reverse to back off of him so we could get to him through his door. I ran over to check if everyone in there car was alright which they were. Luckily I was able to swerve just enough to avoid T-boning them or things would have been much worse for them i fear.  The police were there so quick. I think Jessie and I were a bit in shock. Luckily we had our seatbelts on. Jessie was complaining of a little side pain under her ribs, but she was ok. We were checked out by a doctor and was deemed good. the next day we were a bit sore from the tensing up and little whiplash, but otherwise ok. We were very blessed that things were not worse. However the deemed the Van a total loss so we ended up with a rental van until Steve's company was able to order us a new one.

We have such beautiful sunsets and moonsets here.

Jessie and I was itching to get outside this early spring and go for a walk/run. It was so beautiful and the weather felt so good.

So Austin decided to ask a Sophomore to his Junior Prom this year, Her name was Shea. She was a really cute girl. I dont remember the whole lagist of it but he had some kind of note given to her which led her to the back of our truck in the school parking lot where Austin was waiting with a Rose to ask her to prom.

so I was a little ticked with Austin because he wouldnt give me much time to get any pictures because he said they were having someone take pictures of the group so I just got a few. They did end up having the sister of one of the guys take picts, but I guess no one wanted them and I kept hounding Austin that I wanted the cd with the pictures and even gave him money to buy them but he never would get ahold of the guy who had them so I never did end up with any pictures except the few I took and one he had gotten on his phone. The dang butthead..   Anyways he was very handsome and his date very beautiful.

 

 MR. GQ here.

 I love Collins Smolder look here. He is so good at it.

 Promenade.

 My niece Sara was also asked to prom and I think she had the most beautifulest (not a word I know) dress there. She was so gorgeous.

 

 Got a snap of the Sara with our familys good friends the Norda's girls.

 

Oh ya and I decided to chop all my hair off too this spring. I think it turned out pretty cute.

 

So for Spring break this year the Choir was able to go to New York City Under the direction of Claudia Bigler as the Choir teacher.

I grew up with her daughter and lived right next to them for a couple years. She was also in the Mormon tabernacle choir.

So I signed up to go as a chaperone and was assigned to be chaperone over Austin and a few other boys. It was so fun. We had an awesome time and was able to see alot of things, including a couple plays.

 This was the new world trade center look out building. The views were magnificent from up top.

 

 The Choir was able to have a couple days training with the cast from Wicked and a few other great accomplished Singers.

 

They were also able to perform in the Union Building where the accoustics were pretty awesome.

  
This was some views of the Grand Central Station. It was pretty cool. I had never seen this in any of my previous trips here.

 We saw this mostly naked cowboy out singing on Time Square trying to earn some money. It was so cold there I don't know how he didn't freeze. There is all kinds there in New York!! LOL

 Out to eat at the Olive Garden for Dinner.

 This was the M&M Factory. It was pretty cool. Any color or type of m&m you could want.

 Getting ready to go see Wicked. i had seen this once before and it was so awesome so there was a choice to see this or Matilda, and we were lucky to get to see this one. It was so awesome. Just loved it. I was really hoping to be able to see phantom since I havnt seen that one on Broadway but unfortunately it wasn't available. Someday!!

 

This was some snaps from the Library in Downtown Newyork. It had some awesome Architecture.

Choir was also able to perform at the Cathedral Church there. It was amazing and so beautiful inside. The accoustics was awesome here too.

 

 

Lego land. Conner just loved the legos.

 Waiting for the Subway!

 Now that's a burger.

 Waiting to see Tuck Everlasting. This was it's last year running so I am glad we were able to see it. We really enjoyed this one too.

On the Ferry over to Staten Island to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

 It was raining on us and it was so cold.

 This was the new 911 memorial they had built. It was so awesome. We were a little rushed so I didnt get the time I wanted to see everything, and read all the stories. Austin was tired and tired of walking so he pretty much just sat and waited for me to walk through it. He saw some of it. But you really need a few hours to take it all in and see and read everything. It was very sombering and sad.

Part of the original staircase from the tower.

 Where the tower stood.

All in all it was a great trip. The kids I were over were great and I really enjoyed hanging with them. And best of all I got to spend some time with Austin which was the best of all. He took pretty good care of me. I had been dealing with tennis elbow and the day we flew out as I was pulling my suitcase out of the overhead bin I tore my muscle so for a few days I had no use of my right arm which was very difficult, and painful.

Just before leaving for New York like the day after prom really Austin got asked out to another girls choice dance. He says (what can I say I'm  a ladies man and am in high demand). Anyways so it being in starwars theme we printed off a paper with a big yoda floating on it and it said To morp with you I'll go, and we took it to New York with us since she was in the Choir too and we left it on her bed with a bunch of hershey kisses spread all over the bed.

 Her name is Michaela. She is a sweet girl and also made it into Madrigals with Austin for next year.

We also discovered our youngest Logan has inherited Steve's artistic ability to draw. She is pretty good.

So to top the end of the school year off Austin tried out for Madrigals. We had him meet a few times with Tammi Vanduesen who has been teaching vocals for years. She even taught Steve, Rich and Matt for a little bit. She helped Austin pick out a song and put it in his vocal range. He was pretty scared and nervous and said he did horrible in auditions and that they just shook their heads at him and that he wasn't able to do the sight reading part of the audition. He was so upset he didn't even want to talk about it and said he didn't even want to be in choir at all this next year because he made a fool of himself.  Well guess who made Madrigals? Yep he did it. I knew he would do ok. He has an amazing voice he just needs to learn how not to be so scared of people hearing him and learn how to belt it out. We have been trying to talk him into going out for choir for years, because we knew he was a good singer and we finally talked him into it this past year when we moved here and talked him into trying out for Concert Choir and he made it. And now Madrigals. He also was nominated as the Class President for Madrigals. And finished the year off with all A's.  We are so super proud of him and know he is going to have an amazing senior year.