Ebony and Ivory

Here is the video of Zander and James (Ebony and Ivory) singing their duet.  They received three 1's from the judges.  Personally I think they were fabulous and should of won, oh well.....  Good job guys :)

James At State

James went to the State Solo & Ensemble Competition this past weekend.  He sang with two groups, the Bremerton "Bootie Shorts Alarm" (don't ask) and then he also sang a duet with Zander Martin(which I will post later, after Jacki sends it to me.) The BSA group got a 1 and two 2's as rating from the judges, which was fabulous, as they didn't find out that they qualified until about 3 weeks ago and didn't have alot of time to practice, plus 3 of the 4 boys are only sophomores.  At the local competition here in Kitsap county back in February, the BSA got first alternate, thus weren't preparing to go to state until they heard they qualified. Here is the songs they sang.  Sorry the piano is so loud, their choir teacher, Cassie Gillis, was keeping her foot on the soft pedal the whole time, it just was a very loud piano.  The boys are left to right, Jordon Geier, Brandon Shepard, Zander Martin and James.

More Italy!

Great buildings! WOW!! You don't see that everyday!

James and John Garber

A cathedral in Pisa

Waiting around!!

Another group shot, James is right in the middle, next to the director, Rollo Dillworth.

He saw lots of beautiful art!! He is holding Medusa's head, can't remember the name of the statue.

Here they all are, hamming for the camera!

The Venice water ways.

More great art!

Riding the Gondola. (James isn't in the picture)

James In Italy!!

James just recently had the opportunity to go to Italy with his high school choir. They traveled the country side for 10 days, visiting all kinds of beautiful places, sang at three different concerts and worked with a fabulous conductor. He was able to visit the Vatican, St. Peter's Basilica, the Coliseum, then on to Venice and gondola boat rides, he shopped for great stuff, buying himself some Italian shoes and Jacki a 'wild' belt. He even brought me home a beautiful vase with hand painted gold leafing. All in all he had the time of his life. Though when I asked him how the whole trip was he said "It was great!! But it would of been funner with the family" I love that kid!!!


James with a friend Annalisa at the Coliseum.

Groups shot!! In front of McDonald's no less, couldn't they have found an Italian restaurant to take a picture in front of?

The Coliseum

James with his choir director, Cassie Gillis and two friends, Kelsey and Cristelle.

A few more Elder Erik's

Here are a few more of Erik. He had to show us the snow, and he actually sent a few pictures of them riding their bikes in it. And all of my boys like to see if they can scare me with their antics, so I think the bike wreck pictures might be a little 'staged' though the mud on his coat looks real. (Udate: Erik says the crash was 100% real!!) I loved the picture of him in the culvert, though we had to do a little 'photo magic' (thanks Alicia) to errase the graffiti on the wall, let's just say it wasn't appropriate.

The thumbs up sort of gives it away, I know that he is okay!

Elder Hill Update!

We got more pictures from Erik this week! Doesn't he look happy? (and goofy?) I love digital camera's and SD cards, it is so fun to get 300 pictures at once and be able to see all that Erik has been doing, though it was a little odd to be looking at his Christmas pictures in April. The one draw back is that we don't know who all of the people are in the pictures with him, as you can't write on the back of all of the pictures when they are still on the SD card, oh well! I just hope that he remembers who everyone is.

One highlight of this round of pictures is seeing him with his Uncle Mark, Blake's brother. Mark works for the Little Giant Ladder company and travels all over the country for work. Back in February he was in the DC area, so with Pres. Mansell's permission, he met up with Erik and his companions and took them to lunch. He called us afterwards and told us how happy Erik was and how well he was doing, especially with his spanish. It was a nice report for us.


Erik and Elder Larsen with Felix, a recent convert. Erik has told us alot about Felix, mostly his faith in knowing that when he got baptised the Lord would provide the way for him not to have to work on Sundays and now he has Sunday's off and can attend church. yipee!!

What a card!!

Erik and Mark

Eating lunch!

Attending the temple with his district. They get to go to the temple on transfer days. Erik is right in the middle with the green and yellow tie, you can't miss him!