Utah

OKAY...lot's happened in Utah and I either 

A) blog it quickly  

or 

B) Never get to it because I can't devote the necessary amount of time to writing it all down.

My type A personality requires that I GET IT DONE, so it's gonna be a quickie.

We departed EARLY both flying there and flying back.

Going there we got up at 4:00 am and coming back home at 3:00 am,

needless to say we were all a bit tired upon arriving both in Utah and Ohio.

One day we spent with a few of the Young clan at the new 

Provo Recreation Center.

What a wonderful facility! 

Sparklers and fireworks at Grandma Gingers...a yearly tradition!

YUM time for Grace and Reese.

 

Kiddos dance while Aunt Jill plays an Irish jig on her violin.

 

Ice cream time!

Aspen fell fast asleep on Grandma's lap at church. 

We get all tuckered out in Utah.

Rella and Aspen enjoy Grandma's new horse swing together.

Hanging out with the Young family. 

Aunt Heather is quite popular with the wee ones!

 

 (Cody and his Dad)

Adult only dinner with the Young family.

 

From left to right:

Quinton, Heather, me, Grandma Young, Robyn, Mark (Tim was hiding behind Mark),

Heather, Christie, Stuart. Cassie is on her mission so she is not seen here. Staci and LP could not make it and Mandi and Darren live far away, but aside from those five this is the Young gang.

 

 Arian multitasking between  

work communications in London and fatherhood duties with Rachel.

Dress-ups abound at Grandma's house...so do ART projects!

 The blessed art table that Grandma stocks with endless options for creative little people to be occupied by. LOVE IT. The art table is situated in the shade right outside of the kitchen space and the kiddos spend lots of time 

happily creating in that special space.

Grandma planned a  

shaving cream, shower cap, cheeto game extravaganza!

 It was quite a hit with the kids.

Sundance lift = a must do Utah visit tradition.

 

Can you spot Cody and Aspen?

 

Problem with this tradition = makes me miss my homeland A LOT.

PS- This picture I took from my phone has NOT been edited!

 

I loved meeting my new little niece Rachel and was able to get 

several snuggle sessions in with this sweet babe.

 

 We were able to meet up with Aunt Mel one evening at a park.

Unfortunately we did not have much time to spend together, 

but we were so glad we could connect with her in the midst of the busy week.

Avery and Brinley had loads of adventures 

the week before the rest of us arrived and I'm sure I will obtain pictures of those events to blog soon.

Whew, it was a wonderful, wild, busy, fun trip!

Baptism

We recently returned home from a trip to Utah.

The highlight of our trip was the baptism of 

Avery and Kenneth!

Since the Lewis family was making the trip from London, England,

we figured we could make the trip from Ohio so that this special joint event could take place.

What made it even more special was that  

little Rachel was also blessed at the service.

 It was a beautiful service filled with family and friends.

The Lewis and Young children sang "I am a Child of God" 
together, first in Spanish and then in English.

Jill and her sister Paula played a few beautiful pieces on their violins and
I was able to give a talk on the Holy Ghost.
 Jill's Grandma gave a talk on baptism and Grandma Ginger offered the closing prayer.

Arian and Cody are both humble and faithful followers of Christ. 
They are devoted and thoughtful fathers and husbands.
They are committed to their families and to following in our Saviors footsteps.
 

 (Some of the Young family)

As I watched them take these sweet children into the waters of baptism my heart was filled.
  Now Kenneth and Avery have covenanted with God to take upon themselves the name of Christ, to always remember him, to keep his commandments and to serve Him to the end.

(Some of the Woolley family)

After the service we enjoyed luncheon together. 

I was so preoccupied with catching up with loved ones that

 unfortunately many the guests were not captured on my camera.

Thanks to Staci and Ross for helping capture these photos! 

(Choose The Right cakes served at the luncheon)

 It was a special day!

Dublin Irish Festival

 This was the first year that we were not in Utah during the 

Dublin Irish Festival 

since the girls have been invited to perform there.

The opportunity to perform at this festival is a great honor and special experience because it is one of America's largest festivals. Check out the specifics HERE ON Wikipedia.

Not only did the girls have two performances at the festival over the weekend,

but they also participated in the  

Columbus Feis, 

an internationally renowned Irish dance competition.

FIRST OFF, huge shout out to this devoted Daddy who not only helped to assemble stages before the feis AND stay for hours after taking them down....

BUT who also was a "stage monitor"

responsible for checking in and lining up all the dancers on his stage before every dance.

  

He was the ONLY male stage monitor on any stage for the entire competition and I was completely proud of his contribution. So girls, when you are teens and get frustrated with Dad, I want you to remember all of the efforts he makes 

(this being only a sliver of them) to support you.

 

Aunt Kelty was SO ABSOLUTELY SWEET to fly out for the weekend to support the girls AND THEN fly them back out to Utah with her 

for some family fun before the rest of the family arrived.

Tiffany, a dear friend who has come to my classes for several years, also joined us in supporting the girls in their competition. 

Both girls competed against between 15-27 dancers in SIX dances, 

and both placed in nearly every dance.

Can you spot Brinley?

Here is what a section of the results wall looks like at any Feis. 

Daddy and daughter checking out results. 

We have learned to wait until the very end of the day to check these out.

(Just one of the performance we watched = The Willis Clan. Our absolute FAVORITE performing group on earth.)

After a full Feis day Brinley, Avery, Aspen, Kelty and I headed down the road to enjoy the festival while Cody broke down stages and Reese was with our sitter.

While there we happened to run into 

Kyla, a senior dancer who Brinley fell in love with at dance camp. Brinley cried herself to sleep the night she arrived home from dance camp because she missed Kyle so much.  We were able to watch her perform with the rest of the senior dancers and teachers at one of their BIG shows on the Dublin stage that night.

HERE is a recap video of the event and it shows small clips of the dancing.

 After the show Brinley was able to connect with Kyla again backstage...

definitely a highlight of the weekend for her. 

 Oh, and above is the wig placement, "make sure every single little thing gets to every show," dress cleaning, wig storing, ZUCA organizing, shoe lacing, backstage changing, time managing specialist...

AKA MOTHER. 

 

An Aunt Kelty visit is never complete without watching

 fun family videos on her computer.

Uncle Duane creates awesome music videos out of videos we have taken.

There is SOOOO much more than dancing at the festival. 

The girls participated in a 45 minute show on the Wee Folk stage.

They performed a series of figure dances, jigs, reels, treble jigs, hornpipes and Saint Patricks Day.

I'm constantly impressed at how these young dancers are thrown into a variety of complicated figure dances with different partners, 

depending on who is dancing in any given show, 

and they always pull it off.

Here is Brinley on the Wee Folk stage, 

but she also was able to perform on the  

Celtic Dance Stage with older dancers on Friday night.

One of the dances they performed that night was called Treasures. 

It's a long and complicated figure dance and they did a great job!

To wrap up this chill weekend...NOT...we took Aunt Kelty to the new house.

This time, unlike last when she just saw the lot, she was able to walk through each room.

On Monday afternoon they headed off to Utah.

Whew, it was a fast and furious yet fun and fulfilling weekend.

And to wrap up, HERE is a great video about our 

Dance Academies involvement at the Irish Festival.