the shins

Ollie- waiting in line

 On Memorial Day we went to The Shins concert!

This was the day before the Bon Iver concert, both at Red Butte Gardens.

The Shins are my favorite band maybe... I don't know- how do you decide?

At least tops on my music list.

And the boys came with us! 

We left Linc with Uncle Brian so we wouldn't have to chase him everywhere.

Anyway- we waited in the same huge line in the hot, hot sun.

Once inside we went to our usual spot, to the left of the stage.

The opening bands were quite good- I'll have to listen to them some more:

The Head and the Heart

&

Blind Pilot

 the boys thought it would be cool to get shirts...

 Linds came with us too!

the boys at the stage

 non-stop teasing between these two

I could listen to James Mercer's voice forever.

The back of Ollie and Elliott's heads, bundled in their blankets.

Pretty close to the stage right? 

I'm afraid those cute boys don't quite know how lucky they are.

Adam, Ollie and James Mercer

We asked someone for the playlist at the end...

Ahh- such a great show and so fun that the boys came along!

If you want to listen and have your heart melt- here you go.

bon iver

So excited to catch up on my bloggy blog!

It has been a busy couple of weeks, months, year?! 

and I am hoping the lazy days of summer allow for me to do my favorite thing- 

update our little blog a.k.a. family journal.

(After a little thing called youth conference Adam and I get to be a part of next week of course...)

I just uploaded over 1,000 pics from my phone- it was really fun seeing our spring.

Can't wait to write about it.

These pics were from one of the concerts we went to last week- Bon Iver.

AMAZING show.

I'm so glad people are blessed with musical talent, 

so those of us who aren't can still have music in our lives!

It was a fun little date with Adam.

After hiking up a huge dirt road and waiting in the longest line ever, 

we finally made it in the gates and plopped ourselves down right in the middle of the crowd, 

dead center from the stage.

We sat the whole time which was nice.

Justin Vernon- the lead singer is pretty funny and really humble it seems.

His songs are long and dreamy and it really makes me want to cry it makes me so happy.

Happy cries are the best.

Bon Iver's opening song. 

Apparently a horrible picture- but you get the idea.

A great night and show!

cherries

We realized on Saturday that the birds were suddenly loving our cherry tree!

We quickly put a net around it, using the neighbor's tall ladder and a long pole.

The poor birds are so confused now- flying around looking to get closer to the ripening cherries.

A few have gotten inside the net and get pretty freaked out until they can get out- no cherry tasting involved.

Elliott climbed the tree and picked a few for us to taste- they were good but need a few more days.

We are so excited for our huge harvest!

Last year we had six cherries and this year closer to 600!

Y.U.M!

yellow cherries

dance festival

The last week of school the whole elementary had a dance festival.

Each grade put on a dance for the parents.

Ollie was supposed to wear a cowboy hat, but when he got there and none of his friends had one, he threw it back to me saying he didn't want it. 

Too bad- I think he was super cute in it.

Of course Ollie was silly and laughing the whole time.

And making funny faces. 

So cute to watch.

Hudson, Weston, Dawson, Beau, Ollie & Ethan

Elliott's grade got to square dance.

And if you can't tell from Elliott's face, he was M.O.R.T.I.F.I.E.D.

I'm pretty sure it's because he had to hold hands with a girl.

He told me in the days leading up to it that he wasn't going to do it.

But somehow he went out and did a cute little dance. 

I was very proud of him.

P.S. He can dance like crazy at home, but out in public is a different story I guess.

Same with me :)

It was fun seeing all the different dances and seeing our neighbors and cousins dance too.

There's cousin Benny in the back middle. 

last day of school

Ollie and Mrs. Baird

We finally made it to the last day of school! 

I can't believe how much Ollie has grown up this year.

It is fun to see what a confident little boy he is.

He got the "honesty award" during the awards assembly on the last day which is kind of funny.

What does it mean?

How was he so honest?

I asked him how he was honest this year and he said, "What does honest mean?"

He loved his teacher and his friends!

And also loved playing football out on the little kindergarten playground and wearing his cleats all year.

Ollie on his first day of kindergarten.

Elliott and Mrs. Fredrickson- who is due in a few weeks.

Elliott had a fun year in 2nd grade this year.

He really got into reading chapter books and I would have to tell him to stop reading and go to bed after he read for a couple of hours some nights!

He also became independent on getting his homework packet done.

He figured out doing it at the beginning of the week took a little longer, but then he only had reading the rest of the week.

He had some really good friends in school and liked to play "tackle" at recess.

Here are some questions he answered in the class book he brought home:

The best thing about 2nd grade: my friends

When I grow up I want to be: a roboticist

My favorite subject is: Math, hexagons are cool.

And then he filled in class personalities and under "most creative" he put "Elliott."

Elliott on his first day of school
hey look- he's wearing the same shorts!

These are the little teacher gifts we decided on: 

flowers to plant with gloves and a trowel

The boys also had fun making candy leis for the class for their last day.

Yay for summer!