The High Roller

I've been wanting to go on the High Roller, a big observation wheel on the Strip, for quite a while. I believe it's the tallest one in the world and it seemed like a fun attraction that we could enjoy without having to battle hordes of tourists, casinos, and cigarette smoke. On Tuesdays it is half off for locals so Kim and I met down there in the afternoon when her girls were out of school. 

We had a lot of fun! The kids were all free and it ended being a very affordable activity. Here we are getting ready to board. The wheel moves very slow (as I had to keep reassuring my girls before) and I was surprised that it doesn't stop to let you on and off. It thought maybe it would unclip from the wheel like a ski chair does, but nope. 

It took forty minutes for the entire revolution and we had the whole pod to ourselves. It was a very fun and affordable afternoon activity. I'm glad we got out of our comfort zone and tried something new.

Swimming at Red Rock

 I just remembered this photos and found them again, so this post is several months behind schedule. Red Rock resort sent a mailer out at the beginning of summer that had a bunch of locals' deals that were good until the end of July. The one that was perfect for us was the pool entry for two. It expired on July 31 and that's the exact day I ended up using it. I kept procrastinating because I needed to get a new players' card (which is basically like a Smiths card or grocery card, but if you use it at the casinos you get points, and you can use it at restaurants, or anything at the casino - not just the gambling). Anyway, the unknown always causes me a little anxiety and procrastination even though I know it will be easy if I just get off my duff and do it.

So, we almost didn't go, but I'm so glad we did. It was easy to get my new card and no hassle getting in. It's always fun to have a new pool adventure, especially at a fancy resort pool. They've got this large wade in area that leads to the bigger pool so there was fun for all ages and abilities. We stayed until the girls were ready to go home. It was one of those perfect summer days when you do something out of your regular day schedule and just decide to pack snacks and throw the humdrum to the wind.

And who can resist goggle-faced babies?

The only downside is that Ryan was working. And really, the pass was only good for two people (luckily they didn't count June), so he couldn't have come anyway. It's just sad that his office is about a quarter mile from where we were and there we were soaking up the sun and he was living the working man's life up in his office.

Sinatra

A few weeks ago I got an exciting phone call. The principal harpist for the LV philharmonic needed a sub for a show she was doing on the Strip and wanted to know if I was available. When you move to a new place, you meet some harpists and then it's just kind of a waiting game until one day all the other subs are busy and you get called in. It's not that you can't do it, it's just that they don't know you that well and they have their usual people they work with. Then, if you can do the gig well, you're on their radar for future jobs. I had met this harpist before and she is good friends with another good harpist friend of mine, but I had never played for her. So, like I said, I was really excited to get called because it was really a good foot in the door for me.

The show is/was a Frank Sinatra show at the Palazzo. Now the music wasn't difficult but the show has been playing five nights a week since January, so they obviously weren't having any rehearsals for me to try playing with them. I sat on the stage two nights with a copy of my music to watch the show and I also had a recording from the show that I practiced with at home, but that was it. Even though it was pretty simple stuff, I was really diligent about being prepared. I didn't want one note, one pedal change, or one rhythm to catch me off guard.

The really cool thing about the show is that they wanted it to the most authentic Frank Sinatra show ever. They put it on this year because he would be turning 100 this December. The man who sings knew Sinatra and an impersonator. He goes through almost two hours of make-up to look like Sinatra and he totally does. The conductor/pianist was Sinatra's personal music director and pianist for ten years, and half of the orchestra was Sinatra's original band that played with him. Apparently they even flew some of the musicians in who were living elsewhere in an attempt to get as many original people as possible. The lead sheets are the real deal, the ones they used for Sinatra. Some of the harp parts are nearly hand-written and have lots of different harpists' markings on them. It is so COOL! 

I was excited and intimidated to work with such amazing musicians. The conductor's name is Vinnie Falcone, which might be the most mafia-sounding name I've ever heard in real life and he's pretty famous. One minute he's conducting, then he's playing the music, then he stands up and conducts by just snapping the fingers in one hand. The main harpist was telling me that every night he plays things differently on the piano, just following the chord progressions. The drummer is Tommy Check and he has no music either, no lead sheets, nothing, just a list of songs. One time while I was watching, the singer just looked at Vinnie and said a random song and they started performing it, drums came in, and then they looked at the bassist, who is also quite well-known, and he jump up off his stool and started playing too. It's just incredible. The other harpist said that they do that a lot - just add in random songs in the spur of the moment and those main guys can just play with no music.

I played on the 24th and am going to play again this coming week. It went really, really well and I was so glad I'd practiced and put the time in to feel comfortable with the music and to have fun. The harpist texted me the next day and said she had heard great reports about me and that everyone will love to have me play with them again. I felt pretty good about how I played, but I was so pleased to hear it from her too. She thanked me for being concientious about the music and taking good care of the job. It was a really big high to play in such a setting with such an ensemble and to be part of something to exciting and professional. I'm also excited to have earned the trust of the principal harpist so that she will call me for future jobs.

Getting ready for the show.

View of the back side of the curtain as everyone is taking their seats.

As a side note, I really feel like being a musician would be a great job for a mom or dad if two parents needed or wanted to work or if you were a single parent. Curtain is at 8:00 most nights and I left at 6:30 to get there an hour early. So I was home with the girls all day, had dinner, helped bathe them, and left as Ryan was finishing the bedtime routine. I was home around 10:00 or 10:15 so it wasn't a super late night either. I mean, you wouldn't be able to support yourself from this gig alone, but if you were also teaching and doing a few weddings or other events a month it would be a comfortable income and you could really be there for your kids.

All about me

My birthday is exactly one week after Willa's. So if you do the math, I turned 30 the week after Willa was born, so technically I managed to have a baby while still in my 20's. That's important to me for no important reason. I was all partied out from Willa's multi-day extravaganza and definitely all caked out, but we did manage to still have some fun. Ryan took the girls to get me some small gifts and pick out cupcakes. They were so excited, which is about 90% of the fun, Willa kept telling me she wanted to see my reaction when I saw my cupcakes. Ryan got me a breadbox, which is something I've been wanting for quite a while. When my parents were in town they also got me a little something that I've been wanting for a while.

Ta da! I'm officially a real grown up. I can now buy bulk items in the freezer section at Costco and open the kitchen freezer without risking several heavy frozen objects falling out on my toes. I love it so much. Now I think it just needs a little matching friend refrigerator to go with it.

So now I'm 35 and it does feel a bit old. I swear my gray hairs have suddenly multiplied around my temples. I might have to start dyeing my hair in the next year or so, or maybe I'll just let it go gray naturally. It's weird to think about gray hair for me. My body is shutting down; a betrayal and sign of my own physical fallibility in the more dramatic interpretation.

Rebecca volunteered to babysit so Ryan and I went out for dinner. It was an actual sit-down restaurant that didn't serve pizza or burgers, win! I don't remember the last time we got an actual date on my actual birthday, so it really all felt quite festive. They belatedly sang to me in Primary today (I'm the pianist). When we sing to the kids we give them a special card to take to the bishop after church where he gives them a giant star lollipop. I love it, the kids look forward to it and the bishop gets to personally talk to each child at least once a year. When the adults have a birthday, they give us a little card that says we can go to Relief Society that day if we want. I just laughed when they handed me mine, the pianist can't quite get up and leave like some of the others during sharing time.

Willa's Five Five FIVE!!

This post is almost two weeks late, but Willa finally turned the big FIVE and her birthday was the stuff of hopes and dreams :). We ended up celebrating quite a bit because my parents were in town over the weekend so we did a cake with them and their presents on Sunday. Then I also wanted to celebrate on her actual birthday, which was Wednesday. So on Wednesday, Ryan and I decorated a little with balloons and streamers and were planning on having a low-key dinner and family presents. Rebecca and Brandon came and with their added gifts and the other gifts that got mailed in from far-away family, it ended up being quite the fete. By that time I was all partied out, but wait there was more. We had plans to go to Chuck E Cheese on Thursday night with the Thalmans to officially celebrate and have her cake. (The Thalmans have music lessons on Wednesday night, which was why we couldn't condense these two parties.)

Willa kind of wanted a party with lots of friends at the park like we did last year. She also wanted to invite Bridgett who is in kindergarten now. All of Willa's friends around here are in preschool on TTH and Willa has it MWF, so it was doubly hard because I couldn't do a party with them in the morning because someone was in preschool and we couldn't do a weekday because Bridgett was in school. I was not very interested in doing it on a Saturday because the weather is just starting to be good so the parks can get quite busy and some people go early in the morning to reserve tables. It just seemed like a big hassle. Our house is also just kind of too small to do a party here. My compromise was to suggest to Willa that instead of doing a big friend party, we could just make a special invite to Bridgett and Abby to come celebrate at Chuck E Cheese. She thought that was a good alternative.

Homemade cake with grandma and grandpa. This is about creative as I get, unfortunately.

Successful blowing out of the candle.

She got a sleeping bag and a tent, which we are excited about. They threw in a sleeping bag for June too for good measure.

On Wednesday I took cupcakes to preschool and they let us come in for the last few minutes of class to sing to her. June felt especially grown-up because she got to sit at the table with all the preschool kids. It was hilarious as we were leaving because June was waving bye to everyone like she was on her home turf. She's five year old in a two year old body, poor dear.

Forgive the blurry pictures.

That night when she opened presents with Brandon and Rebecca over, she was enormously excited. It was amazing to see all the uninhibited joy and excitement. It made Ryan and me a little contemplative about how we can nourish that in her and encourage it since all too soon she may become self-conscious or "better" at masking her emotions. I hope she never changes, but I know it's an eventuality and it makes me a little sad. She was squealing and jumping up and down as she opened each gift. Brandon gave two little My Little Ponies. At first she thought there was just one and she was really excited, but then I showed her the second one and she couldn't believe it. She was screaming out their names (Pinkie Pie and Flutter Shy) and jumping and running around. It was so fun. We also got her a Cinderella dress from the new movie and an Elsa dress that I snagged a few months ago at the Disney store for like 80% off. We tried to keep gifts to a minimum, but she got very spoiled by aunts and uncles and in the end there were quite a few presents to open, lucky girl.

Blowing out cupcakes from Rebecca.

The next day, playing with her gift from the O'Kelley's and wearing her "Mommy Cinderella" dress. She calls the new movie Mommy Cinderella to distinguish it from the animated one. I love the new movie, it's so sweet and even got Ryan's approval when we watched together as a family one night.

And unfortunately, the parties (and this blog post) don't end there. Ryan and I were pretty partied out, but we still had Chuck e Cheese on the schedule for the next evening. Since the only other time I have visited this fine establishment, was at 9 am to just ride rides in the heat of the summer, I was unprepared with the noise and crowds of evening - even on a weeknight. They let you bring in your own cake if you don't want to book a party with them, so we did that and ordered pizza for dinner.

I love this photo of all the girls. Best friends for sure and their personalities are shining right through. We ordered a special Frozen cake from the grocery store. I loved going there when I was young and flipping through the book of all the possible cakes and choosing one for my birthday. We had fun doing it for Willa this year.

Among her gifts, Bridgett got them matching friendship rings from Deseret Book. 

This photo looks more serious than it was. They were having a great time giggling and playing up there.

The whole place was chaotic, even though Kim informs me that it wasn't bad at all compared to what she's been to. It was so loud and the noises just didn't blend. There was a birthday area that was blaring its own music, then all the music from the games. My nerves were on edge. We spent a good 2+ hours there and I hope that has filled our quota for the rest of forever. June was funny. She was a little unnerved by the crowds, but liked to sit on one ride holding her little cup of tokens and just putting them in one after another and riding continuously. So Happy Birthday to Willa! It was an exhausting but fun week and I can't believe I have a five year old.

Preschool

Willa started preschool the week after Labor Day. We were both very excited for her to start! I even put off a much-needed Costco trip for the tantalizing prospect of only having to go with one child if I waited just a few more days.

We had to reschedule a piano lesson for 7:30 am the first morning of school, and we drove directly to preschool from there, which made it a very long morning for Willa. Other than that, she had a great time. She was a little put out that they didn't make treats in preschool. She did the summer camp, which was "Read it and Eat it" and assumed since it was at the same building with the same teacher that it would be the same activities too. I didn't even think to explain that out to her.

Getting ready for her first day

We were running a little late after piano, so I rushed her in and didn't have time to get a photo until preschool ended. By that time, she was getting pretty tired and I had a hard time getting a good photo. Oh well, you get the idea. I might try to retake one before they change the bulletin board.

The most surprising thing for me is that Willa actually doesn't love it as much as I thought she would. I mean, she enjoys it and has a good time, but after two or three weeks of going every Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 8:30-11:30, she is realizing that we don't have as much free time as before. She'd probably prefer a Tuesday/Thursday class just because then we would have more free mornings in the week. I'm glad she's three days a week, but I miss our mornings too. I wish I could have done afternoon classes for her, because the afternoon is kind of a hard time to get out for activities anyway and it would have left all our mornings free for parks and museums and exploring. The afternoon classes run 12:30-3:30 and I thought it would be too hard on June's nap most days because I like to put her down earlier and I can't exactly leave her sleeping at the house while I run to drop Willa off. In the end, it probably would have been fine because we're already getting back late after preschool pick-up, then we have to eat lunch, etc. So sometimes she's not getting a nap in until closer to 1 pm anyway. Ah well, that's life with the second child, I suppose. I'm trying to do some fun things still, but most of our little friends have started kindergarten or have preschool Tuesday/Thursday mornings, so they aren't available. I just tell myself that I was doing a little too good of a job getting the kids out of the house and having amusements. They've gotten spoiled at always being taken somewhere to have fun instead of playing fun things at home.

The rest of Utah

After the exciting weekend, I headed back to stay a few more days with my parents and Ryan flew back to Vegas to work. We played, did the zoo, and just enjoyed ourselves.

The girls tried out the hot tub for the first time. They learned pretty quickly to sit on the side when they were getting too warm.

On our first night up, they were playing outside and June went to sit on my dad's lap. Willa got bored and wanted to go somewhere else so I followed her, but sweet June just wanted to snuggle with grandpa. She stayed with him for quite a while out there!

On Tuesday we did the zoo and actually met Carey, Robert, and Slate up there. My girls are just like me, big sissies when it come to motion. We've tried and tried to get Willa to try one of the moving animals on the carousel but she adamantly sticks to the peacock bench. She also declined to go on the zoo train so I stayed with her and Carey while everyone else went.

I know all these photos see blurry, but they are here for posterity. I also have a love/hate relationship with her transitional lenses. They look so dorky and never take good pictures outside. But they protect her eyes and she really loves that they darken and that it's never too bright. I have a pair of prescription sunglasses, but they are a hassle a lot of the time because you have to switch between the two pairs if you are going in and out of places.