Austin's first camping trip

Every year our church has a spring campout for Fathers and sons.  This year David was planning to go and I casually mentioned that he was taking Austin, wasn't he?  He just said, "Oh, I didn't think of that" and without missing a beat he was taking a 1 1/2 year old camping.  I didn't think David would fall for it that easily.  What a good, brave Dad.

My biggest fear was that Austin would be fascinated by the fire and try to get to it.  Luckily, Austin barely took notice of it.  Instead he opted to wander off into the dark to the lean-to and then come back to check in with Dad over and over again.  He had a great time.  Then it was time for bed. They set up camp in the lean-to.

They got a hearty breakfast in the morning.
 

You probably can't tell because the picture is small in the blog, but Austin has a look on his face that says, "I can do it myself, I don't need your help".

He spent lots of time walking up the ramp and down the ramp, up the ramp, down the ramp, up the ramp...

What a great time they had!

 

 

Kadence and I survived at home alone.  We had our first Girl's Night and watched a chick flick.  I didn't realize Disney's Cinderella was such a baby show.  She was fascinated with the cat and the mice and all the animals.  She had popcorn for the first time as well and LOVED it.

Finally, a Piano Player...

 I can't tell you how many years of piano lessons I have paid for between the 3 boys, but they never seemed to practice enough to really make good progress.  I bought a piano after Parker and McKay had taken lessons for a year and always dreamed of one of them playing beautiful music on it.  Didn't seem like it would ever happen.  Then last summer McKay started watching youtube to learn to play some popular songs.  He picked it up really quickly.  He also started taking a music theory class at school last September and really got interested in music.  He spent the entire fall practicing piano for about 3 hours a day, then decided that he wanted piano lessons again.  In January he started with a very good local piano teacher that has a recital each spring.  I only payed for a 45 min lesson, but frequently he would come home a half hour late because they just got carried away and kept going.  She loves teaching McKay and thinks he is very talented.  He memorized and perfected a very beautiful modern classical piece called "Cherished Moments" by John Schmidt for the recital.  It was a beautiful song and he performed it beautifully.

 

His piano teacher, Mrs. Green is on the left in the picture below.

 

Finally, a piano player!