More Larson Adventures

This summer my family took a trip down to Lake Powell for a few days. We hadn't been for a couple years, and since I'm going off to college soon, and really wanted to go there, we went. 

If you've never been to Lake Powell, or heard of it, it's basically one of the most beautiful man-made lakes in the world. It's part of the Colorado River and sits on the border between southern Utah and northern Arizona. Fantastic place to go - the scenery is amazing, the people are extremely diverse, and the water is warm and generally pretty smooth.

 We took over 1000 pictures, but I haven't had the time to go through them all, so here's a handful. We also did a lot of wakeboarding and kneeboarding. And a lot of just exploring the lake from our boat - it has more coastline than the entire west coast of the U.S.

The tube is fun. We didn't get any good wipeout pictures though.

More tubing. My dad can be a pretty crazy boat driver.

Just hanging out on the stern.

I was driving the boat for this one. I love their faces.

I've been learning to slalom ski this summer. Kinda tricky, but  it's fantastic.

Sunset

My Madrigal Family

After a long year of singing together, having countless bonding moments and otherwise just partying it up, it was time to say goodbye to a group of some of the best friends I've ever had.

The madrigal brethren decided that we were going to give all the ladies a little going-away/appreciation gift. So we all painted customized frames for each one of the 14 sisters, and then put this little beauty of a picture inside:

As you may be able to tell, two of us were photoshopped in. But that's ok, because it reflects the personality of the group. And it was done out of love!

One of our sopranos, who is really one of my favorite people ever, summed up the 28 of us with this:

We are a group of crazy people who love to randomly burst into song, wear plain white t shirts just to annoy our teacher, and sing about heart burn. But no matter. we contain Royalty in our midst, (and not just Ms. Riverton). We appreciate how often people say "Crazy madrigals, running around like idiots in disco shirts and dance skirts". We sing. We dance. We like to tour people's mansions and complain about how boring a'cappella is. Some of us get fired from work because we are always out singing. We are convinced one of our altos will get married first. Carpooling is a pass-time and i think we have like, 4 honorary madrigals. Not exactly sure what part they sing. Sometimes, WE don't even know what part we sing. Some of us sparkle in the sun. Some of us are only 4'11", and some/most of us are taller. Only one of us is crazy enough to run to the Puget Sound and back while we're on VACATION. A few of us haven't quite made it to Mordor yet. We have a pet crocodile that sings. We give plungers and ideal men as gifts to new comers. We play ukulele, take crazy pictures, make people jealous, and run into large women with high mexican voices. We have a fond love for the colors Charcoal and Lemon. What about being recognized for all our hard work doing unmistakably ridiculous things? The Happy Kidney Award is the highest honor. Celebrity Pictures, One-liners, and piles of glitter.Yes, we do a lot of crazy things, but the best thing we do is unite in song. Oh, and did i mention we're a family? :)

This next picture was taken during the last song at our final concert. Some of us were already getting a little emotional, as you may be able to tell.

This was one of the best experience I've ever had. Not to say that there won't be other good experiences with awesome people like this, but I'll never forget these guys.

Moral of the story? Sometimes you will find opportunities or experiences that will affect your life for the better. Learn to appreciate what you have before it's gone.

StillWater

Well, the band is done touring Bluffdale and Riverton for now! Two of the group are now on LDS missions.

But we had an awesome final show. Lots of people came, we did really well, and it was just a lot of fun. Even a country/pop cover band can please a crowd!

Here's a song we wrote. The recording's not perfect (we simply didn't have enough time), and it's a simple little song, but it came from the heart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGceU_lZihQ

After this song, we often pulled out The Devil Went Down to Georgia. And we did it right.

Basically, being in a band is awesome, and tons of fun.

More than 1000 words, non sequitor.

I don't have anything to really say. Life is busy. So here are some things (all produced by other people) that may be at least a little funny and/or thought-provoking.

Slightly amusing. Mostly because of the thing on the left's face.

Ah! I see what you did there.

This is funny because it's true. Well, exaggerated truth.

And this...this is absolutely true.

Magical Madrigal Musical Moments

The month of December is a busy time...especially if you're in a high school Madrigal group like me! It feels like I've been living in my uniform all month, wearing it every day for the plethora of performances we give during the Christmas season.

We've had so many memorable experiences as an ensemble already. And because this is a blog, I'm going to tell you about a couple of them. Prepare thyself.

Look at me go...I titled them all by myself. Yay!

Steamrollin'
We have some pretty great uniforms. Except for two things: the ridiculous amount of sparkles that the girls' shirts shed, and the patent leather (albeit shiny) performing shoes.

These shoes have a µ coefficient that's much too low. That's right, they slide everywhere. Everywhere.

So, we were performing one night on the Heber Valley Train. AKA the Heber Creeper. Loads of fun there...caroling to young families with lots of little kids and then acting excited for them when santa came aboard.

Anyway. After we got back from the first round and were getting geared up for another, I was running outside to get to the back car where my coat was because it was freezing. And a little kid, probably about four, meandered in front of me. I tried to stop, but alas, the shoes forbade it, and I knocked the poor kid to the ground. He didn't cry (at least, not until later), but he just had this shocked look on his face. His father picked him up, and I kept apologizing profusely to him, but he was all "don't worry about it".

So from then on, I earned the nickname "Steamroller".


Presley
You meet a lot of interesting people on public transportation.

One night, we were going to perform at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. It was great. However, to get downtown, instead of all of us driving, we opted to take the TRAX. The trip there was uneventful. Got our tickets, went downtown, walked...entered the building while two of the guys stood guard...like a boss (similar to an empoyer)...

sang, went and watched our teacher practicing with MoTab, saw some Christmas lights.

At the station while waiting for the next ride outta there, this random man came up to a couple of us. The conversation went something like this:

Random man: "Hello! What are ya'll dressed up for?"

Madrigal 1: Oh, we're a singing group, we just got done performing.

Random man: Oh really? You know, I took a singing class once. All I remember is that they told me to open my mouth a lot. (He then proceeded to stick two fingers in his mouth) Mnaa neeh ahh!...but of course, I could never sing anyway.

Madrigal 2: I bet you could if you tried!

Random man: Nah. But you know who could sing? Presley. Now there's a man who could really sing. Presley changed the world. Can you think of anyone else who changed the world as much as Presley?

Me: John Lennon?

Madrigal 1: Yeah, Lennon was a pretty important guy.

Random man: No! Lennon was bumpkins to Presley! You don't get it! (shaking his head) There are only about ten people who changed the world as much as Presley did. Ghandi, Reagan, Hitler...Martin Luther. But of course, you guys probably don't know anything about Martin Luther.

Me: Sure, he was the guy basically responsible for the Reformation. He had those 95 theses.

Random man: Exactly! You get it. (pointing at me)...you all need to go buy the centennial Presley album...then you would understand. Presley changed the world. It's called cultural change. He brought the rhythm and blues to the white man.

Me: Do you like rhythm and blues?

Random man: Oh, I like all sorts of music. But there's nobody who tops Presley.

Madrigal 2: Haha, yeah, Bieber has nothing on him.

Random man: ...Sorry if I'm a bit weird, I'm a Utah Mormon. (he had 2 beers sticking out of his bag)

Then another random guy came up. This many was very unkempt, and was wearing a neon-orange balaclava on his head, which he was sucking on with his upper lip.


Balaclava man: Merry Christmas, friend! (shakes hand of the presley fan man)


Random man: Do I know you?


Balaclava man: (sheepishly) No, but I thought I would say hi anyway...(walks away)


Random man: (by now we're leaving to get on the train)...remember what I said, kids. Buy the centennial! Then you'll understand!


And then we left. Forever those words will haunt me...telling me...buy the centennial...buy the centennial...

Oh, and we make some pretty good impressions.






More stories may follow...but until then...happy holidays!

Hello, I am a DEMON BIRD. FEED ME.

Hey.

It's story time.

A few weeks ago, someone *cough* was powerwashing the back patio. Why do we powerwash the back patio? We have ducks and chickens, and they like to wander, and they're very generous with their tithing. But I digress. So, someone was powerwashing the patio. When someone *cough* happened to see something that looked like a clump of dirt. So they sprayed it and it rolled under the barbecue.

It turns out that the clump of dirt was alive.

And it was young, and restless. And also a bird.

That's right. We rescued a baby bird, which had fallen out of its nest which is attached to the house near the roof. How birds do that, I'll never know. But its parents didn't appear to care, so we took the bird in.

We cleaned it up and set it up somewhere warm and basically saved its life.


Feeding the bird was interesting; Aubs and I had to make a midnight run to wal-mart to find worms in the fishing section, only to find out that the bird was not interested in worms unless they had the texture that food gets when mommy bird regurgitates it. So we used a blender. Not on the worms, mind you (they were alive, that would be rather cruel and unusual ), but on fruit and nuts and vegetables and grasses and stuff that birds eat. And eat, it did.

The baby bird's eating habits were simple. It cries out every now and then, you approach it, bird opens mouth/beak thing while still simaltaneously squawking, you deposit mashed up food, bird eats, opens up for more, and then decides that it's had enough until 30 minutes later.

Fickle thing, it was.

Anyway, the bird began to grow and mature, like a budding lilac but hungrier. Actually, nothing like the lilac. Forget the lilac.

It grew and grew, and eventually would eat solid foods, like the worms. Although it still relied on us to feed it by hand; it didn't show much interest in food unless you were holding it.

It got to the point where keeping the bird inside was silly. Although we had set it up in a laundry basket next to the window, with a bird swing included, it clearly wanted outside. So we cleaned up the old rabbit hutch and put little unnamed birdy in there. And it seemed happy. I called it Larka, because that sounds like a bird name. But I didn't tell my family that's what I was calling it. They just called it "that bird".


We think it's a European Starling. At least, it kinda looks like one.

One day, Aubrey was playing with the bird outside, and it was perched on her arm. She let the bird go on the lawn, and it was hopping around. Other similar-looking birds came and joined it, and it flew away with them. But it wasn't gone forever. No, it came back.

Whenever one of us went outside, it wasn't long before we hear the tell-tale squawking that by now we recognize as a call for food, and sure enough, there's little birdy, flying up to greet us. It has learned to eat on its own, but it still likes to come up to us and act like it wants more food.


We leave some food and water on the table in case it really is just hungry. I think it just likes attention.

The bird doesn't come up to just us, though. One day we got a call from a neighbor, "there's this bird that's at my window and it's making a lot of noise and won't go away and whenever I go outside it comes after me...is it Aubrey's?"

Aubrey has a reputation in the neighborhood for being the animal girl. Yeah, if you want someone to babysit your goat, call my sister.

The bird might fly at you if you're walking up the driveway. Or walking anywhere around the yard, really. It's quite friendly, and if you're deemed trustworthy enough it will perch on your arm or shoulder or something. It's really fun when visitors come, we can act like we've never seen this bird before and then they're all freaked out that it's so friendly and/or assertive.

It's a hoot!

The bird pretty much sticks close by. Whenver I've seen it fly away, it always goes to this tree:


And it likes to hang out up here in case we open the door and it can come in for a visit:


So there you have it. That's our wildly domestic bird. So if you come to our house and a bird comes out of nowhere, screaming and trying to find somewhere to land on your body with its sharp talons, don't worry. It's not the devil, that's just our starling, introducing herself.

One time...at band camp...

About a week ago I had the chance to go to BYU Young Musicians' Summerfestival for my fourth time. Besides it being one of my favorite weeks of the summer, and the incredible experiences I had and the amazing people that I met, I just wanted to make a quick post about a certain...hike.

Wednesday night was the elective activity night. In past years I've gone bowling, I've done a ballroom dance class, and other fun things. But this year, since it was probably my last year going, I opted to hike the Y.

What is the Y, you ask? Well, it's a large letter Y on the mountain, overlooking the university's campus. If you want to know more about it, watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2vF3p1vNHs

It's a pretty tough little hike to get up to it. But the view was absolutely perfect. My little camera-phone with its whopping 2 mp can't do it justice at all.

That's Utah Lake in the distance.

Apparently BYU's football team hikes it, or rather, runs it, every year. And when they get there, the coach will tell them something along the lines of: The view is always better from the top. Always.

It's a pretty big letter, huh?

But I just like the thought of the whole idea. Yes, it was a tough hike, but it was worth it. And you can apply that idea to anything you set out to accomplish in your life.

Anyway, that's all. I really don't feel like telling all about my experience at band camp, especially since I've already told all my good stories to people I know. So I'll just that that it was the absolute best. I learned so much about music, about music history, about the gospel, about people, about myself, and about life, from the professors, the counselors, and my friends. Oh, did we ever forge strong friendships in that week.

Plus I discovered some great music jokes.

This is me making a weird face while wearing my nerdy composer shirt. Yes, I can name them all.

These were some of my piano friends. The camp was for a couple dozen types of instruments, but piano, violin, and voice were the most common, it seemed.

Building good memories like I did that week is a really good way to make your life happier.

And...that's all I feel like saying. I bid thee farewell!

Or perhaps now is an appropriate time to quote Beethoven's supposed last words. "Friends applaud, the comedy is finished."

Or Brahm's: Ah, that tastes nice. Thank you.

Or Chopin's: The earth is suffocating...swear to make them cut me open, so that I won't be buried alive. (Dying of tuberculosis).

How utterly depressing.