Our little family was so excited to go on a little road trip. My sister, Alyssa, is a sophomore attending BYU-Idaho-- the college formerly known as Ricks College-- my alma mater, in fact. Alyssa was part of a production put on by the music departments. It was a night featuring the student concerto winners and a performance of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6,
Pathetique. Earlier in the year, Alyssa competed against 9 other pianists- most of them older than her- and won and got to play a concerto: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37 by Beethoven. For those of you who don't know what a concerto is, it is this: A composition for an orchestra and one or more solo instruments. Alyssa was the solo instrument on the piano. We just had to make the trip up to Rexburg to see her perform. We got all dress up, kids included, and went to see her perform. She did FABULOUS! We were so proud of her! I just wanted to keep saying, "That's my baby sister!" Anyway, we were so glad we got to go and the car trip was fun too! Our family loves road trips! Here are some pictures of us in the car.
Connor taking atvantage of the oh-so scenic drive up to Rexburg!
McKay coloring the drive away
Makenna and her 'map'
Makenna drew this map for us. She said, "There are lots of straight lines on the map because we keep going straight. If we need to turn, I'll draw you another map with turns." *cute*
Close-up of the map
Connor taking atvantage of the oh-so scenic drive up to Rexburg!
McKay coloring the drive away
Makenna and her 'map'
Close-up of the map
Here is Alyssa after a performance well done, with the flowers my parents and some friends brought for her. 
Alyssa with my mother dear 
Makenna with Grandpa Harmon, who also came up to see Alyssa 
There is a funny story behind this picture. The stage crew had moved the piano out of the way for the violinist concerto previous to Alyssa performing. After the violinist was done, the stage crew moved the piano back to center stage. Alyssa came out to a cheering crowd. She went to sit down at the piano and realized there was no bench! The crowd noticed too and Alyssa totally handled it great. She made a joke about it and then we all started clapping. The bench finally came out and it was down to it's lowest point, and she needs it at the highest point. She had to crank that thing up until it was right, which totally would have frazzled me and I would have done it too fast because I was worried about everyone waiting and then it totally would have messed up my performance. But, Alyssa took her time and got it just right. She is such a performer. As one lady put it after the concert, "She has stage presence." I whole-heartedly agree!
We stopped by Jeff and Brandi's on the way home and got to see the Logan temple too. It boggles my mind at how blessed we are to have so many temples, so close to us. If you think about it, in our 4 hour little drive, we passed 10 temples! Timpanogos, Draper (not operating yet), Oquirrh Mountain (not operating yet), Jordan River, Salt Lake, Bountiful, Ogden, Logan, Idaho Falls and Rexburg. What blesstings the Lord has poured out upon us here in the west. How grateful I am for the temple and the peace and spirit and knowledge it brings into my life.
