Still Saturday

Dylan, Jacob, Danielle, Mark, and Sarah chow down on pizza.

6 June 2015

Not long after Sarah and I attended Emmi's baby shower on Saturday morning, it was time for Sarah's last concert of the season. So, after a brief stop at home, I drove to Denny's to pick up Mark from work, and then we headed directly to the 3:00 concert of White Mountain Symphony Orchestra in Show Low.

Jacob decided to surprise his dad with Mark's favorite frozen pizza for lunch, DiGiorno, so we all met in the parking lot of the auditorium before the concert and had our own little family tailgate party. It was a short but sweet pizza party!

White Mountain Symphony Orchestra

The concert was amazing and fun, featuring a professional banjo player for several of the pieces, but it was also bittersweet. Not only was it the final concert of the season, but it was also the final performance to be conducted by it's long-time maestro (and my colleague), Theresa Dick. 

Theresa has not only been Sarah's conductor for all these years, but she's been Dylan's music instructor in both band and orchestra, as well, throughout junior high and high school. While she will continue to run the music programs at the high school, we will miss her skill with WMSO. Sarah plans to continue to perform under the baton of whomever is chosen as the new conductor, but she told me she only hopes the new person will be as excellent as Ms. D.

Mark oversees Jacob putting together my new fire pit.

Well, he did get the tools for Jacob!

Jacob and Danielle requested that we have our weekly family dinner on Saturday this week, instead of Sunday, because Sunday (June 7) was their first anniversary. As luck would have it, no one had to work that night, so we were able to gather and enjoy a dinner of lasagna, garlic bread, and green salad. That left Jacob and Dani free to have an intimate anniversary celebration together on Sunday.

Sarah decided that since summer has finally arrived in the White Mountains (despite a lot of unseasonal rain and cooler-than-usual temperatures), it was time to enjoy a dessert of s'mores over a roaring fire. I've wanted a fire pit for my property for years, and I finally purchased one in the fall, but it's been sitting in its box on my front porch ever since. However, Jacob de-boxed it and assembled it for our little cookout, and Sarah provided the chocolate, graham crackers, and marshmallows.

It works! Diego likes to chase and eat the sparks that float off the fire.

Mark roasts his marshmallows while the others prepare their s'mores.

Chris and his friend Steve had left us right after dinner to go night-fishing.

Gooey, sticky, sweet, newlywed love!

It was a long day, but it was filled with all the best of life!

And I was there, too!