Emily was inducted into the Central Valley High School chapter of the National Honor Society tonight. She is lighting a candle at the table in the middle of the picture.

I just installed the WordPress app on my phone and decided I should test it.

This is from a performance the kids had a couple of weeks ago. Emily, Jessica, and Zachary all performed with their respective school orchestras. Instead of holding the concert at the high school and middle school auditoriums, the director scheduled the Bing Crosby Theater in downtown Spokane.

And the WordPress app for Android works pretty well.

Take today, for example. It was time for Zach to go to wrestling practice. I call to him and tell him to meet me in the car. It is evening, with a light sprinkling of rain, the temperature hovering in the late thirties, so I grab a coat on my way out the door. After waiting a few minutes, he has to dispatch a few troops in his virtual world, I watch my son sprint out of the door, dressed in a flimsy white t-shirt that he is uselessly using to protect the book clutched tightly in his hands. Why he needs a book at wrestling practice is another blog all together. He is almost to the car, when he abruptly stops and holds up his hand placatingly, as he turns and skip-runs back to the house.

A little late for a coat, I think with a shrug, while I wait for his return. A few minutes pass and I begin to wonder if he has forgotten we were going some where, when out he comes again, still clad in a thin, slightly wet t-shirt and shorts, oh, and don’t forget the book. He climbs into the car with a huff and I hurriedly back out of the drive, at this point we are no longer almost on time, but officially late.

“What did you go back in for?” I asked curiously as I drove down the street.

“Oh”, he said matter of factly, “I got my shoes and a new pair of socks.”

I shook my head in exasperation. Sadly to say, I wasn’t surprised. I am sure that wet feet were a small price to pay for the wonders flourishing inside of that mind of his. Just as long as he doesn’t forget his pants…

Zachary - Fall 2009

Here is Zachary’s picture. Emily says it looks a lot like last year’s. I think he’s handsome.

Jessica - Fall 2009

This is my school picture.

Luv Ninja

The competition was fun but it was freezing! We were given hot bag thingies to keep our hands warm. They worked pretty well until we went to the awards ceremony. We had our gloves on every second before this so our hands had stayed pretty warm but we weren’t allowed to wear them during the ceremony so our hands were numb. At the last performance I could not feel my fingers or move them so I ended up playing most of the song with two fingers! Besides this little detail I had lots of fun, not to mention we kicked the other people’s butts! In the video I’m the one standing behind the black box thing, enjoy!

There was a YouTube video here from the competition, but it is gone. See this post for the other video from the competition.

This video was taken last weekend at the Cavalcade of Bands in Pasco, Washington. Emily is at the synthesizer, behind the black box to the left of the timpani.

Emily - Fall 2009

It’s fall, which means time for school pictures. They took pictures at the high school before school started, so we’ve got her picture back already.

Emily was pretty happy with the results this year.

Here are some pictures:

Waiting for the bus	Getting on the bus
Running toward our hotel	Running toward our hotel

We came home through Grand Coulee and took the tour at the Grand Coulee Dam. All of the pictures for the day are on Flickr.