"Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." --Berthold Auerbach--

This week has a been a pretty busy one, which just means more posts for you all to enjoy! Today's post is about last Tuesday, which for the majority of the day wasn't too exciting. We went to work, made dinner, etc. Mark was studying for finals so Sierra and I went to a small concert that my friend April Meservy was going to be in. Some company or another has a concert series during the summer and every Tuesday night they feature four or so artists. The artists all sing a number of songs, taking turns so it's a mix of them.

This past Tuesday featured my friend April, Ryan Innes, Shaun Barrowes, and Truman (which two brothers who sing together). We had actually seen Truman at the opening act of the Kelly Clarkson concert and thought they were pretty good then, but they were SO good on Tuesday! All four of these artists (well five...) we're so amazing and SO talented! They all are amazing singers and writers as well. Shaun Barrowes was even on the past season of American Idol and made it to the top 48. He was particularly entertaining to watch because of the way he played the piano...he really pounded on that thing! Sierra and I both thought he was going to break the pedals because he was stomping on them so hard. Apparently he has a nickname of "Hammer Hands" because of the way he plays. I loved his music though, kind of the old jazzy type style...fantastic.

Ryan Innes was really great too. He had some really great songs that he wrote, some really cute and serious, and others cute and funny. He was a member of a group called Vocal Point, which is an acapella group at BYU. They are SO good! I love acapella. Truman is, as I said before, SO good! They're great songwriters too and so talented. They both play the guitar and one of the brothers plays the piano as well...he was great. I love piano players. Sierra got their cd and has been listening to it nonstop ever since.

April Meservy is the main reason we went to the concert, because I know her and LOVE her music. I showed it to Sierra one time I went home and she fell in love with her as well. She just has the most amazing voice, so relaxing and wonderful! She's also the sweetest, nicest person I have seriously EVER met. (I met her through her brother, who I was in the same single's ward with at BYU...his whole family is so talented musically! His dad was a member of the MoTab...so you know he's great. Her entire family is super nice too).

Anywho...it was so great to go and listen to her and the other artists. It was a nice small concert, which was great. So much more intimate and friendly you know? We talked to all the artists except Shaun afterwards and Sierra got pics with them all and had the Truman brothers sign her cd. Small concerts like that are the best! We did have to wait like 15 minutes to talk to April because she was so swamped by admirers, but Sierra really wanted to talk to her so we did. :) She was so sweet to Sierra, even offered to help her with anything music-wise because Sierra told her she had an interest in it. April's really involved in the music business...being an artist herself, of course she is...but she she produces too which I didn't know. Right now she is working on her own album though, which I'm so excited for! (Although I do have a personal copy of a cd she made for me of her music as part of my wedding present, I feel so special :).

Well I think that's all the flattery and praise I'm going to do for today. Here's some pics/video from the concert. Make sure to listen to April's! This is my all time favorite song that she's written and one of the first I've heard her perform. I first saw/met her at a little gathering of friends her brother had at the Glenwood in his apartment. She did a little concert for all of us. It's called "I like Mondays". Amazing!!!

(Shaun Barrowes)

(Ryan Innes)

(April Meservy)

(Truman)

(Me, April, and Sierra)

(Sierra and Ben Truman)

(April and Sierra...what beautiful girls!)

(Sierra and Ryan...such a nice guy!)

(well the video isn't working today...I'll have to try some other time... :(

Anchors Aweigh, my boys, Anchors Aweigh!

So it is absolutely and COMPLETELY official now! Mark is in the Navy! Or rather, in the Civil Engineer Corp of the Navy... :) We got the call on Saturday that that paperwork was in at the recruiter's office and we went yesterday to sign everything and now Mark is officially in the Navy! I can't tell you how ridiculously excited we are...mainly because we FINALLY know for sure and there is no more waiting for it! This thing took FOREVER and was so stressful to just have to sit and wait. I'm just so glad it paid off for the good, makes the waiting so much more worth it! We're really just relieved that Mark has a job when he graduates, he wasn't looking forward to having to find one if he didn't get this but it all worked out and we're thrilled! We're excited for this opportunity he has to be in such an amazing program and the experience he's going to gain from it!

He had a lot of paperwork to sign and go through yesterday and then he was sworn in (pics below). It was so much information to process and go through though! And of course we aren't even done yet...we've still got to do all the insurance, id's, etc. We just hope that nothing goes wrong with our paperwork this time and that it goes through the fine! Anyway, we got done around 4:30 and instead of fighting the traffic back to Provo, we went out to dinner at Chili's to celebrate. So yummy! We couldn't celebrate too long though because Mark has finals tomorrow so he's studying his lil' heart out right now for them. We're planning on doing some fun stuff this weekend afterwards though to celebrate the end of the term/getting in the Navy/and Father's Day! So more to follow later...

Just to close up though, we want to thank all of you for your thoughts and prayers as we've been going through this Navy process! We really do appreciate it!

(Being sworn in!)

(Happy day!)

(This is Mark's recruiter, Sen. Chief Gordone. He's been so great in helping us through all this! He even took these pics for us because we were so hurried in leaving to come up to SLC to sign everything that I forgot mine! I'm so ridiculously forgetful...just ask Sierra, she'll vouch for me now!)

"Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent." --Victor Hugo --

Well Sierra made it here safe and sound with only a small delay because of weather. She's an energetic, crazy, teenage girl and very funny- she's definitely adding a new dynamic to me and Mark's life. :) I'm afraid that she's going to be utterly bored by the time the month is up and will want to go home early, with me and Mark both working and him going to school too. My work is long and slow most of the time and I usually fill the time by reading, watching movies, doing projects, etc. She said she doesn't want to read anything, I don't really have any projects for her to do, so she's left to watching things on my computer. Luckily I have lots of movies and seasons of shows for her to watch...hopefully that will keep her entertained a bit. We do have some fun stuff planned but most of it is planned for certain days when Mark can do things with us.

The first thing we had planned to do was a Kelly Clarkson, which was held at Utah Valley University. They had it at their ballpark so it was obviously an outside concert, which I like a lot. I love the atmosphere of outdoor concerts, they just seem to be so much more fun! I didn't tell her we were going to it til the day she arrived and she was pretty excited to go although she was pretty funny when we actually got there. She acted all shy and such about singing and dancing although I did get her to dance a couple times while I videoed her...SO funny! Mark too...he's such a goof. Hopefully it works when I put them on here...

Anyway, we were kinda worried cuz it rained almost all afternoon and it was cloudy all the rest of the night but it turned out to be great for the concert. It sprinkled for a few minutes when Kelly first came on but nothing major. The clouds looked awesome and there was even a double rainbow during the show. Pretty cool. Anyway, the rain kept it nice and cool and I didn't get sunburned! Always a plus in my book. So the reason UVU had Kelly Clarkson was to celebrate their first anniversary of becoming a university and to kick off the Orem Festival. It took forever for the concert to start because they were doing a bunch of stuff concerning the college and everything so that part was pretty boring. Then it took forever for them to set up the stage for Kelly after they had some opening acts (they had a kind of show down of 5 different groups/artists and then had judges judge them and gave them prize $).

But finally the show started and I gotta say, Kelly Clarkson puts on a pretty darn good live concert! Some bands just don't do well live but she did good. She performed for an hour and then the concert was over. We were all kinda bummed cuz she didn't do an encore or anything...just up and left. Tsk tsk...but oh well...it's not like we spent a fortune on the tickets anyway.

So overall it was pretty great...the music was great, the weather was pretty good, and it was fun to spend a night outside the apt/work! Most of the time Mark and I just watch movies cuz it's too late/we're too tired to go out anywhere/we never have anyone to go anywhere with cuz everyone else is just as busy as we are. Anyway-here's some pics and hopefully some video of the night out!

(Waiting in line...it was long...)

(Waiting in the concert...took a long time!)

(Aren't we cute?)

(The double rainbow over the stage...pretty cool!)

(He's acting like he doesn't want to be there...)

(But he couldn't hide his excitement very long! :)

(She finally made it!)



(these two were SO funny when they danced! Mark's such a dork...)

(This guy was hilarious! He was there with like 6 girls and he was SO into the concert! He knew every song and danced outrageously funny...)

Off we go into the wild blue yonder!

Yesterday Mark and I went up to SLC, met up with Calvin and Amy and Calvin's friend Chris and trekked up to Clearfield to Hill Air Force Base to watch the air show. I already got yelled at by my niece for going out on Sunday, but it was free and I did get a lovely sunburn as punishment, so lesson learned. :) (I looked under the bathroom sink twice for the stupid sunblock but couldn't find it and as soon as we got home Mark went there and found it right away...g's I'm losing it...).

It was a beautiful day though, nice huge, fluffy clouds, nice breeze...it was even chilly some of the time. Then of course it started to pour/hail for like 2 minutes which definitely cooled things down. Unfortunately it was right during the middle of the Thunderbirds performance at the very end of the air show. They had to stop performing for 20 minutes so the clouds would clear out and they could resume their tricks. They were pretty awesome, they can do such amazing stuff in those planes! One of the pilots was even from KC, Missouri...yay! :) haha. Honestly though, I wish I could have gone to the air show at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri! My nephews went with their dad on Saturday and they said it was the 20th anniversary of the B-2 Bomber, which is my all time favorite! They didn't have any B-2's at Hill AFB. :( Sad day...

Anyway, we had a fun time despite getting burned. Here's some pics for you! Oh, and Sierra comes tomorrow, wish us luck!!!

(This is Mark's favorite plane ever, the P51 Mustang, he was excited to see it).

(Planes!)

(Aww...how cute!)

(This is the F18 that did some tricks for us. Mark and I had Amy going that this was the exact plane that Will Smith was in in Independence Day...ha! So gullible...)

(This is the rain we got).

(Luckily we thought to bring our rain coats, it's rained here the past three days! Not a lot but it's better than nothing!)

(Thunderbirds! They were so cool and SO loud!)

(Can you tell they're siblings? :)