Sunday, July 26, 2009

DayJams 2009 Take 3: July 24, 2009

Week Two of DayJams for Hannah was a fun week. She was in an all-girl band named Pushing Up Daisies and since there were only four bands at the San Fernando Valley campus her band wrote and performed two songs!




Once again, I didn't take the video - this time it was shot by Emily while I took pictures.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Thanks DayJams & Daisy Rock

This week was Hannah's 2nd week at DayJams and she got a great surprise at the concert. Daisy Rock donates guitars to DayJams every year and DayJams gives them away to campers they feel deserve them. Hannah saw the one this year and really wanted it but had decided that she wouldn't be getting it. Well, surprise - she did get it!

Thanks DayJams & Daisy Rock!!

Friday, July 17, 2009

DayJams 2009 Take 2: July 17, 2009

Hannah just completed her first week of DayJams for 2009. This week she opted to be a vocalist in her band, Rockestra. Vocalists in a DayJams band write their own lyrics and melody to go along with the other music being written by their band mates. So, how did their song come out? You be the judge:

Paul manned the video camera and I had my 40d so here are some still shots of Rockestra for your enjoyment:

Monday, July 13, 2009

DayJams 2009

Emily is a counselor this year at DayJams. On the first day of the camp each week, the teachers hold a jam session as people are arriving. The voice teacher, K-Lee, asked Emily to join the band on a number.

Emily amazes me with her total lack of fear on stage. Here she is at a Radio Disney event in May:

Saturday, July 04, 2009

Las Vegas 2009

Another year and another family trip to Vegas. This year we went with Paul's family to celebrate his father's 80th birthday - Happy Birthday Tom!
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Not only was it Paul's father's birthday but it was his parents' 51st wedding anniversary too though none of us remembered that at the dinner.
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Much of our time in Vegas was spent at the pools at the Flamingo and I took no pictures of that this year but here are some photos from the other things we did this year.

The first night we were in Vegas, Paul's oldest sister babysat for all of the kids while the parents went out to dinner. Before we went to dinner, we all gathered in one of the hotel rooms while the kids got ready for their Bingo Party with Aunt Mary.
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Emily wanted to ride the roller coaster at New York, New York so she and I walked down the strip one afternoon and took some photos and visited M&M World.
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At the dinner, electronic gadgets were the big attraction for all of the younger generation!
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Paul & I had wanted to see The Beatles™ LOVE™ by Cirque du Soleil® at The Mirage for years and we finally made it on this trip. What an AMAZING show!! I'd love to see it again. There is so much going on that there's not way to take it all in going one time. We think the girls would really enjoy it too.
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Photo by: pengrin

As always, we went to Circus, Circus and spent some time in the Adventuredome. This has become somewhat of a tradition when we go to Vegas though after we're there for awhile we always ask ourselves why? They really need to provide more places for parents to sit since we are always waiting while the kids are on a ride. It's an exhausting day but the kids seemed to have fun though we adults think that this may just be a tradition that has run it's course.
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And, here's some video clips taken & compiled by Emily:

I don't know when we'll be doing this again since there's no major event coming up next year that will get Paul's whole family to Vegas. One thing I didn't do in Las Vegas was to go to the Donny & Marie show at the Flamingo and we were even staying at that hotel! Bad, bad fan - okay, not really since their show was dark except for the first night that we were there so there really wasn't a time that I could go or I'm sure that I would have.