Suzuki Book 2 Recital

In the Suzuki method of piano instruction, when a student finished a complete volume of music, he or she has a "book recital," meaning the student plays all of the songs from a particular book from memory. Jay has just recently finished the Suzuki book 2 and he had his recital last Thursday. Here it is!



As you can see, three of Jay's best friends were on hand for the recital. Another great friend was sitting with Annie directly behind him. Our wonderful neighbor, Pat, also walked across the street to listen.



O.K., so here's where the freshly charged battery ran out. I was not pleased. So I got Jay to play the last three songs for me this morning. Tim is much better than I am at setting up the video camera, so please forgive the odd lighting on this part!



On to Book 3!

Hike the Grand Canyon

Every year we're here, we take advantage of the close proximity to the Grand Canyon and take a day trip for a hike.

This is the first picture I took after we got there at around 8:30 a.m.

The vision for this post and the actuality of it are quite different. I now know why people spend thousands of dollars for a steadycam. If the following videos cause you to have motion sickness, turn them off, take a Dramamine, and try again later.











The reward was, of course, lunch at El Tovar!

Best Hike Ever

We decided to return to try to finish the hike we started last week.

The weather was much sunnier and hotter than last week, so we thought we might just get it all in.

The clouds started gathering, but we continued to hike.

We even got a bit hot and sweaty during this first part of the walk.

We walked down into Sandy's Canyon looking for a cave listed in our guide book.

We took the trail to the east, and this is the sight that greeted us. It's hard to even notice the little cave with that beautiful rock formation looming over us.

We wished we could have sat out the rain storm here last week. But it really was more of an overhang than a cave, so we continued along the trail.

The photos don't do these rock formations justice. They are really spectacular.

And here's another one.

We abruptly came to a change in terrain. We entered Walnut Canyon, which is lusher and much more humid.

We came upon another cave.

And this one really was a cave. I couldn't get a good photo of it, but there was even a sign inside the cave prohibiting camping there. All along this hike, it was threatening to rain. Tim looked on his phone and it was raining heavily in Flagstaff and south, where our rented house is. But it never more than sprinkled a bit on us.

It had even rained pretty heavily at the parking lot. But, as you can see, we didn't even have to break out our emergency rain ponchos. They're still neatly folded in their little zip-locked bags.

It really was a great hike. My GPS watch put the hike at 6.6 miles, so we were all a bit tired and ready to go home for a late lunch. This is definitely a hike we'll do again -- and take guests with us.

Friday Night in Flagstaff

So, last night was very fun. Every Friday night, there's live entertainment followed by a kids' movie at Heritage Square in downtown Flagstaff. After a delicious meal at San Felipe's, we got to hear some Scottish music and some Irish dancing. Annie had a great time doing Irish step dancing to the Scottish music. Guess who forgot her camera? That's right -- I did. So Tim took the video with his phone. He took it sideways. I don't know how to turn it, so you'll just have to lean to the left and watch!

Michael's morning walk

Michael went for a hike yesterday, all by himself. And this is what he saw . . .

Visitors

One of the nice things about Flagstaff is that it's close enough to Phoenix to get visitors from home. Yesterday my dear friend, Kym, came to visit us with her 3 1/2 year-old son, Johnny. My kids had a blast playing hide-and-seek and some sort of monster chasing game with Johnny.


After lunch, we convinced Kym and Johnny to take a short hike with us.


Johnny did a great job hiking down to the cliffs with very little carrying. He also picked a beautiful flower.


Kym is a professional photographer and feels more comfortable behind the camera than in front of it. But I managed to get this photo of her!

Johnny was very tired after this hike, so we let him rest a while until dinner time. Then we went out to dinner and watched "Shrek 2" with popcorn and cookies before bed. The visit was very fun but much too short -- they headed home very early this morning. We're looking forward to having more visitors next week.

A Scene from a Morning Hike

Rainy hike

Tim is only with us in Flagstaff Thursday night through Monday evening, and he has to "work from home" on Friday. So he likes to fill his time here with a lot of hikes and bike rides. The only problem is that this is also monsoon season, so whether the weather will cooperate is always up in the air.

Yesterday around noon, we started on our hike to Fisher Point via Sandy's Canyon. The weather was perfect -- a little overcast and about 79 degrees.


Behind the family is an area where a big rock slide obliterated the forest along here, snapping the trees like toothpicks -- not while we were there, though.

All-in-all, the hike was supposed to be just a little less than 6 miles long, most of it pretty flat.

This is a view from down inside the canyon.

We even let Brisi off-leash for a while. But then . . .



After the downpour lightened up a little, my wet children wanted to head home, but my wet husband wanted to keep going. Whining always wins in the end, so we went home.

But, to be fair, everyone was a bit wet and miserable. We'll probably always remember this hike (which was truncated to about a 4 mike hike), because it was the one in which we decided to always carry some disposable rain ponchos. I purchased 5 this morning.

Skipping rocks, or Why you should never give an 8 year old the camera.

Try not to get seasick from Caryn Gardner on Vimeo.

Mountain lunch

Most days, the kids pack up sandwiches, fruit, carrots, etc. and go to the cliffs to have their lunch. I asked them to take pictures yesterday. Annie took all of these.

This is the view from the top of the cliffs. I think this photo is quite good.

Annie's favorite part of the meal is the trail mix we make with raw almonds, raw cashews and golden raisins.


Apparently, Michael was being uncooperative about having his picture taken. This is the best one of the day (that's his knee).

Jay, who still has his 4th of July tattoo on his neck.

This is where the kids eat their lunch.

This is the "awesome" rock-skipping pond.

This is a self-portrait. Annie has lovely nostrils. She takes after her dad.

Grrl power

While the boys got up and at 'em this morning, the girls lazed around, drinking tea and coffee and watching the end of the Tour stage (bunch sprint, *yawn*). At about 8:30, we were ready to embark on our "girls' hike."


So Annie, Brisi, and I took our time and enjoyed the cool morning on Pumphouse Wash trail. This is the best picture I could get of the three of us.


We stopped at the cliffs because there's a great rock skipping pond right below them. Annie skipped her first rock yesterday with the boys and was anxious to show me her new talent.

Picking the right rock is very important.

The wind up . . .

And the pitch.

Annie loves taking photos and is getting quite good at it. She took this one . . .

And this one . . .

And this one, which is my personal favorite

We took a little chance and let Briseis off leash for a big chunk of the walk. She did really well and didn't stray too far away from us.


She wasn't brave enough to follow Annie across the log, though.


The Gardner-Hajek girls had a great time together. I bet this won't be the last grrl power hike we take, either.