Friends, swimming and ice cream cones! Doesn't get any better then this.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Sunday, July 10, 2011
American Idol Concert
Friday night the American Idol Live concert was in town so I went with 2 of my friends to it. Mackenzie and Brooklyn were still at EFY so they couldn't go with me and when they heard that I got tickets they were pretty jealous!
Before the concert we grabbed a bite to eat at a Mexican restaurant here in town.
The show started off with the ladies.
Casey and Haley performing a number together.
The show started off with the ladies.
Casey and Haley performing a number together.
We had fun rockin out with James Durbin!
Scotty was adorable and has an amazing voice.
We really scored with tickets even getting them last minute. Our seats were on the ground floor, 10th row right in the middle. It was so awesome to be that close to the stage. Steve was a little concerned to send us all without a chaperone and yet was happy to hear that we did not get arrested trying to storm the stage. We sure had a great time together. Thanks Kim and Heather for a very memorable girls night out!
Scotty was adorable and has an amazing voice.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Mackenzie & Brooklyn off to EFY - Especially for Youth
This morning Steve and I drove Mackenzie and Brooklyn and 3 of their friends down to Tacoma for a week at Especially for Youth (EFY) - a week-long church youth conference. It is being held at the beautiful University of Puget Sound campus about an hour and 15 minutes South from our home.
We had to put our small car carrier on the back of the car so we could fit 5 girls and all their gear for the week in our car. We looked like a bunch of hillbillies driving up to the campus!
Brooklyn checking in and picking up her lanyard, sling backpack, dvd, schedule booklet and t-shirt.
Check out the cute design on the back of their t-shirts this year. So cute.
After the girls checked in we helped them unpack and move into their dorm rooms. Brooklyn is rooming with her good friend Heidi.
Mackenzie is rooming with her good friend Bailey who lives in Snohomish. She met Bailey 2 years ago while at EFY.
Mackenzie and Bailey's counselor decorated their door with signs and packets of sugar!
Mackenzie and Bailey's dorm room is in the basement. We sure hope this isn't the way they get in and out of their room each day!
It was so fun to see where they are going to be spending their week and see some of the kids they are going to be with. We had a small glimpse of what it will be like when we take Mackenzie and Brooklyn off to college in the near future. We know Mackenzie and Brooklyn are in for an amazing experience this week and will really be touched by the spirit as they attended classes, testimony meeting and listening to awesome speakers. It's definitely going to be quiet at our house this week with them gone. We miss them already!
We had to put our small car carrier on the back of the car so we could fit 5 girls and all their gear for the week in our car. We looked like a bunch of hillbillies driving up to the campus!
Brooklyn checking in and picking up her lanyard, sling backpack, dvd, schedule booklet and t-shirt.
Check out the cute design on the back of their t-shirts this year. So cute.
After the girls checked in we helped them unpack and move into their dorm rooms. Brooklyn is rooming with her good friend Heidi.
Mackenzie is rooming with her good friend Bailey who lives in Snohomish. She met Bailey 2 years ago while at EFY.
Mackenzie and Bailey's counselor decorated their door with signs and packets of sugar!
Mackenzie and Bailey's dorm room is in the basement. We sure hope this isn't the way they get in and out of their room each day!
It was so fun to see where they are going to be spending their week and see some of the kids they are going to be with. We had a small glimpse of what it will be like when we take Mackenzie and Brooklyn off to college in the near future. We know Mackenzie and Brooklyn are in for an amazing experience this week and will really be touched by the spirit as they attended classes, testimony meeting and listening to awesome speakers. It's definitely going to be quiet at our house this week with them gone. We miss them already!
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Mackenzie and her "American Idol" auditions!
American Idol had announced that they would hold auditions in 6 different cities for season 11 and Portland, Oregon was one of them. Mackenzie has wanted to audition for the show for a long time and so we decided to make a family trip out of it as Portland is only about 200 miles - 3 1/2 hours south of where we live. As noted in our blog on our camping trip, we took our trailer down Wednesday evening and stayed in an RV park next to the Columbia River and then came back Saturday. They had registration on Thursday and Friday and then auditions on Saturday. As Mackenzie is a minor, Steve got to go with her and join in on all the fun.
Thursday morning Mackenzie and Steve were down at registration bright and early and were about # 1000 of what the local news station said was close to 7000 there for the auditions. Here's Mackenzie just before she and Steve picked up their wristbands and tickets that would allow them back in for the auditions Saturday morning.
Mackenzie met a lot of great kids from all over while waiting in line including this young lady from eastern Washington, who had made it to the final 300 at Denver, Colorado and the final 100 in Kansas City, Missouri a few years back. We learned a lot about the audition process - they usually hand out about 300 or so yellow tickets at the first auditions and then there are additional auditions 3 weeks to a number of months later where they limit it down to 40-50 or so that the celebrity judges see months later.
Mackenzie with her wristband Thursday morning at Rose Garden arena.
Mackenzie and Steve had to be at the arena at 5:00 a.m. so they were up bright and early! Here they are with one of their posters.
Here's their tickets, which assigned them a seat inside the arena Saturday morning - they had you come down by seat section, which was the same order that people registered - the earlier you registered on Thursday and Friday the earlier you auditioned on Saturday.
Steve made this poster in Japanese - both for Mackenzie's fans in Japan and to get her noticed. It worked! Steve and Mackenzie, arrived at Rose Garden Saturday morning at 5:00 a.m. as instructed and about 7:00 a.m. they were asked by a staff worker to move up to the front area as they wanted people with posters. This put them in the area where they were filming the opening, break and closing "Welcome to Portland," Welcome to American Idol," and shots with Ryan Secrest. It will be fun to watch for them when the show airs. Mackenzie was asked a number of times about her sign by different people including the producer and local news media guy. She read it to them and then told them what it means:
"American Idol to Kei-chan wa ichiban."
which means
"American Idol and Kay-chan (Mackenzie's middle name) are #1."
Here's another nice girl Mackenzie met while in line. She majors in musical performance at a college near Portland.
Mackenzie and Steve were less than 5 feet away from Ryan Seacrest when he did a local media spot and said hi to the auditioners and fans just prior to going into the arena for auditions. Here's a picture with Mackenzie on the right as Ryan walked by where we were. That was cool!
After entering the arena Ryan Seacrest welcomed everyone and then they shot a number of "Welcome to Portland"segments before starting the auditions. Here you can see the 10 audition booths where 4 kids line up and then one by one sing for one or two judges. If you got a "golden ticket" you headed up to the winners exit in the upper left. They would then go and learn about the further audition process that they participate in in the coming weeks. If you did not get a "golden ticket," they snipped off your wrist band and you walked out the non-winner's exit in the lower left. The crowd cheered whenever someone came out with a "golden ticket"
Here's Mackenzie and Steve just before heading down for auditions. Steve was allowed to go down to the main floor and wait in a parent's area while Mackenzie waited in line and later auditioned. Mackenzie sang a portion of "The Ballad of Mono Lisa" by the group Panic! at the Disco. She did not get a "golden ticket" from the American Idol judges, but she got a lot of great love, comments and support from friends and family and whole experience was a ton of fun.
We love you Mackenzie! You rock!
Here's a link to a video of the adventure.
Thursday morning Mackenzie and Steve were down at registration bright and early and were about # 1000 of what the local news station said was close to 7000 there for the auditions. Here's Mackenzie just before she and Steve picked up their wristbands and tickets that would allow them back in for the auditions Saturday morning.
Mackenzie met a lot of great kids from all over while waiting in line including this young lady from eastern Washington, who had made it to the final 300 at Denver, Colorado and the final 100 in Kansas City, Missouri a few years back. We learned a lot about the audition process - they usually hand out about 300 or so yellow tickets at the first auditions and then there are additional auditions 3 weeks to a number of months later where they limit it down to 40-50 or so that the celebrity judges see months later.
Mackenzie with her wristband Thursday morning at Rose Garden arena.
Mackenzie and Steve had to be at the arena at 5:00 a.m. so they were up bright and early! Here they are with one of their posters.
Here's their tickets, which assigned them a seat inside the arena Saturday morning - they had you come down by seat section, which was the same order that people registered - the earlier you registered on Thursday and Friday the earlier you auditioned on Saturday.
Steve made this poster in Japanese - both for Mackenzie's fans in Japan and to get her noticed. It worked! Steve and Mackenzie, arrived at Rose Garden Saturday morning at 5:00 a.m. as instructed and about 7:00 a.m. they were asked by a staff worker to move up to the front area as they wanted people with posters. This put them in the area where they were filming the opening, break and closing "Welcome to Portland," Welcome to American Idol," and shots with Ryan Secrest. It will be fun to watch for them when the show airs. Mackenzie was asked a number of times about her sign by different people including the producer and local news media guy. She read it to them and then told them what it means:
"American Idol to Kei-chan wa ichiban."
which means
"American Idol and Kay-chan (Mackenzie's middle name) are #1."
Here's another nice girl Mackenzie met while in line. She majors in musical performance at a college near Portland.
Mackenzie and Steve were less than 5 feet away from Ryan Seacrest when he did a local media spot and said hi to the auditioners and fans just prior to going into the arena for auditions. Here's a picture with Mackenzie on the right as Ryan walked by where we were. That was cool!
After entering the arena Ryan Seacrest welcomed everyone and then they shot a number of "Welcome to Portland"segments before starting the auditions. Here you can see the 10 audition booths where 4 kids line up and then one by one sing for one or two judges. If you got a "golden ticket" you headed up to the winners exit in the upper left. They would then go and learn about the further audition process that they participate in in the coming weeks. If you did not get a "golden ticket," they snipped off your wrist band and you walked out the non-winner's exit in the lower left. The crowd cheered whenever someone came out with a "golden ticket"
Here's Mackenzie and Steve just before heading down for auditions. Steve was allowed to go down to the main floor and wait in a parent's area while Mackenzie waited in line and later auditioned. Mackenzie sang a portion of "The Ballad of Mono Lisa" by the group Panic! at the Disco. She did not get a "golden ticket" from the American Idol judges, but she got a lot of great love, comments and support from friends and family and whole experience was a ton of fun.
We love you Mackenzie! You rock!
Here's a link to a video of the adventure.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIJkvJc1Sbo
Also, here's a link to a spot by a local media station. Mackenzie is in the background on the left when Ryan Secrest is talking. Way fun!http://www.kptv.com/story/15018466/is-the-next-american-idol-from-portland
Camping Trip to Portland, Oregon
We just got back from a fun 4 day camping trip down to beautiful Portland, Oregon. We left Wednesday after work and drove down to a really pretty RV park that was right on the banks of the Colombian River. Part of our adventures down there was to go exploring around the Portland area and also so that Mackenzie could audition for the popular TV reality show "American Idol".
Wednesday morning after Mackenzie and Steve got back from checking in and getting their American Idol wristbands and ticket for Saturday we took off to go exploring. Our first stop was "Voo Doo Doughnuts" - a very unique doughnut store recommended by one Mackenzie's friends that had previously lived in Portland. It was quite the adventure let me tell you!
They had so many different varieties of doughnuts with lots of clever names, shapes and flavors!
Here is Mackenzie with her "Voo-Doo doll" doughnut. It even had raspberry filling inside and a pretzel stick stabbed through it's heart! Nice doughnut... Put that one on the list of "must see... ...once" places! :-)
One of the places we stopped at was to see the beautiful waterfront. It was a cloudy day but we still enjoyed walking around the harbor.
We then drove to the Portland, Oregon LDS temple and took some time to just walk around the beautiful grounds.
Mackenzie posing in front of the temple.
The flowers around the temple grounds were gorgeous and a perfect backdrop for a cute picture of Brooklyn.
On Friday we took a scenic drive east about an hour from Portland to see some beautiful waterfalls. Some of the falls were right by the road and some were a short hike to see. They were so beautiful and the drive was spectacular with a warm sunny day.
Brooklyn at Bridal Veil falls.
Mackenzie inside an old tree stump on the trail to the mid level bridge at Multnomah falls.
Friday night after dinner we made two posters for Mackenzie to take with her to the try-outs for American Idol. They were a lot of fun to make. Saturday Brooklyn and I kicked back at the swimming pool at the RV park we stayed at while Steve and Mackenzie were gone for the auditions. When Steve and Mackenzie got back in the late afternoon we then packed up and came on home.
It was a short little camping trip but we sure packed in a lot and had a great time together as a family. We look forward to a couple more short camping trips over the summer.
Wednesday morning after Mackenzie and Steve got back from checking in and getting their American Idol wristbands and ticket for Saturday we took off to go exploring. Our first stop was "Voo Doo Doughnuts" - a very unique doughnut store recommended by one Mackenzie's friends that had previously lived in Portland. It was quite the adventure let me tell you!
They had so many different varieties of doughnuts with lots of clever names, shapes and flavors!
Here is Mackenzie with her "Voo-Doo doll" doughnut. It even had raspberry filling inside and a pretzel stick stabbed through it's heart! Nice doughnut... Put that one on the list of "must see... ...once" places! :-)
One of the places we stopped at was to see the beautiful waterfront. It was a cloudy day but we still enjoyed walking around the harbor.
We then drove to the Portland, Oregon LDS temple and took some time to just walk around the beautiful grounds.
Mackenzie posing in front of the temple.
The flowers around the temple grounds were gorgeous and a perfect backdrop for a cute picture of Brooklyn.
On Friday we took a scenic drive east about an hour from Portland to see some beautiful waterfalls. Some of the falls were right by the road and some were a short hike to see. They were so beautiful and the drive was spectacular with a warm sunny day.
Brooklyn at Bridal Veil falls.
Mackenzie inside an old tree stump on the trail to the mid level bridge at Multnomah falls.
Friday night after dinner we made two posters for Mackenzie to take with her to the try-outs for American Idol. They were a lot of fun to make. Saturday Brooklyn and I kicked back at the swimming pool at the RV park we stayed at while Steve and Mackenzie were gone for the auditions. When Steve and Mackenzie got back in the late afternoon we then packed up and came on home.
It was a short little camping trip but we sure packed in a lot and had a great time together as a family. We look forward to a couple more short camping trips over the summer.
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