Day at the Dam

 The weather has been so amazing lately. The other day we went up to the dam on the rhino and played and fished for a while.

 The irrigation company has been working on the dam a little and it's a little different. The kids had fun playing on the side of this dirt hill.

 They cleared out all the brush and made a road on the side of the river. Till the next flood comes I guess.

 Anna wondering where all the fishies are. I was wondering too. I actually remember exactly a year ago this day (January 28th) me and the kids were at the dam and caught a large mouth bass. No such luck this day.

 They made quite the slide down the hill.

 Isaac juming off.

Jackson loves to get up on top of the rhino. He's such a monkey.

Tall Towers

 The other day the boys made the tallest towers with their legos. They had so much fun doing it.

 Isaac kept trying to block Anna and Jackson becuase they would knock them down.

Then they built a skyscraper on the treadmill.

Musical Heritage Performance

January 23 we had our performance that the Arts Council asked us to do. We called it, "Our Musical Heritage".

The performance showcased the evolution of music throughout the family. It began with Mom's great grandma teaching piano and playing in the dance bands almost 100 years ago. So the first few numbers were dance songs. Kristi's in-laws, Bevin and Kathy Dalley, along with Gary and Kay Batchelor danced on stage! Dad was on guitar, Dustin Bass, Kristi violin and Grandma Piano.

Then Uncle Bruce, Mom, Aunt Susan, Me and Grandma sang, "A Lad and a Lass", with Aunt Sherrie accompanying on piano and Kristi on violin. After that Grandma, Mom, Aunt Susan, and Aunt Judy played an 8 hand duet on paino's. I couldn't find any pictures of that.

 My mom and I then played Preludium and Allegro by Fritz Kreisler

My Mom did a little number on her harpsichord that she brought back from Texas.

 My Mom and Dad did a little thing to honor Dr. Moses. I didn't hear it but something about how he helped support my Mom when she was a choir teacher and he was the principal and how he actually started the Arts Coucil.

 Then I sang two of the songs I've written.



Then down to the fun stuff....our Bluegrass music.

Mom on mandolin and Grandma is of course amazing on the piano.

Dad and Dustin tear it up on the guitar and bass.

Twin fiddles.

 Then we brought up all Dustin, Kristi's and my kids for a number. It was absolutely amazing that every one of them got up there and no one ran off the stage crying. They all played their instuments.

I will say that I bribed my boys with a trip to Home Hardware to pick out a toy if they would do it.....but they did it!

My friends Wendy and Josh were so nice to watch my kids during the show and take a few pictures. This is the only one I could find where you could see Anna (kind of). She was back by me so it was hard to see her but she sawed away on her violin the whole time. She loves it.

Then all the relatives came up and sang Country Roads.

I had no idea but apparently Jackson snuck away during that performance and found someone's giant soda on the edge of the stage and sucked on that instead. Funny boy.

Over all it went pretty good and it's very nice to have it done. It sure was nice of all the family and friends who came and supported us.

 Anna

 Aunt Susan, Emma and Anna

Aunt Donna, Baby Matthew and Kristi



The Nelson Family Band

Valley of Fire

 The other day we took a little trip out to Valley of Fire.

 We had so much fun playing on the rocks.

 There were little chipmunks everywhere. Anna was so excited about them and kept talking to them.

 Isaac is quite the little rock climber

 Jackson said this was his rocket ship

 Beautiful desert.