The Happy Halls: May 2009

I'm not going to start with "I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while." I've started with that too many times. Today's post is probably going to be a short one. I don't have much to talk about. My grandma really wanted hear about my piano recital so I'm going to talk about that. My dad took a video of me playing my songs. That's something new. I've never had any videos on my blog. They are probably going to appear tiny but you can still hear the music. There isn't much to see except the back of my head anyway. During my piano recital, I played two solos and one duet. I've been taking piano lessons from Travis' friend's mom/mom's friend/primary chorister/neighbor since May 8, 2008. I've just sped on through. I pass off all my songs and practice almost every day. (You've got to give mom credit too. Without her I'd probably never practice.) I can't wait for you to hear my songs. I know you'll be impressed.

The first song I played was a solo. Midnight Dance it was called. It was quick, fast, and pretty easy to memorize. I played it note-to-note perfect. Here it is.

That was Midnight Dance. The next song was also a solo. It was called Sunset on Equinox Pond. I also played it note-to-note perfect. Here it is.

That was Sunset on Equinox Pond. The next song I played (Polka Dot Hop) was a duet. I did mess up a few times on that one and so did my piano teacher. Here it is.

That was Polka Dot Hop. Did you hear it when I messed up? It was my first piano recital. I have to say it was a pretty good experiance. I'm glad I'm done with all those songs. I got so tired of playing them over and over again. I'm glad you get to hear the songs I've been practicing for so long. I hope this was a happy visit with the Happy Halls. I hope you can visit again soon. Bye!

Hi! I just can't believe I'm starting another post with I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. But I am. Don't worry though. I've got a lot of neat things to talk about so I'll probably (I'm not sure) be posting more. I was wondering about what I should talk about on this post. Like I said I have tons of things to talk about. I decided that our family trip to Zion National Park was the top of my list. I mean it was sooo beautiful there and who doesn't want to hear about a happy family that goes on a happy trip to a happy place (all those happys sound kind of dorky). As you know I always have pictures to go along with my posts. When we went to Zion I forgot my camera so most of these pictures my dad took with his camera. Plus the memory on my camera was full. I just learned how to take videos with my camera. I took a ton of home videos (probably next weeks post). Let me tell you that you are about to hear about an awesome trip and see lots of awesome pictures. So here's how it goes. We drive and drive and drive and drive and drive and drive and.....let's speed it up a bit. We get to our hotel which was called Driftwood Lodge. It was a pretty nice hotel. Well after we (more like mom and dad) carried all their (plus Travis' and mine) luggage in and we got settled in. We took shuttle down to the park. They have a super neat shuttle system that goes through the town and through the park too. What's even more great is that it's free! Let me tell you we rode that shuttle a lot! The town shuttle stops at the entrance to the park. After that you have to ride the park shuttle. We looked around the visitor's center first. There wasn't much to see. Our family is a big camping/hiking kind of family. We love going to cool places such as national parks. We decided that we would go on the Emerald Pools Trail hike that day. We were sure glad we chose that one because it was sooooooooo beautiful. It was really pretty but we really only got one picture of the actual pools.

On the Trail

Sitting on a Log on the Trail

The Upper Pool

I actually took that last picture. There are three pools. The Lower Pool, the Middle Pool, and the Upper Pool (that's the one in the picture.). There are three waterfalls. Two at the Lower Pool and one at the Upper Pool. When we got to the Lower Pool I had to hold my dad's hand. We had to be right on time or we would get sprayed by the waterfall. You had to run until you were at least twenty feet away from it. The Emerald Pools Trail was way fun. I could have done it a million times. The next day my dad and I went on a horse ride. It was sooooo fun! My horse's name was Pretty Boy. Dad's horse was Leroy. We saw a wide variety of plants and animals. Why we even saw a wild turkey! It was sad when it was over. And again here are some awesome pictures.

Mounting the Horse: Way Hard!

I Feel Tall!

Hello There!

We stopped at Court of the Patriarchs.
(Court of the Patriarchs are three cliffs named Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.)

It got kind of cold when we came back from the horse ride so we swung by the Human History Museum. Travis and I were working on our Junior Ranger badges and to do some of the activities we had to go to the museum. We watched a video and learned some cool things about the park. Like did you know that Zion has over 270 different types of birds? And did you know that there is a snail the size of a pinhead that lives only in Zion? Way cool! The next day we went on a short hike to Weeping Rock. Later we went to the Narrows and did Riverside Walk. Zion was way cool. I just can't tell you everything so I'll show you pictures instead.