Music and Family

Wednesday night, March 31, is a night which will easily remain in our memories as our most exciting and inspiring musical performance of our lives -- the capstone of over 50 years of singing and playing during our lives. The Orange County Mormon Chorale and Orchestra (OCMCO) performed Brett Stewart's "Messiah in America," a really fine oratorio based on scriptures in 3 Nephi in the Book of Mormon. We sang to two audiences of 2000 people each and received immediate standing ovations and several curtain calls. (We even gave an encore at the end of the second performance.) The music is 'our own' version of Handel's Messiah, yet our son Karl, who was there with his family, said that it was "hands down the best musical experience of his life, including the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and performances of Handel's Messiah." And our neighbor, who is a docent at Segerstrom Hall and who has heard hundreds of fine musical groups, was impressed enough to give us a Bravo card and the tulips you see in several photos here (at 11:30 at night!). She later gave us both hugs.

Karl and Ana and their children were here for 4 days, the 9 of them sprawled all over our apartment. It was good to be with them so much. Saturday night we went to Downtown Disney with them, walking through the delightful shops and listening to three different kinds of musical groups. We ended the evening by watching the Disneyland fireworks from the top of the parking structure, where Signe took a picture of Ana and Minnie with Minnie Mouse! The highlight of the fireworks were two displays of silver and blue angels, heralding Easter in the morning.

Karl and the family returned to Utah on Sunday morning, and Joe and Judith and their family arrived from Utah to spend some time here and stay with Michelle West in Anaheim Hills. We were invited to an Easter buffet at her house, watching conference in the afternoon. Just before leaving for our apartment in Santa Ana, with Rachel and Ruth with us for the night, we felt the porch rock and roll beneath our feet, making us sway as if we were drunk. It turned out to be the edge of the 7.2 earthquake that hit Baja California and was the strongest they've had here in Southern California since 1995. (Even the water in the pool sloshed from south to north!)

The week before, we were allowed by the Missionary Department in Salt Lake to travel to Utah for the weekend. Earlier Gary had been slated to be part of the 100th birthday celebration of Hugh Nibley, but since that fizzled, we ended up in Park City for Signe's mother's 91st birthday and the taking of a 5-generation photo of Wanda Slangerup, Signe, MaryJane, Cami and Addi. During an earlier segment of the party Signe was proud to see her violin pupils Jonathan, Benjamin, Andrew and Gideon play pieces for their great grandma. (Signe discovered that SKYPE is really useful for teaching lessons and keeping them current on their progress.) The rest of the time with the family was really compressed, and we were delighted to be able to participate in Dallin Bradford's ordination to the office of Teacher Saturday night. We left Mapleton for California at 2:30 a.m. Sunday morning to beat the Las Vegas to Los Angeles gambling crowd on Interstate 15.