Mesa Falls

Tyler is such a patient man. Last Saturday I'm sure he had many things he wanted to get done (including finishing his talk for church the next day!), but he let me drag him up to Mesa Falls for the day. What a guy!

We started our little excursion by going to the Pioneer Day Parade in Saint Anthony. We were in Jackson Hole for the 4th of July, so it was nice to get a kind of re-enactment of it. There were some really great floats, but my favorite was a guy pushing a piano on wheels down the street while another guy played it. Crazy!



It was quite warm, but overall beautiful weather for Mesa Falls. We had a little picnic up there and walked around. It was so nice to have the natural air-conditioner when we got down to the falls. It was so cool and misty.

We got back in time for Tyler and I to both finish our talks for church. It took the ward about a year, but they finally got us! Tyler is the new executive secretary in the ward, so it was good for everyone to get to know him. We are now officially in the ward!

Davids and Goliath

Preface- Yes, I know I am obsessed with my plants.

I have been really excited about growing pumpkins in our garden. When I bought seeds in the spring I wanted to make sure we would get decent sized ones, so I bought the "giant" variety. They weren't kidding! My plant is enormous. The only problem is that it won't blossom. I finally saw one little blossom today, but I'm pretty far behind everyone else in the area. Hopefully this just means that once the blossoms come the pumpkins will also be enormous. The only problem now is figuring out how to mow our lawn. . .

To exaggerate things even further, my cucumbers are puny. My original cucumber plants never came up, so these have only been growing for a little while. I think my pumpkin plant is so huge it's going to scare them back into the ground!

My cute sister Abby is the model to give you some kind of scale. Hopefully I have some great pumpkin shots later on!

Memory Tag- Wanna Play?

Step 1: As a comment on my blog, leave a memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew/know me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

Step 2: Re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory for you. It's actually pretty fun to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one for you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments!

A Gardening Tragedy

Saturday was a traumatic day in the McNiven Clan. Tyler and I were headed out first thing in the morning to work on our different projects when Tyler yelled for me to come outside. We have two big, beautiful grape vine plants, on the Southwest corner of our house. They have been there since long before we moved in, and apparently it wasn't secured with very good wood. One entire plant came crashing down in the middle of the night when the wood trellis finally gave out. It was a horrible sight!






I was pretty upset (my plants are my babies!), but Tyler was great and really took care of things. We made some phonecalls to nurseries and decided to build a real frame for the grapes. We can't transfer them to a new trellis until the end of the summer when the plant goes dormant or it won't survive the trauma. I went to Jackson to play in yet another wedding, so Tyler and my Dad temporarily secured the plant and remaining trellis to the new frame. Hopefully it will survive until the fall!




Thanks for all of your hard work Tyler!!

Congratulations Joni!

Last Friday the my sister, the famous Joni Mitchell (no, my parents were not hippies) graduated with her nursing degree from BYU-Idaho. They have a great program there, and Joni loved working with the teachers and students. She graduated #1 in her nursing class, and Summa Cum Laude (top 1%) in the university. Way to go Joni!

Walking up to receive her diploma.

With Heidi and Jared, two of her best nursing buds.

The typical bunny-ears picture with Dad.

The real Joni!

Daisy Heaven

Here is a little eye candy for all of you who are as obsessed with gardening as I am. Daisies are my favorite flower, and I'm so glad I have my own little bushes!

Where Am I???

I was driving down 2nd East this afternoon when I saw a man pinned up against the side of a building being handcuffed. In Rexburg? It brought me back to my Cincinnati days when I would see that happening on a regular basis in my neighborhood. Ah, the good old days!

GTMF

These last two weeks have been pretty crazy here at the McNiven house. I have not only been absent from blogging, but basically my whole life. Every summer I play with the Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson Hole. The orchestra is made up of professional musicians, mostly symphony players with a few freelancers and faculty members thrown in. We rehearse for three days and perform two weekend concerts. Musicians usually play for two or three weeks of the seven week festival. This year I played in weeks one and two, which included the extra 4th of July concert. It was so much fun working with these great musicians! It was a great experience, but I'm definitely glad to be back home taking care of life. The highlight of the concert (besides having Tyler there for the second half of week one!) was playing Mahler's 9th Symphony in the week 2 concert. It is an incredible, mind-boggling work. In my opinion it is one of the most profound works ever written. Mahler somehow captures the entire range of human emotion in one 90 minute work. I got pretty emotional during the exquisite 4th movement, when Mahler sustains an incredibly long exchange between sections at the softest dynamics audible.

Okay, enough of my music-nerdiness. Here are some pics from my excursion!

4th of July concert "Music in the Hole". 3,000 people watched us perform despite the stifling heat!

Walk Festival Hall, our performance hall for the regular concerts. Located in the heart of Teton Village, newly remodeled with great backstage hang-out areas!

Snow King Hill, the view from my hotel room

Some interesting art from around downtown Jackson Hole.