Oklahoma Continued

We were able to capture film and pictures of Evan on the dress rehearsal night. There were a few glitches with the sound, but by the end of the evening everything was working great. Evan did a fabulous job!

Oklahoma, Act Two

Last night was the final performance of Oklahoma for Evan (Curly) and the cast. It was a great 3-day run, and adults and kids alike enjoyed the camaraderie of being in the musical. In the first picture is Evan with his leading lady, Kim (Laurey). She has a beautiful voice and Evan enjoyed playing opposite her.

The above picture is of some of the cast members (Stogners, Adlings) with friends and family. Many thanks to Jim and Sue, Ken and Mardene and family and my brother, Ed, for making the long trip out here to see the performance. We appreciate the support.

Evan is shown here with the director, Emily, and two cast members, Adam Adling (Will Parker) and Randy (Ali Hakim). It was a great experience for Evan and he developed many strong friendships.
The final picture is a video of the title song. Evan really enjoyed singing this one!

OOOOOOklahoma

Much of Evan's summer has been taken up with his playing the part of Curly in the stake musical Oklahoma. He has really enjoyed interacting with the cast and taking the voice lessons. Last night was the final dress rehearsal. He is pictured in the first shot with Gavin, who initially was afraid of Evan with his cowboy gear on.

Evan's good friends, Allyson and Valerie Reeves, came out to watch the dress rehearsal. He was so glad to have them visit with him. Thanks to them and Julie for making the trip out to see him perform.

Pictured here is the wedding of Laurey and Curly. . .can't believe Evan is ready to get married at 17.

Summer Happenings

In the first picture, we are all celebrating Mom's 80th birthday at one of our favorite restaurants on the Central Coast, F. McKlintock's. It is a western steakhouse where the food is very good. One of their signature "services" is when the servers pour water into the clients' water glasses, blind folded, from many different positions. In one picture Evan is lying on the floor and they are pouring it into his glass (and as it turned out, on him also). Marjolein and Katinka got a little bit wet also when the servers poured the water into their glasses.



The teenager bear was hot one afternoon and decided to take a dip in the spa. We all were in the family room when he decided to take a cool swim and then crawled under the house in the crawl space. He came out after a couple of hours and we immediately boarded up the entrance so he couldn't get back into his "cave".

Last Saturday, Susan, Brad, Katinka, Marjolein and I took the boat tour on the 80-foot Ocean Sentinal with the Sanitation Districts. As is usual, the marine biologists on board brought up a variety of sea life in a net and we looked and touched the different kinds of animals. It is always very interesting to be out in the bay learning about the sealife.

Roots goes to Washington

Ian and James drove down to Washington DC together a few weeks ago for James to start his 6 weeks at NIH. Along the way they stopped at Fallingwater. The location was stunning and the house unique. We enjoyed driving in the Pennsylvania back country.



Megan and Brielle flew in to Baltimore this week to come and visit. James as really been missing them. Everyone traveled down to Charlottesville over the 4th of July weekend. We went and toured UVA which was designed and founded by Thomas Jefferson. It was a really neat campus. The "Lawn" where this picture is taken was surrounded by 1 room dorms that the 4th year honor students are invited to stay in. They have their own fireplace, but everyone shares a bathroom!



Here is Roots and Megan at Michie's Tavern by Monticello. Bea and Ben (more about them later) took us there for a yummy lunch. Roots in traditional Captain Morgan pose.



Here we are at the plantation home of Jefferson. It was fun to get a tour of the home, but Roots cut it a little short.



We took a Sunday drive along Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park. It was a little foggy, but the views were excellent. Thanks to Ian for doing all the driving.



Here are Bea and Ben with the girls in front of their beautiful home. We were lucky enough to get to stay with them for the long weekend. We had tons of fun cooking, talking and playing pool with them and their adorable dogs.



Megan and Brielle visited Great Falls National Park (Potomac River). Brielle was signing water the whole time and was trying to crawl in to take a dip. There was no swimming allowed for obvious reasons.



Here are Megan and Brielle at the Natural History museum. They have an exhibit on the co-evolution of butterflies and flowers, very interesting. We got free tickets to the butterfly house and took a peek. Look at the huge Atlas moth over Megan's right shoulder.

Morro Bay and San Francisco

Our two Dutch daughters, Katinka and Marjolein, arrived this past Weds. and we all immediately went up to Morro Bay for the 4th of July. Shown here is Gavin in his new sweater that Ankie, the girls' mother, knit for him. He is clearly delighted with the new sweater.

We watched the fireworks over the bay from the park right by the house. It was a great show.

We've had many great meals together at the Morro Bay House.

Shown here are Marjolein, Katinka, Erin, Evan and Margaret just before we walked down Hyde Street (after having ridden the cable car from Market Street) and headed for a hot fudge sundae at Ghirardelli Square. Then we had to trudge back up the hill to wear off the calories from the sundae.

We took a brief trip to the Marin Headlands park to get a view of the Golden Gate Bridge. It was shrouded in fog all day and then it cleared just as we got to the park. We saw a lot in the City by the Bay for just one day.

Italy, Fathers and Bears

My Mac has been in the shop for a week so I haven't been able to post. "Frost it and Toss it" was getting a little bit old. The first pictures are of the Sanitation District Boat Tour that we take at least one a year. This time Alana and Tommaso (our friend from Italy) went up on the bridge with the captain to "help" navigate. This is a research vessel owned by the Sanitation Districts, where the councilmembers, mayors and their guests of cities can go out into Santa Monica Bay and test the water quality with the marine biologists on board to determine whether marine life is being harmed. They bring up a lot of marine life to inspect and we learn a lot every time we go.

Here are Tommaso and Alana with the boat after the tour. Tommaso stayed with us for a month, during which time he worked on improving his English, and we worked on improving our Italian (he did better than we did.) He also drove up to Provo with Alana and went to Park City and a rodeo.

We all got together for the Father's Day weekend. Pictured here in the spa are cousins John, Nicholas, Stephanie with Gavin and Uncle Evan. It was great to be altogether.

Our five children are pretty blessed because they have two grandfathers to celebrate Father's Day with. Georgine and Bob were out visiting for Evan's graduation so we all got together with some other fathers in the family. Pictured here celebrating Father's Day are Gavin on Evan's shoulders, Brad, Dan, Ed, and Danny. In the front are family patriarchs, Bob and Ed. Happy Father's Day to them.

The weather had been record-hot and even the bears needed to cool down so they went swimming in my parent's pool.