Music Camp (w/ 2 Russian bros, a freakin violin prodigy, and a bunch of nerdy string players)

So, I came back from my music camp last week. For those of you I didn't tell, it was just this little day camp in Ft. Collins for string quartets and quintets. So I got stuck w/ these 2 Russian brothers, tho truthfully it wasn't as exciting as it gosh darn could've been. First, they weren't that cute (well, take that back. The younger one was cute and they had sexy accents) but the older one reminded me a TON of Weston. Not in personality, but b/c he couldn't stop rushing when we played together and he had no chin. Rehearsing w/ them wasn't exactly a blast b/c they would argue w/ each other all the time in they're sexy accents over who was wrong. And it was usually both of them. And I wanted to strangle them sometimes.

But some parts were fun. I carpooled w/ one of my teacher's other students. And he is the freakin violin prodigy. Anyways, he's homeschooled (so he can practice 6 hours a day at home) but I think he's lonely or something because he talked nonstop for the 2hour roundtrip ride. Seriously. I think the most interesting thing I learned about him is that he has an older half-sister who's a druggie and has 6 different children from 6 different marriages.

Most of the kids there were nerds, which was actually pretty cool cuz nerds are cool. Anyways, I had pretty interesting discussions about swear words in different languages, lock-picking, and hotwiring cars. Oh yeah, and about Dr. Seuss. So I guess it was pretty fun overall. Dr. Seuss makes everything fun, doesn't he?

Gosh, how thick do you get?

Well, I think my Dad's cellphone has finally keeled over and died for good. It was a hardy little thing, having survived a swim in a creek courtesy of my sister (don't ask), but we think it's been killed for good now. Guess how? We were driving home from the beach today, and my Dad put the cellphone down in the front cupholder like he usually does. Trouble is, said cupholder had a full cup of coke in it (this is where the cellphone ended up). My Dad, being the observant genius that he is, picked it up out of the cup several minutes later, not noticing anything unusual, and tried to call my aunt with it. Amazingly the thing still turned on, but of course it didn't work. Well, he hands it to me, and I notice that it's dripping wet...and slightly sticky...and obviously not functional. Needless to day, my Dad's strategy of shake-the-thing-hard-enough-and-it-might-just-work didn't resurrect it. We're still waiting for a miracle...


*Update: It still works!

Family Reunion- Day 4

We played sardines for literally 3 hours yesterday, and it was SO FUN. Both of my shins have big bruises and the occasional swelling on them, but it was totally worth it. Today we went horseback riding for 2 hours all over this one exclusive mountain...place...where there's this golf course that is ranked in the top 100 in North America! It was beautiful. And I've just been so busy and having so much fun...I wish you were all here with me!!! Love y'all! ~Kenzer Lou

Family Reunion- Day 3

Hello from Avon!
I'm having an awesome time here. A few of us just got out of the rooftop hot tub, which felt so good, of course. Last night we played Monopoly for seriously like 3 hours, and guess what? I didn't even lose!!! I wasn't ANYWHERE NEAR debt when we called it quits around 11. And trust me, that is so rare.
We're thinking of maybe playing hide and seek later. In a house like this, with- no joke- SEVEN floors, that would be the bomb. It has such a weird layout!!! Every corner you go around, you find like another huge place, even when you thought that room was finally done. It's huge! And that means there's so many places to investigate.
Tonight for dinner we're all having steak. Kelsey, you can moan and groan at me all you want, but you are seriously missing out.
Moriah- enjoying Mormon camp?
Katie- again dear, good luck. All of my sympathies are with you.
Olive- haven't heard from you in a while. Hoping you are well!

So I hope you guys are having as great times at home as I am here. Love you all! Please comment!
Kenzer
Lou

My name is Liesl again...

OMG. I'm in California right now, and guess where I'm staying? The freaking Von Trapp Mansion, or at least as close as you can get to it in my family. My uncle's got this HUGE mansion that's absolutely perfect, the kids snap to attention, and you know what the worst part it? NO SINGING. Apparently it "disturbs and unnerves" them, so bye bye do-re-mi. Their idea of music is this annoying elevator brand that has no substance whatsoever. I'm going crazy. And I'm stuck on permanent babysitting duty with the little girl, who's like a mix between Gretl and Louisa. Time to run off screaming into the distance...Love you all. Hopefully I'll survive, and see you all come registration!

I'm Taking Off Again

I'm going away again. But this time it's only until Friday. I'll be at my church camp with all the other Mormon girls from our area. I'll miss you guys, but I'll be back soon. Love you!

Family Reunion- Day 1

So I'm at a family reunion right now with all the Canadians. We're staying in Edwards, which is about 3 hours away maybe? By Beaver Creek. Wow, this is a really loud keyboard.
The house, for starters, is THE BOMB. The hot tub is on the roof. And it has all these secret hideaways sort of that I'm finding!!! ...lots of time spent in those little places this week maybe. ;)
I'm sharing a room with cousin Raylene, cousin Jamie Lynn, cousins Arin and Jenn (sisters), and step-cousin Julie (step-sister of Jamie Lynn). Right now I think they're watching MTV.
I'm not so sure about how this week is going to go, but I know the whole point is to be together with all of these people who I don't get a chance to see that often. And I really do want to get to know them better.
Dude, the steam shower downstairs can totally fit TWELVE people. I can't wait to try it out.
It was raining really hard a minute ago, and I'm going to go get wet. I'll keep you guys updated on how it's going here, and I hope you guys all have a good week there.
Love
Y'all
Kenzer
Lou

why won't anyone post, except for those few and far between "updates of summer" and apologies for abstaining from posting? Dumb.
Change is lame. But "inevitable," I know, I know. It certainly seems like the end of a season here...everything getting faintly more gray. Gray and murky.
Except for God. For some reason, everything about Him and what He's doing lately seems crystal clear, which is SO COOL. I guess it's a sign that while everything else seems confusing and different, I'm on the right path. For once. Hmmm.

I guess I just have lots to think about...
And maybe I've given you guys something to think about too.
Love y'all
Kenzer
Lou

Why Wasn't This In Jekyll and Hyde?

Arthur makes me laugh... :)

I'm Home.

I'm home from Chinese camp.

IT WAS THE BEST EXPERIENCE OF MY WHOLE FREAKING LIFE!!!!!!!

Gah! I am mechanically challenged and I don't speak french!

Arg. I just bought a clock radio/ipod docking system today, and the only instructions in the box are written in french. And I can't figure out how to set the darned clock. This makes me crabby! >.<

My Weekend...

Has actually been eventful!

*GASP*

Saturday: Woke up early and went running with my mom. Went to Vitamin Cottage to visit my new hobby: Rosy cheeked cashier boy!! Went shopping...got earrings. Then that night...i went to Nissi's with Hannah (we saw your brother btw Kenzie) and danced alot. Then we stopped by Waneka on the way to drop Hannah off, and we were standing by the lake when we look down and this guy is standing by this roaring fire in the parking lot. His propane lantern had exploded, and was right by the trunk of his car...where his gas tank was. So my mom called the fire department and they came with a firetruck, 2 ambulances, and a squad car. The only problem was, the fire was out by this time. But it was really big, like 3 minutes before they got there! So that was kind of funny...

Sunday: Church. Then we went to Page 2 for lunch. Then i got a massage (that was soooo nice!). And we're going to the Shakespeare festival tonight. So that will be fun.

I don't know if any of you really care about much of this, but the blogs have been kind of slack lately, so...

The State of Things

Houseboats: newest youth group trip was amazing!!! It was really fun and I'm kinda sad to be home cause the water was so much fun but it's good to be back. I really like my home.

Matt: good. He had a campfire last night and that was fun, getting home at 12:02.

Movie nights: haven't had one in a while, which needs to be remedied. Maybe monday night...

YAGM,CB: excited for rehearsal this week, which will be at AJ's house. We're supposed to be off book by the time school starts, which is kind of a daunting thought. I'm definitely no where even near that. yikes.

Karianne: should be back from Kadesh by now and needs to call me.

My itunes: is playing Hallelujah by Rufus Wainwright. That's a good song.

Youth group today: was really good. We went over Psalm 32 and it was awesome.

Everyone reading this: should be coming to my house and going swimming. Seriously though, if you want to, you should call me, cause that would be fun. Woot. :)

Well, that was kinda pointless, but whatever. Love y'all! ~Kenzer

Alright, I guess it's my turn to post...

My life has not been particularly interesting of late, so I'll just spit out a bunch of things I've done recently for your entertainment...hah.

Yesterday: Ug, blazing hot. I got a new viola bow - happy day :) Went to see Wall-E, or however you spell that. Adorable movie about a romance between two robots - yeah, I know it sounds pathetic, but it was HILARIOUS. I love pixar :)

This past week: I've been up in the mountains amusing myself in a little town called Redstone, up near Carbondale. Very pretty scenery, awesome hiking trails, hummingbirds EVERYWHERE, and more than a little quaint (the hotel we stayed at advertised the fact that they had color TV's - impressive, huh?)

Thomas' play: Was so much fun! The cast was absolutely hilarious to watch - especially the little five-year olds! Considering the amount of rehearsal time you guys had, I was impressed with the show. Thomas, you did an awesome job :). The dancing at the end was a nice touch. Tried and failed to dance with Nate Sarros - does this surprise anyone?

Rehearsals: Have been going well, I think. Having fun tangling myself in my jumprope. Beethoven Day beats Lonely Goatherd by a magnitude of about 1,000. Lots of dialogue to look foreward to next week - and the baseball game. Ug, not looking foreward to that one. Oh yeah, and rabbit chasing pas de deux. Yikes...>.>

Other than that: I just got my AP results back. I got another 5, this time for the spanish lit exam. I am gleeful! :P


Can't think of anything else to say. See you all soon, hopefully! Does anyone know when Roo comes back from pseudo-tuberculosis and Chinese Camp?

I'm back! With something to think about...

Hi Everyone -

This is a really interesting article about what happens when religions die out. I know that's kind of a controversial subject here, but we love controversy! Anyway, it's something to think about. What happened to all the past gods of history? The ones that, only 500 years ago, thousands of people were sacrificed to yearly, and now, no one even recognizes the name of? It's amazing when you think about it. Nobody worships the ancient gods of the Mayans, Aztecs, or Greeks anymore, but back then they were about the only prominent religions around. What happens when they go away? Thay may not be ligit, but something that was once that big must leave something in its wake.

http://www.graveyardofthegods.org/deadgods/graveyard.html

Updates of my Summer

Ok Kenz, I guess I'll put in my contribution now. Not that I have much of anything interesting to say, but sure.

Well, for those of you that don't already know, Moriah has found a blonde and most importantly Mormon version of Weston at her BYU Chinese Camp... wonder what she's doing there... because it's definitely not studying.

I was digging through old pics of stuff yesterday and I thought you guys might find these pics amusing...

Oh, and here is mini me, mini Alyssa, and mini Roo in 2nd grade. We're dressed up cuz it's Halloween. Fun times, those were.

And that's it for now.

Bleh

Okay, so I know like everyone is gone and all, but that's no excuse. We're doing like the worst job of posting and updating this thing ever. So you should all post! NOW!

Hard-hitting Lyrics

Some of Starfield's lyrics I've heard lately are really profound and I think while we just sing along while multitasking it's easy to overlook their meaning. So I decided I'd go through some of them.

From the song "Revolution"
"When the world is at war
when the grace is gone
when the hungry lay dead
while the rich live on"
-->Well that's a little convicting. And we can brush it off and say that it doesn't really remind us of America. But think of third world countries and stuff. I bet that's a disturbingly accurate depiction of some places. Yikes.

From the song "Reign In Us"
"You thought of us before the world began to breathe
You knew our names before they came to be
You saw the very day we'd fall away from you
And how desperately we'd need to be redeemed"
-->I just like that. It's sooo cool. The last line does a great job of eliminating the concept that we can do anything on our own, which I like. Cause we can't! Seriously, what on earth does anyone possibly think they could do to reconcile themselves with the Perfect God? No matter what we do, our good works have no capability to span the leap our sin creates. And this verse illustrates that really well.

So that's just me blathering on some...by myself...alone...on this blog...alone...
If you haven't picked up yet, I'm hinting at something.
Post thoughts!!!
Good
Night
God
Bless
Kenzer Lou

OH MY GOSH!!!

I just got back from SALT LAKE CITY and it was AMAZING!!!!! It was a christian youth conference put on by the Evangelical Free Churches of America called Challenge and it was absolutely INCREDIBLE, life-changing. Oh my goodness, just...wow. There's not too much I can really say, except for the fact that you all need to go to davidsgreatesthits.blogspot.com RIGHT NOW. This blog is also by Gary (who blogged about the Shack), and he was our one staff person... read the post entitled "Gary's greatest hit". This happened within the first five hours of our journey and we spent the next 6 hours between the lobby of a Best Western (Western! Ternaders!), a local park, and two different gas stations. Well, what would our trip be without bonding time the first day? Later we had a drawing competition for who could draw the best picture of our...adventure. David won with a doodle entitled "split." If you return to Gary's blog in a few days he may post it, for you to be scarred. We also had lunch at a restaurant called "cappy's" (though a popular nickname was crappy's), where the Oswald boys dared to buy enchiladas: "smothered." We all found that funny. So this will forever be known as the Cappy Crunch Experience. Gary's considering making us t-shirts. That would be DANK.
The band at Challenge was Starfield- they're AMAZING!!! I bought the CD and am hoping to get more off of iTunes. In a way, they remind me of my brother Sam. The v-neck shirts, how the electric guitarist is super skinny...Yeah. But it has been an amazing week. I'm glad to see you all soon, but I'm also really sad that it's over. Really sad, it was just incredible...but I'll stop blathering.
Happy
We're
Not
British
Day!
God
Bless
Kenzer Lou