Renton River Days

We took Miles down to Kids' Day at Renton River Days (the annual community celebration here in Renton). He loved banging away on the junk mobile, climbing in the fire truck, and sitting in the SWAT vehicle. He wasn't too sure about getting his fingerprints done, but was easily pacified by the lollipop the police had for him.

Days like this are a definite perk of us both being home during the summer!

Oregon Coast

Our "family vacation" this year involved Marcy and Miles taking the train down to Ashland to meet up with Vince as he finished his first summer at ABC. We spent a couple days in Ashland--enjoying the July 4th celebrations--and then meandered up the Oregon coast.

Highlights of the trip included:

• hotel pools
• the wildlife safari (basically a drive-through zoo...think Jurassic Park, minus the velociraptors!)
• beautiful scenery along the coast
• the awesome train ride down (seriously...you need to do this!)
• Evergreen Aviation Museum (home of the Spruce Goose and an IMAX movie that literally scared the poop out of Miles)
• full-service gas stations (required by law in Oregon)
• the 4th of July parade and concert (Miles slept through the best piece and most of the fireworks)
• Sea Lion Caves (stinky, but cool)
• the Ashland Motel....NOT!
• being able to watch the DVD Cars in the car

So we're home now and gearing up for a couple busy weeks: Vince has his projects to work on and Marcy has curriculum to write. One major obstacle for Vince....Tuesday's release of NCAA '09....guaranteed to be just a bit of a distraction.

ABC....American Band College (aka Adult Band Camp)

Vince attended 2 weeks of his masters program at Southern Oregon University in Ashland, OR. The program is known as ABC, the American Band College. It is the largest masters program in the country for band directors. At the end of three summers, Vince will have a masters in conducting (band, not electricity).

The program is super practical; none of that educational philosophy stuff. Each day he had classes with world class clinicians, conductors, guest soloists, and composers. He played his trombone 3 hours a day, performed in two concerts, slept fitfully in a non-airconditioned dorm room, and met some really great folks from all over the country. He also learned what "skpye" is!

He has two big projects to complete before August 11th and the '08-'09 school year will also involve working on his second year projects.




Tony, Kevin, Mike, Brad, Aaron, & Vince before the July 4th extravaganza.

The 200 member ABC Band performed on July 4th. This piece (Suite of Old American Dances by Robert Russell Bennett) was conducted by Robert Ponto, director of bands at the University of Oregon. (The video engineer apologizes for the shaky camera work. She had to film and keep track of a 2 year old!)