Orchestra Concert

May 27th was the date of CJ's final 6th grade orchestra performance. It was another amazing night of wonderful music. They sounded great, they looked great and they had fun.

Can't ask for much more! Especially after you hear about the events leading up to the concert.

CJ had the day off from school, his team was going to camp to do the high ropes course and CJ opted out of that excitement in favor of ATVing with dad. Steve had taken the week off to do maintenance around the house and welcomed the change of pace. I must tell that CJ also had the previous Friday off as it was the original day for camp. Due to a rainy week and a rainy Friday it was postponed to the 27th, the kid had 2 days off!

So off they go early Thursday morning. The plan was to head back to town about 2pm so that they could get cleaned up and to the concert in plenty of time. I got a call about 2:30 saying that Steve's bike was at the bottom of the pit of despair and that they would be heading home as soon as they got it out. Getting the bike out meant getting both of them back to the truck on CJ's ATV and getting the truck and the tow straps back to the dirt bike. Getting the truck back there meant doing some 4-wheeling, thank goodness we bought that truck!

Unfortunately they couldn't get the truck close enough to use it to pull the bike from the pit, but they did have enough straps and strength to do it with CJ driving his ATV and Steve guiding from down in the pit.

At 4:30 they were finally heading home. CJ was due at school at 6:30 for cello tuning and the concert was to start at 7pm. Steve and CJ had a 1.5 hour drive ahead of them. They hadn't eaten since breakfast and they both needed a shower.

Since the concert is 25% of CJ's grade for the quarter I went into panic mode. Time for to get the cello to school for tuning and me to school for volunteering. The boys will have to fend for themselves. I need to earn brownie points in case they don't make it!

As you probably figured from the picture they made it, with 10 minutes to spare. The fact that CJ managed to perform well after all that excitement tells me that he truly loves playing in the orchestra. Normally after a concert we go for ice cream, that night it was dinner we all wanted! Dinner and a good night's sleep.