Andrew's Last Recital at Eastman

At the beginning of September Andrew performed his 3rd and last recital here at Eastman. This recital being called a "lecture recital" was different from the other 2 recitals because Andrew basically had to write a thesis paper and then during his recital he had to defend his research which was about 30 min of presenting and then sing his music which was about another 30 min.
 Unfortunately, I don't have any recordings to post but I did get some before and after pictures! He did a really good job, it was probably my favorite recital of his that I have been to.

BEFORE

AFTER
getting a giant hug from Katherine Ciesinski, his voice teacher

Lieutenant RAD goes to school!

On September 11th Grayer started his 2nd year of Preschool. He is super excited for his year full of fun and learning with his Teacher, Mrs. Gentile. And Mom is grateful she has him home at least one more year before he starts school full time.  

Grayer insisted Woody and Buzz be in a picture with him! 

BAMNS: Bertha Agor Memorial Nusery School 

End of Summer

Well I guess I am playing catch up again here on the Gilchrist Family blog. So backing up to August here is how our family finished out the wonderful summer here in New York....

We have some wonderful friends who have a pool in their back yard and let us come swimming whenever we want. This was Finden's first time swimming. He loved it!! 

Finden and Ian  

Grayer and Allegra 

All snugly after swimming! 

Grayer has become a lot more confident in his swimming. So much in fact he tries to go as far into the deep end as he can before he can't touch anymore. Unfortunately for him that plan back fired not too long ago when we had an almost drowning experience:(

I also had a Birthday the end of August! Even though I hate the fact that I am inching closer to 30. I have to admit I had a wonderful day celebrating!! 

Andy took me shopping and bought me 3 new Sunday dresses. This was one of them!!

And since we had the camera out we couldn't resist taking pictures of our cute boys as well!

Fun Hikes!!

The month of August has been filled with lots of out door activities for the Gilchrist Family. We have had beautiful weather so we have tried to take advantage of it before it turns cold again! 

First off we made our annual trip to Stony Brook National Park. We love going here and hiking along the path, wading in the water, and seeing all the beautiful water falls. We never get sick of visiting this fun place! 

Grayer did awesome, with all the walking and going up tons and tons of stairs. He never complained:)
Plus he has a cute little bum! 

Andy's a goof! 

Proof that we have a thumb sucker

They have this Olympic sized pool  that they have made out of the river. It is awesome! 

We also took our first trip to Fillmore Glen State Park. This was a lot like Stony Brook very beautiful, lush and green but we didn't like it as well as Stony Brook because it was a little less kid friendly. It made us a bit nervous as we were hiking along because there were lots of cliffs for our little 4 year old to fall off of, so needless to say we had a tight grip on him the whole time:) 

A non-cliff area so we let him walk on his own

Happy 4th of July

Andy was still in Utah over the 4th of July. I was a bit bummed because who wants to celebrate the 4th all alone? But, lucky for me I ended up not having to... we have wonderful friends who invited the boys and me over to celebrate with their family.

We had a delicious meal complete with chicken-bacon burgers, snicker apple salad, and homemade root-beer! It was so fun to sit and eat and have good conversation!

Families from our ward: Mawells, Scotts, Gammons, and Hendersons. Love them all! 

Jordan Scott, and awesome Young Man in our ward

Allegra Maxwell, a wonderful Young Woman in our ward.
 I swear she is a baby whisperer she is so good with Finden! 

Ben Maxwell, another awesome guy who is leaving on his mission in a little over a month

We also went swimming in their fun pool.

Grayer, Ian Maxwell, Coltin Scott, and Nathan Maxwell 

And since fireworks of all kinds (including sparklers) are illegal in NY we did a glow stick parade outside in the dark. It was a great substitution for fireworks!

Here we are getting all done up in our glow sticks!

Grayer and Ian

Pretty Cool - huh?!