Holiday Activities part 1

The Peterson 4th of July activities always start with our Stake's Independence Day program. Kelly and I both serve on the Cultural Arts Committee, so it's a family affair for us.  We do three shows, one on the evening of July 3, and two on the morning of the 4th.  These are not the best photos, so I'm sure I'll be posting some more later as they come in.  I had an acting role this year that put me in several scenes and took me out of the chance of photographing my kids with the nice camera.  I had a ton of fun and got to watch my girls from the wings.  They were a hoot.

Here are Jenna and Heather with friends from school and church who performed together.

I got this shot from the back of the hall with my small camera.  It's not the greatest, but it shows the kids during one of their songs.  We had about 70 kids this year, ages 6 -11.

Jenna prepares for her solo line in "40 Hour Week".  She did an awesome job on her solo, and was truly a ham during the other songs.  She was front and center, always smiling and singing.  This was the girl who cried when I first put her in the show at age 3 and begged not to do another show ever again.  I think she's forgotten.

We invite representatives from the different branches of the military to post and retire colors as well as represent their branch during our military salute.  Here is the gentleman that joined us as a first time guest representing the Marines.  He has served two recent tours of duty in Iraq and is headed to Afghanistan in February.  His sweet wife and three daughters were in attendance.  I had both my girls say hello, shake his hand and say thank you.  He graciously took a photo with them.  It was hard not to be emotional knowing that we were in the presence of someone who had so recently been in combat and was going to be going back so soon.

Here we are during a show break.  Kelly puts in so many hours make sure our sound equipment is set up and ready to go, and then spends hours taking it all down.  I had my fancy vacation shirt on for our  "vacation family"  role on stage.  Not very attractive, but it matched my stage hubby.