Tim & Vanessa Lorentzen Family!

August 7th - Took Thursday and Friday off and went to Minnesota for the first annual Lake Itasca Family Music Festival.  A Bluegrass festival geared towards family bands with an emphasis on gospel music.  Had a wonderful but tiring time and got home after 11:00 Sunday night.  Jazmyn is quite a handful but I suppose that is to be expected when you are not even 2 yet and you think you can sing and play the violin!  Actually she can sing but uses some language that we don't know!  Her pitch and rhythm is quite good.

August 14th - 25 years together!  Wow!  On Thursday the 10th Vanessa and I celebrated our 25th anniversary.  It is hard to believe that much time has gone by!  I don't feel that old (although I did turn 47 on the 11th) so time is flying by.  We actually had a cool and wet day on Sunday which is something we have not had this summer.  We are feverishly working on being ready for the Bismarck festival coming up this weekend.  Not only are we playing Friday night at 7 but Vanessa is running the kid fest and busy trying to get ready for that.  We played in Bismarck on Thursday at 11:00 at a weekly outdoor thing they have going on.  Not much for an audience but it was a good experience.

August 21st - Again - what a week!  Lots of activity leading up to the First Annual Bismarck Bluegrass Festival!  That went well, the weather was great and turnout was good.  We played Friday night at 7 and the kids did a great job.  We also played on Sunday at Buckstop Junction for their annual CornFeed plus Vanessa ran the Kid Fest for the festival which was a LOT of work and we all are pretty tuckered out.  Good thing this only happens once a year.  We also had our annual Suzuki parent meeting and got new board members so Vanessa and I are both off the board after 6 years. Wow!

August 28th - Busy weekend and much news!  Jasper and Starlit began classes at Wachter Middle school!  Both taking grade nine classes to prepare for high school.  So far so good (OK so it has only been one day!).  Much changes for all of us.  We sang at small church outreach in Mandan on Sunday afternoon and then did an anniversary party (out doors - the PA worked great) that evening.  The kids are getting better and better.  Time to hit the road!  OK, next summer maybe.  Lessons start soon so much preparation is going on for that for Vanessa.