18 Year Battle...WON!

    I started piano lessons at the age of 8.  I begged for lessons for years before I was finally able to get in--we lived in a small town with one teacher and she had no openings.  I just knew that if I could learn, I would be good--can't explain it any other way.  When I finally got in, I never quit.  Music became my main focus for years. 

    I started teaching piano when I was 16 and have never stopped.  So here I am 28 years later still teaching.  I feel like it's my life calling.  There are MANY things I don't do well, but teaching music is my thing.  So when I had kids, I heard from every single teacher I talked to--"You CAN'T teach your own kids.  It NEVER works..."  Well, I decided that I would prove them wrong.  I WOULD teach my own kids and they in turn would be useful pianists with the ability to perform AND teach others.  I chose this battle about 18 years ago and I'm happy to report that I did it!

    With Carlie, it was quite easy.  She was always drawn to the piano.  She was constantly pulling herself up on the bench to plunk out songs she heard on TV--lots of "Dora the Explorer" songs and songs from her "Leap Pad."  I immediately discovered that she had perfect pitch.  So I began to formally teach her at the age of 3 because I basically couldn't keep her off the piano.  There were many times that Chris and I would make Carlie get off the piano--"Carlie, you've been on the piano for about 4 hours, you need to go play outside."  NO joke.  Then my son Ethan came along.  I decided to start teaching him at 3 also.  But he didn't love it like Carlie did and often ran away😂. I remember actually saying to Chris, "There is something wrong with Ethan, he won't just sit there and listen to me."  And thankfully my husband, being much wiser than me replied, "Honey, maybe he's the NORMAL one."  So no, there is NOTHING wrong with Ethan or Max or Tatum.  Carlie was just always going to do music--never a question.

    So my other 3 went along with my crazy ideas.  Perhaps I would not have been able to teach my own kids if I didn't already have a strict teaching line up with other students--my kids had their assigned times each week just like any of my other students.  And they were asked to practice--each song 5 times for 5 days--just like all my other students.  And yes, they whined and complained and tried to cheat ALL the time, but they did it.  They weren't allowed TV/computer until piano was done.  There were tears, yelling, pounding of keys but then there was also joy, laughter, and LOTS of singing around the piano.  We had some bad times AND great times around this instrument. 

    Carlie completed through Level 12--college + level.  My boys went through Level 4/5--hymn playing level.  And I was able to push Tatum through to Level 8--beginning college level.  I just stopped teaching Tatum this spring because her softball schedule became so demanding that something had to give.  It felt weird to NOT be teaching one of my own kids after 18 years.

    Currently, all 4 of my kids have piano callings in their own wards--Carlie in UT, Ethan in ID, and Max & Tatum here in our Branch.  And they have each taught their OWN piano students over the years.  Max currently has 2 students on top of his job at Popeyes and Tatum has 4 of her own students.  Words cannot express how incredibly PROUD I am of all my kiddos.  They made this momma's dream come true.  How blessed I am because of these four amazing kiddos.  I LOVE YOU ALL TO THE MOON AND BACK!!!

Meeker Family Vacay 2021--Final stop...ATLANTA!

    Last stop...Atlanta!  We were so lucky with weather on this trip--other than our very first night flying into Hurricane Elsa, we had no other rain interruptions.  In Atlanta, we did get some very welcomed rain our first night in and boy, it moved in fast--but us AZ peeps, LOVE IT.  Our plan was to watch the new "Black Widow" movie anyways that first night so the rain did not mess anything up for us👍 (LOVED the new Black Widow movie).

Crazy clouds moving in!

Six Flags over Georgia:

     We spent our last full day at Six Flags over Georgia of course!  Great day to go--super overcast and not too hot.  We also pretty much had the entire park to ourselves.  We rode every single ride we wanted to with a 5 minute or less wait.  We were able to ride roller coasters, go to the water park to get wet and ride the slides, then back to ride all our favorite roller coasters AGAIN!  It was AWESOME!

World of Coca-Cola:
Max and Chris are HUGE Coke fans so we definitely had to hit this place up before we headed to the airport.  It was SUPER cool.  Coca Cola has been around a LONG time (since May 8, 1886 originally meant for headaches/exhaustion) and is definitely the most popular world-wide carbonated drink.  It was developed by a Pharmacist that was then sold to a marketing-genius which is why it's still around today.  The original hand-written formula is apparently the best kept secret of all time and is still guarded today in a vault at this location.  

The actual vault that the Coca Cola
hand-written recipe is kept in.

New Coke:

I was super young when "New Coke" came out and I lived in the middle of no where (Uvas Valley, NM) which is why I had NO idea that "New Coke" was such a controversy!  I remember liking it but apparently there was a lot of angry people who dumped New Coke down sewer drains and actually sued Coca Cola.  There's a funny display showing all the outrage of this time period:). Coca was actually sued and that's one of the reasons why we don't see New Coke today.  Who knew?!  Not me😂

Taste-Testing:

At the end of the tour, we got to sample different sodas from around the world--most of them, NOT good😂 but we are HUGE fans of the Coca Cola freestyle machine.  Here's a video of Max drinking a soda called "Beverly" that is apparently popular in Italy...😝

Max's new BFF

Olympic Park right next to World of Coke.

    We also hit the "Ponce de Leon Market Place."  Very hipster place to be.  There wasn't a single thing there I would have bought for myself but once again, a cool history--the building used to be owed by Sears & Roebuck and back in the day you could have purchased a spider monkey in this building for $31.50.  Dang.  Missed opportunity.  There was a cool painted piano that anyone could play on so Max did.

    So after 8 days of exploring new places, we were ready to head back home.  We had a such an awesome time--Chris is an excellent trip planner...he should do this for a living:)  We sure missed having our adult children with us but it's too hard to get those guys on the same schedule as us.  Georgia and South Carolina were awesome but I'd be happy anywhere as long as I'm with my crazy kiddos and my hubby💗

Meeker Family Vacay 2021--Myrtle Beach!

 

    We were looking forward to a few slower-paced days on the beach--Myrtle Beach.  It's a place that's been on our bucket list for awhile now.  And honestly...it was "meh."  The ocean itself is definitely nicer than any California ocean--warmer.  But it's a very popular "touristy" place for sure.  A little "too peopley" for my taste but hey, I've seen it, done it, and bought a t-shirt:)

    While we were there, we hit up a "Pirates Voyage" show.  I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked this show.  There was the expected cheesy singing/dancing/storyline show but I was not expecting a full-on acrobatic show complete with trick animals--trained parrots, sea lions, and dogs!!!  So anytime animals are involved...I'm a fan.  Max didn't like how the night ended with "we are ALL winners and there's enough treasure for everyone" because clearly our pirate team (the Crimson team) was the best (and cheaters but no one cares as long as we win right:)!💀

Spectacular Pirate Boat set

    Mini-Golf was a popular thing to do here so we decided that we had to give it a go!  Lots of places to choose from but we chose the "Peter Pan" golf course--because one time a long time ago, Max was Peter Pan:). Chris whipped us on both courses but Max managed to get a few holes in one--I got 1 hole in one but ended up in LAST place both courses:)

    We decided to go out of the super touristy area of Myrtle Beach over to Murrell's Inlet for a Banana Boat ride.  I've seen these rides in many places over the years but had never actually taken on myself.  SOOO MUCH FUN!!!  Oh my gosh!  Our driver was CRAZY.  We were all thrown off our boat at least 3 times--Max was thrown 5 times AND was stung by a jellyfish--TWICE!!!  Poor Max!  The ghosts AND jellyfish can't keep their hands off him😂. 

The Banana Boat place has a resident cat.

The photo I was too cheap to buy!

    

    So the Banana Boat ride was the clear favorite activity in Myrtle Beach.  I'm pretty sure I got whiplash and was crazy sore in places I've never been sore before but TOTALLY WORTH IT!  

Meeker Family Vacay--Charleston, SC. Part 2

 We knew it would be hard to top our Ghost Tour of our first night in Charleston, but we were sure gonna try!  We headed out to see downtown Charleston.  There was the coolest city market there along with some beautiful, historical sites.  This whole town just fueled my "ivy obsession!"  ( I REALLY REALLY LOVE IVY.  I wish it would cover my home in AZ--not possible or practical in the desert I know).  

VERY specific sign...just thought it was funny:)

"Rainbow Row"

"French Quarters"

Cool spider web

IVY!  IVY!  Everywhere!!!

Even grows on stairs!!!

And on walls, pillars, EVERYWHERE!!!

Seriously...do you even have to water this???

Cobblestone streets

Funny Tate--"Potty Gurl"

"This house on Rainbow Row matches
my new phone perfectly!"

Hot date!

We even tried the local "Cheerwine"
Basically Cherry Coke...

Fort Sumter:

We then took a ferry ride out to Fort Sumter.  Another very cool, historical place.  Its origin dates back to the War of 1812 and was the site where the American Civil war began.  It was severely damaged during the Civil War and left in ruins.  Some rebuilding has happened but it's now just a national monument.  There are millions of hand-made bricks on this island in which you can still see the hand/finger prints in many of them.

View of the city from the ferry

View of the fort from the ferry

Max is a little taller than the
average man in the late 1800s:)

    We ran ourselves ragged today knowing that we had 3 beach days ahead of us.  So after seeing all we could in a day, we loaded up and headed out to Myrtle Beach!