Carolyn is Married :)

Carolyn is married!  Hooray!  She and Brandon tied the knot this past weekend.  The whole celebration was wonderful, and happiness radiated out of them so strongly that guests were able to soak it up like rays of sun.  Very joyous :)  Don't they look amazing in this photo?  I'm excited to see more pictures eventually.  The many hours they put into planning everything, from the basics to creative, small details, helped their guests feel an extremely warm welcome, and were worthwhile.  But, what I loved most about the day was that their commitment to each other took center stage, and all those plans served to highlight it.  It was incredible to see how fully they grasped the vows they were making to each other...there was a very tangible feeling in the air.  It made me think, "Now that's what it means to get married!"  They are off now continuing their celebration in Belize on a two week honeymoon!  Cheers to them!

ps:  This picture was shot by a friend of Carolyn's sister named Bridget Schams, who has a lovely eye for photography :)

Summer in Austria

On July 8th Will and I are leaving to spend the rest of the summer in Graz, Austria, playing for the AIMS festival!  I'm pretty excited; everyone I know who has been to Austria talks on and on about how beautiful it is.  My dad lived there for a year abroad, and then he and my mom met there at a festival in Baden for Schubert lieder and collaborative piano.  I was looking through their photo album from that summer; it's so amazing.  The top photo is my mom exploring the Durnstein ruins (like mother like daughter), and the second is backstage before a concert.  On the back of the photo it says "Can they tell we're holding hands?"  I love it!!  I think they're really good looking :)

Shanghai Skyline at Night

From a visit to The Bund.  We were admiring the skyline when all of a sudden a giant, lit up pirate ship sailed by.  Ha!

Downtown Shanghai

One day in Shanghai we visited the current tallest skyscraper, the building pictured above which has a top that kind of looks like a bottle opener (hehe).  That strip at the very top, across the hole, is a glass walkway.  The first photo is a picture of the inside.  Isn't it cool?  And the floor also has panes of glass in it to walk across - eeps!  I thought I might be kind of nervous walking around it because I'm a little uncomfortable with heights, and I did feel a little flutter in my stomach when I first stepped super close to the windows, but overall the view was so cool that I got distracted looking at everything and forgot my butterflies.  After we left, I skipped visiting a temple with the group to walk around downtown, I guess what would be considered the business district, for a bit.  It actually reminded me of Chicago in some ways; the architecture is really cool and it has a garden area in the middle of all the skyscrapers (nothing compared to Millenium Park, though).  I strolled along an elevated walkway past all the buildings, and stopped in the park to take it all in and enjoy the weather, which was beautiful that day.  Pretty awesome afternoon! 

PS:  To get to the observation deck of the skyscraper, we had to take a couple elevator and escalator rides. The main elevator had these futuristic lights and music playing; it kind of reminded everyone of Charlie and Chocolate Factory :)  Here is a quick video of part of the ride:

Riding a Rickshaw

On the last day in China, we took a little tour around on a rickshaw!  It was through a cool part of town with lots of bars and shops.  They paired us up and whisked us off, and we were dropped off in a neighborhood that had streets so narrow you could only walk in them, where families welcomed us into their homes and served us an amazing home cooked meal.  Probably the best meal of the trip!  This video goes on for a bit because I was trying to catch a moment when the rickshaw drivers/rider would purposely hit each other - it was basically bumper cars, rickshaw edition.  They were cute; laughing a lot and yelling at each other.  The streets were so crowded!  I can't believe we didn't seem more accidents...

Beautiful Mama!

Trish is due sooooon!  We are all so excited!  She looks amazing :)