Mars Hill 2025

Caroline auditioned for and was accepted into the Mars Hill

Choral Festival again this year. Yippee! To our delight, our friend,

Rose Monson, also was accepted into the choir. Both girls were the

only student from their respective schools, so we carpooled out to the

mountains together. Usually Mars Hill is a two day festival on Friday

and Saturday in Feb. In the fall of 2024, Hurricane Helene hit the

mountains of NC devastatingly. Things were cleaned up enough

to hold the choral festival in Feb, but there were still crews out there

cleaning and rebuilding and the administrators didn't want a whole

slew of high school students occupying the hotel rooms in the area.

So, the festival was shortened to a one day event.

We'll take what we can get.

Caroline, Rose, Rebecca, and me getting ready for

rehearsals to start.

300 of the best choral students from all over NC

Caroline was ALL THE WAY at the top this year,

in the very far right corner.

The concert is SOOOO good that I invited family to 

come out and watch it. Brandon and Grandma Sweat

took me up on my invitation. Yay!

Andrew was the tour guide while I was the "school

representative" at the festival.

They stopped by the Guilford Courthouse Battleground.

And found a fun waterfall on the way to Mars Hill.

Ready for the concert!

The quality of the students was phenomenal once again,

even though they only had a few hours together to rehearse.

Here is the whole concert for your viewing pleasure

if you have 24 minutes and REALLY love choral music. :)

Caroline's fave was Lacrimosa at 7:40

And my fave was Arirang at 10:49

The last number, Personet Hodie at 18:30 is also fantastic.

Our girl!

With her fans!

Stopped for dinner at Blue Mountain Pizza afterward.

Yummy! And fun live music in the background.

Had time to do one puzzle with Grandma before

she flew home to take care of Grandpa for his 

back surgery.

I'm so grateful for high-quality uplifting music and the way it touches my soul!

What Jan 2025 Looked Like It

Jan 2025 was not a very exciting month.

But here's a glimpse.

Caroline and I got Cinnaholic.

Oh, how I love those cinnamon rolls.

Homemade teriyaki sauce in the making

One of my new puzzles.

January was a puzzle month.

I went to the Guilford County Farm to try to find

a Sora, a rare bird that people have seen there.

I heard it when I first got there, but could 

never find it and stopped hearing it, too.

I did have a fun moment with this 

Eastern Meadowlark, though.

The finished Arizona puzzle

But it was MISSING A PIECE!!!

What the heck?

So unsatisfying.

We had a snow storm!

Hooray!

Now we can hibernate for

a few days!

I decided that was a good time to play Tetris

and get cozy under a blanket.

It was a little more than a dusting.

FamilySearch named me a Source-Adding Superstar 

in 2024. So fancy! I don't even know what that means

or how you earn that designation. But I'll take it.

The Khats gave me a special treat when I was

at their house to practice English together:

Bird Nest Drink.

Wow.

It's interesting.

The flavor is good.

Really sweeet.

But the texture is weird.

I don't love it.

They also sent me home with this fruit plate.

They're so generous!

Solo temple trip.

Always love worshipping there.

National Parks puzzle

Date night at Odeh's--Yumm!!

Goldfinch puzzle

Another bird puzzle

This puzzle is cuckoo crazy.

It's three different images layered on top

of each other. And then it comes with colored

glasses that you can use to visually

separate them. It was HARD.

And I sold it so I don't have to do it again. Ha!

Care Bear and I were living it up in January!

We stopped at Dewey's and got dewzys.

Those things are SOOOO good.

Progress on the hard puzzle

C came on a bird walk with me and the bird club.

The beginning was great. We got to see lots of 

cool waterfowl.

Including:

Redhead

New lifer!

Yippee!

Ring-necked duck

(who actually have a ring on their bill...)

And Northern Shoveler

Unfortunately, we carpooled with some

other bird club members and they wanted

to keep birding all day--much longer than

C was hoping to. It got a little awkward.

We had to switch cars at one point so

we could bail a little early, but still long

after C's attention span had waned.

For Andrew's birthday present this year, he 

wanted to fly out to Utah for a BYU basketball game.

He was hoping to go with his Dad, but Dennis is having

back issues and needs surgery and wasn't able to join him.

So, he went with Tony instead.

He got to meet Jane and Nick's brand new baby, Peter!

Oh my gosh! How cute is he???

He and Tony had a FANTASTIC time at the game.

One of the highlights was Tone introducing him

to Tom Holmoe, the legendary Athletic Director at BYU.

Me and Bear eating more yummy food together.

Making more progress!

Whitney asked for some fancy yarn for Christmas.

She's making a "porcelain" sweater.

That girl's knitting skills BLOW MY MIND!

This is the start. So beautiful.

And.... I finally finished the impossible puzzle!

Here are pics of it through each of the

three pairs of glasses that it came with.

That giant scorpion in the middle is creepy

Some cool mammals

Birds and snakes.

Fun idea for a puzzle.

But too advanced for me!

Dinner with Maureen at Kapadokia Grill.

Yum.

And we wrapped up the month with a temple trip together.

Pretty quiet month for the Sweat Family.

But quiet isn't bad.

Jonas and Carly Got Married!

 More highlights from our fun AZ trip

Wednesdays = Dave and Busters!

It's always fun.

Amy and Dave came with us.

In our happy place

Andrew always has to try Deal or No Deal

and his game generally ends with this face.

We played a few fun games together.

I don't think Amy and Dave liked it as much as we do.

Happy New Year!

So fun to be with extended family for the holiday!

We had fun playing more games and eating

yummy food on New Year's Eve.

The Hallstroms generously rented two Airbnbs 

for all of us and we stayed near each other. 

Look at how cute ours was!

Andrew and I stayed in the little casita.

This was our view.

Our extended family had wedding responsibilities,

so the four of us went hiking at A Mountain,

right by ASU campus.

It was a short, but strenuous hike.

Poor Andrew did NOT like being at the top.

The girls made friends with a hairless cat up there.

I hate those things.

They love them.

The view of Tempe below us.

There was a bowl game going on and ASU was playing 

in it. It wasn't in Tempe, but there were lots of restaurants

and bars with lots of Sun Devils fans watching and cheering.

We could hear their shouts as we hiked. 

On the morning of the wedding,

a bunch of us got together and played pickleball.

It was so fun! I hardly ever play and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Then it was time to get ready for the wedding.

It was a very sweet ceremony in a beautiful venue.

I was so happy that this many family members

could be together to celebrate Jonas and Carly's special day. 

They had an open bar.

We had fun seeing what mocktails they could mix up for us.

I hardly took any pics. I guess I was having too much fun.

I stole a few of these from Angie.

And then a lovely outdoor dinner.

Followed by a super fun dance.

Loved it.

The next day we made a quick birding stop.

Walked by this interesting art installation

while we were looking for birds.

Then we stopped by Snakes and Lattes.

Y'all.

It's a board game cafe.

How do we not have one in Greensboro?

I seriously have talked to Toni Walker

about opening one up with me.

What a FANTASTIC, fun, family-friendly business.

I want more!

And then it was time to say good-bye.

Whit flew back to Utah and we flew back to NC.

Grateful for a wonderful excuse to celebrate with family.

And wishing all the best to Carly and Jonas!