July 19 • Sun Valley, Idaho

I'm sitting in Starbucks while the children of Matsiko prepare for their next performance at Ketchum Town Square here in Idaho's Sun Valley. We arrived on Monday to mountain hiking and beautiful, sunny weather. This place is a mecca for outdoor enthusiasts, with hiking, biking, skiing, and paragliding around every corner. The town of Ketchum reminds me so much of Cannon Beach, drawing the same outdoorsy, laid back people, keeping out the chain stores (except Starbucks) in favor of small, local business.

The tour is going well, and we only have a few more weeks until we arrive back in Washington. Sun Valley, Boise, & Sandpoint, ID; Spokane & Cle Elum, WA and then, at last, Seattle!

A Brother's Wedding

My youngest brother Nate got married yesterday. Kate, Mark & I took a few days off from Matiko to come home early and celebrate. An outdoor wedding at 100° F kept everyone in the shade, but the hour-long ceremony was over before I knew it. Matsiko arrived in town to perform at the reception, which brought tears to my eyes... after 4 days I missed my kids!!! Everyone was invited and I had many quick hellos with people I've known forever. It is good to be home, great to welcome Abbie to the Ritta clan, and amazing to see friends gather for a great occasion. Below are some pictures of the wedding week. Enjoy.

"The Cities", June 23-24

The choir has arrived in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area of Minnesota. We've had a great few days swimming, hula hooping, roasting S'mores, and performing. The choir performed the National Anthem at the Lynx WNBA game on Saturday. The league was celebrating the 40th anniversary of Title 9, the law Richard Nixon signed which guaranteed funding for girls sports in public schools. As a high school athlete, I realize the significance of this law (not everyone on the team did) and I appreciate it for what it provides for girls all over this country. Sometimes women's rights can be taken too far, but I believe in this case the Title 9 is right on the money (see Tshirt below for actual wording).

Eirin Asked for Pictures...

My good friend Eirin asked for pictures to go with my blog posts ... Here you go!! These are from our week in St Louis, everything from The Magic House, City Museum, the Art Museum, a Cardinals game... we did it all!!

The Math Tutor

I have become the main math tutor on this tour. The choir kids range in age from 8 to 16, and are in grades 1 to 11. With two different countries represented (Liberia & Peru) we also have two different languages (English & Spanish) and two different styles of learning. I've been brushing up on my math skills for some time now, covering everything from Base 4, to dividing "backwards", to adding sets of numbers (as seen below), often with limited assistance from the book. But at least I speak & read both languages! And I've got a brother who is studying to be an Architectural Engineer. Just text him a picture of an "unsolvable" problem, and voila! He (almost always) gets it right!!