SVCC Tour: Day Two, Part One

The first post in this series is here.  The second is here.

It's worth mentioning again that because of the hard work of the SVCC staff, particularly the choir manager Yvette, this tour ran like a well-oiled machine, which is such a consistent characteristic of the SVCC that we who are blessed to be connected with this organization often take it for granted.  I'm sure I didn't say thank you enough to Yvette for her careful attention to all the little details--even the detail, for example, of assigning each chaperon group to a different breakfast time so that we didn't all come at once and overcrowd the small breakfast area of the hotel.

On this particular morning (Saturday), "my" girls and I happened to be eating our breakfast when Dr. V. was eating hers; and I enjoyed the chance to chat for a few minutes with her, particularly when the subject of Alzheimer's Disease came up and the conversation flowed towards my mother's progression in that disease.  Unbeknownst to me, Dr. V's own mother had been afflicted with that disease; and as a result, Dr. V. was incredibly understanding and compassionate.  Her genuine sorrow and concern for my family warmed my heart.

After breakfast, we gathered all of our things and hit the road, heading east towards Virginia Beach; and almost as soon as the bus got on the highway, I promptly fell asleep and slumbered quite peacefully until we were nearly at our destination.  The ironic thing is that after my very limited amount of sleep Thursday night (because of packing and preparing for the trip), I was sure I would sleep on the bus on Friday; but I didn't. After a much longer amount of sleep Friday night, I didn't think I would sleep on the bus on Saturday; but I did.  You just never know when the lullaby of the bus will send you off to dreamland.  :)

Throughout the trip, every time we stopped somewhere, the chaperons were asked to get off first, so that we could do whatever was needed to prepare for the next activity before the choristers got off the bus.  At night, that meant disembarking from the bus and getting out all the luggage, spreading suitcases and SVCC red garment bags all around, so that the choristers would be able to quickly and easily find their stuff when they got off the bus.  

On this particular morning however, the chaperons got off --some of us (OK, maybe just me) ;-) rubbing sleep from our eyes--and got out some apples, granola bars, cheese sticks, and water for our kids to have a snack before their rehearsal with the Virginia Children's Chorus.  There happened to be a playground there, and the choristers took advantage of the time to stretch, move, eat, and get their wiggles out before it was time to be serious again.

Someone--probably Mrs. Anderson, assistant director extraordinaire--called for a group picture...

 ...and then the work began...

...with, first, a little time to study their music.

 After warming up their voices a little outside, our choristers went inside the beautiful building...

 ...to meet the other choir...

 ...as well as the other choir director, Carol Thomas Downing.

The rehearsal went fairly smoothly, with one little hiccup: we discovered that the two choirs had been using two different editions of a piece, "Duet for Two Cats" by Rossini, that we were singing together, and each choir had, of course, been practicing it the way their own edition was written...which was not exactly the same as the other edition!  Fortunately, the choristers adapted without too much angst, and I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly they learned the new way of singing it.  Just another reason to be proud of our SVCCers.  :)

After the rehearsal, the two choirs had lunch together...

 ...and choristers got the chance to mingle and learn to know each other a little.

 Tonya, one of our SVCC parents and also an SVCC staff member, discovered that a girl she had taught piano lessons to a number of years ago was now singing in the Virginia Children's Chorus!

 When lunch was finished, we all scrambled to get changed into bathing suits because we mountain & valley folks were headed TO THE BEACH!  But there was one more quick thing to do before we left: celebrate two special birthdays.  :)

 Josiah turned 12 on the first day of the tour, and Olivia turned 15 on the third day, so on the second day, someone procured a very colorful cake and a couple of candles, so we could honor our birthday folks.  :)

 Let me tell you about Olivia.  Two or three years ago, when Josiah was either in Preparatory or Treble Choir, and either Ms. White or Dr. V. was directing the choir, the younger choir and the older choir (the Concert Choir, of which Olivia was a part) were working together on a piece; and during one rehearsal, the director gave the choristers some time to mingle and get to know each other, particularly so that the younger kids would feel welcomed by the older ones.  (Side note: as much as I enjoy diagramming sentences, I would hate having to do that one!)  ;-)  Josiah happened to be near Olivia and one of her friends, who started talking to Josiah and made him feel, indeed, welcome--a big deal for a younger chorister.  Ever since then, Josiah has been a HUGE fan of Olivia--and I am, too!  She's one of the kindest, sweetest girls you could ever hope to meet; and she's great at looking out for the needs of others and helping them.  Just one example: today we got to go to a nearby jousting tournament with Olivia and her brother Ian (also an SVCC chorister) and her mom Sandy (that I mentioned in the last post).  We got caught in the rain, just before we planned to leave; and while I ran across a field pushing Moriah in the stroller, Olivia carried a wet, muddy, rather unhappy little four-year-old named Shav (who is NOT a fan of water on his face).  I was so grateful for her help, since I wasn't quite sure how to handle my two littlest ones in that situation.  :)  So Olivia is great, and I thought it was so neat that she and Josiah got to share this little birthday celebration.  :)

[Edited later to say that, after Josiah read this, he informed me that Ms. White was the director of SVCC when he first met Olivia, so that would have to be three years ago.]  :)

And then we were off to the beach...  :)