Spring Break

Opera News

I mentioned in the last post that Gabe had just finished an opera called "Florencia en el Amazonas," and the director just recently posted pictures on the University of Houston Moores Opera Center website. The link is here. Just go down towards the bottom of the page and you'll see the title. Gabe is in the 11th picture, dressed in a white shirt with a long wig. The rest of the pics are mainly of the monstrous boat they built.

Gabe's next show is "The Grapes of Wrath," and he will be playing the role of Tom Joad, played by Henry Fonda in the movie version. The opera premeired just last year in the US, and this will be it's first perfromance in the great state of Texas. The composer, Ricky Ian Gordon, will be attending the rehearsals-for opera buffs it's a pretty big deal. The performances are the first weekend in April. We'll give more specifics when we get closer. Gabe is very excited!

Quick Update

Hi everyone!! Just a quick note since we haven't posted in awhile. Things have been very busy here. Recently Mom and Linda came to visit for a weekend and we had so much fun. We toured the Galleria, the Zoo, Hermann Park, and brought them to some of our favorite places to eat. Unfortunately I can't post pics that my mom sent me. Technical difficulties with snapfish...argh!

Gabe had a show that weekend as well so they were able to see his hard work in action. "Florencia en el Amazonas," a spanish opera set in Brazil on a river boat. The set was incredible. I hope I can post pics soon. Gabe was amazing. He had a principle role "Riolobo," a river spirit and boat hand. It was a very unique production and the music was beautiful. The river boat was two full stories and turned 360 degrees on stage. I was in awe. Mom and Linda enjoyed it too!

Valentines Day we were able to sleep in, take a long walk, relax with friends at Hermann Park and have a great dinner together. We went to a Thai Mexican restaurant that was really good called Teala's. Hope everyone else had a great day too!!!

My First Sewing Project!

For Christmas my mom bought me a sewing machine and I have been busy learning how to use it. I bought this great book that has guided me through the beginning steps so I think I'm supposed to graduate on to a more difficult project (eek, I'm nervous). I started out with something very easy at first, burp cloths (actually cloth diapers, just spruced up with some cute fabric.) I made them for a girl at work who is expecting a baby boy in March. I hope she likes them. Here are pics of my work :)

Celebrations

Well, like always we bring in the new year with a few special days including our anniversary (3 years!!!!!!) and Gabe's 25th Birthday. January 8th was the 9th anniversary of our first date. It is crazy to imagine all that we have been through in 9 years and we are so grateful that we were able to marry each other. We find amazing comfort in knowing that we will be together forever now. Dating was fun, but marriage is way better :)

We celebrated our anniversary at The Melting Pot. Our favorite!!!!

For Gabe's birthday we went to Maggiano's with friends and had a great time. We had a family style dinner that was out of this world. When we sang "Happy Birthday," Gabe sang to himself very loudly, and as you can imagine we drew some attention to our table.

Can you tell we like dessert?

As we were leaving this sweet woman was watching Gabe and told him that it was also her birthday and that he had an amazing voice, so he and his friends Jack and Amanda (also studying voice) decided to sing "Happy Birthday" to her as well. They loved it!

Austin

Gabe and I traveled to Austin New Year's Day and we had a blast! Austin is so beautiful and so different than Houston. I kept feeling like I was out west somewhere, minus the snow. We saw some amazing views from Mt. Bonnell over the Colorado River and Lake Travis was beautiful too. It made for a great day trip and an awesome way to bring in the new year!

Gabe in front of capitol
BANG, BANG




Mt. Bonnell looks over the Colorado River

Look at those HOUSES!!!

Skyline of Austin
Lake Travis
View from "The Oasis"

Neat park we found

Christmas in Sunny Florida!

Gabe and I were very fortunate to spend 12 days in Orlando over the holidays. We had our very own "Four Christmases." We got to see tons of family members and friends. Unfortunately some of that time was spent not feeling our best, so we were bad about taking lots of pictures. I'm going to have to get copies from everyone else. Anyone reading this please feel free to email us digital copies. That would be much appreciated! Gabe wanted to make sure that we did upload two videos that he worked very hard on. We went to a Luau at Sea World after Christmas with Gabe's family and got some pretty good footage.


Then Gabe became very brave and decided to get up and try to dance. Gretchen wanted to play too. I think the video is hysterical! Most of the time I had a hard time keeping the camera on him because I was laughing so hard. So enjoy!