Tsai Family of the Parklands

During our visit to Utah, we met a lot of old and new friends.  We visited the family of a missionary who served in Taiwan in Hsinying.   They live in Jordan.  We were able to go to church with them. We had the honor of helping Jessica with her classroom before her school year. A highlight of our trip was to reunite with branch alumni in the home of Tyler and Annie Thorsted. Finally, we had a wonderful opportunity to visit my college buddy, Nelson.  He surprised me by inviting another of our freshman ward buddies, Paul, and his family.  Here is the three of us. And here we are with our wives. And here we are with most of our children.

We attended Melinda’s Award’s Night, wherein she received the Straight A’s Award and the coveted Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute   Math and Science Award.

To celebrate the graduation of Joshua and 4 of his friends this year, we held our graduation barbecue tonight.   We  prepared and barbecued marinated chicken legs.   Simon came with his brother, Tony.   Ada drove all of her siblings here.   Alexis took Michelle and her mom.   Pearl came with her dad.   The whole Zhao family came.   After dinner, we held a FHE for the seniors.   We played games (unique activities and school trivia emceed by Tony), talked about Who Am I?, and heard testimonials and advice from parents.  Congratulations, seniors!

At the culmination of a distinguished secondary education, Joshua marched with his colleagues during the Damascus High School Commencement. Marked with various tassels on his hood, Joshua accepted his diploma from Principal Domergue. We, his family, willingly sat in the sun on the football bleachers to witness this climactic ceremony. After the ceremony, the family took him to Guapo's for a fine feast. Congratulations, Joshua, on a job well done.

At Joshua's Senior Award Night, he collected six awards.

Can you guess what role Melinda played in this ballet?

Joshua's Band Concert

Amid a tremendous load of AP tests, school projects, and getting ready for graduation, Joshua still seemed to be able to fit in the rehearsals for the ASCYO and to attend each of the three concerts in the ASCYO Spring 2011 Concerts Series. The first and most important concert for Joshua was situated in the historic Weinberg Center for the Arts in downtown Frederick on Tuesday, May 3, at 7:00pm.  Our whole family turned out for this wonderful event, in which Joshua performed his senior solo from the "Concertino for Clarinet, Op. 26 Allegro" by Carl Maria von Weber.  With mentoring from his clarinet teacher, Mr. Robert Fogleman, he played an outstanding 9-minute solo.  Check out the advertisement. Weinberg Center for the Arts Tuesday, May 3, 2011, 7:00 pm  Weinberg Center for the Arts 20 West Patrick Street Frederick, MD 21701 (Youth Orchestra performing) Soloists: Joshua Boulden - Bass Clarinet Steven Harris - Violin Eric Holmstead - Violin Kenny H...

In order to escape the pressures of daily life, we undertook a day excursion to Ocean City.  It didn't hurt that Joshua obtained more driving practice.  Although it was very windy, we still enjoyed our walk on the beach, carving our namesake in the sand, riding the 6-person bicycle, and cruising the go carts.  We climaxed our trip with Bugaboo cuisine.

Our only major snowstorm of 2011 left our yard and surroundings white.  Shoveling snow is always fun.

It is a rare occasion to be able to participate in the birthday celebration of a brand new nonagenarian.  But that's exactly what occurred on a frigid winter evening after church.  We had gathered together at the home of our beloved friend, Sid Foulger, who would soon turn 90 later this week.  At around 5pm, as people were arriving, Sidney Tan first favored the audience with the “Entertainer” on the grand piano.  Then a quartet (Megan Tsai on the harp, Emerald on the electronic piano, Melinda on the flute, and Joshua on the clarinet) played “Danny Boy,” one of Brother Foulger’s favorite songs.  After a blessing on the food by Brother Sy Tan, everyone had an opportunity to eat the delicious food, which included noodles and spicy noodles, croissant hot dogs, sub sandwiches, Chinese soup, fish, and almond tofu cocktail.  We gathered back in the living room with the fire glowing with warmth in the hearth.  Sister Florence Tung, Brother Da Zhao, Sister Pei...

On the very last day of the year, we took occasion to celebrate Melinda's sweet 16th with a simple dinner at the Wok Express.  Afterwards, we took a nice drive to the Washington DC Temple Visitor Center to enjoy the over 500,000 Christmas lights.  Inside the Visitor Center, we viewed the International Christmas trees and nativity creches.  After standing in a long line, we were able to watch the 8pm showing of the Fairfax Chinese Dance Troupe.  When we finished, we met some of our Chinese Branch friends upstairs, conversed for a long while, and took pictures before going home.  Then we went home to watch the Apple fall in Times Square.  It was a nice way to end the year.  Happy new year!

Family and friends, As we draw close to another year and decade, we pause to ponder our many blessings of 2010. The short but busy Spring Break trip to Taiwan gave us an exciting journey to enjoy some of the beauties of Taiwan, visit relatives and friends, and to enjoy the delicious cuisine. This year, we were honored to be able to visit the West Wing of the White House, and we braved the Eastern Shore wilderness where we witnessed the wild ponies of Assateague. Our two oldest children have both finished more than half of their meaningful missionary service. We also made quick excursions to Hershey Park and Williamsburg. Individually, here are our thoughts and summary for this year: I have kept busy this year with teaching a night class at Montgomery College each semester and helping with rides to the various school and extracurricular activities The biggest change this year for me personally was the release from serving as branch president at church for the last ten years....

Joshua was privileged to participate in the high school Choir Concert on December 13.  The very next day, he served as the pianist for the Jazz Concert.  On the same night, he played First Clarinet as part of the Band Concert.  In conclusion, they played their traditional "The Night Before Christmas"as it was narrated by Mr. Kachadorian.

This semester Joshua participated in the ASCYO Concerts on December 3, 4, and 5.  The venues were the Weinberg Center in Frederick on December 3, Asbury Methodist Village on December 4, and The Lutheran Church of St. Andrew on December 5.  Joshua played in the Wind Ensemble on Sunday, and he played the solo part for the cat in Peter and the Wolf.