Day 16: From the writings of Thomas Stewart

Today I work-up at 6:05 am and dozed-off until 7:00 am which is when I took a shower.  Then, I got dressed and woke-up Connor, who took a shower while I dressed and dozed-off again, until 7:55 am.  I woke-up and Alex as taking a shower.  After Ale got out, our host dad, “Paul”, came down and told us we were having buttermilk pancakes for breakfast.  When we got upstairs, we ate pancakes, eggs, strawberries, nectarines and juice.  After breakfast, we packed our bags and Christina took a picture of us and the girls.  Then, Sam and Micah came and we left because our host dad took them to the church and Christina took Connor, Alex, Chi and I to the church.  When we got there, we warmed-up and sang our intro song in the church service, which was “Ubi Caritas”.  We sang a total of 4 songs in the service.  After the service we ate lunch in the fellowship hall.  There were a ton of different choices for sandwiches.  I had a chicken salad sandwich, and an egg sandwich.  I also had some Doritos and watermelon.  Then we said “goodbye” to our host family and hopped on the bus headed Edmonton and the Maxfields.  Aaron told me I had a special gift of being able to change my face in a couple of seconds, (from very stoic to very happy.)  Then, we had a rest period.  It was about 1.5 hours long again. 

After rest period was over there was about 40 minutes left before we reached the church in Edmonton, Alberta.  During those 40 minutes or so, we voted and made our nominations for Choirboy of the Year.  There were eleven nominees.  They were:  Noah Carpenter, Tristan Christiaansen, Jacob Gordon, Trayton Howard, Steven Kelly, Landon Owens, Allexzander Sanders, Thomas Stewart , Andrew Olinger, Joey Leibig and John Paul Hudson.  Six of those eleven went on to the next round, which we will do tomorrow morning.  The six people were:  Noah Carpenter, Jacob Gordon, Steven Kelly, Allexzander Sanders, Thomas Stewart and Isaac Volker. 

                When we got to the church we did our jobs, practiced logistics and went to dinner, where Chi and I met our host.  Their last name is “Dorey”.  They have four kids, two boys and two girls.  The older boy sings in a choir also.  We ate dinner with them.   Dinner consisted of Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, Jello, Watermelon, fruit salad, five different kinds of pasta salad, lettuce salad and three different kinds of juice. 

                After we ate, we warmed-up and then went to get changed.  The concert went well.  This is where the Maxfields live.  After the concert, Andy helped me take-down the risers until Jacob R. for there.  After we got our jobs done, we met our host family (again).  Aaron gave his spiel about all the rules and regs to the host families.  Then we got our own suitcases and bags and hopped in the can and left.  When we got to our host home, Chi and I changed into our PJ’s and then one of the girls asked me to play a song on the piano.  So I played “Praise to the Lord Almighty”.  After that, we went outside to play.  They have a dog and I think it’s a sheep dog.  I jumped on the trampoline a bit and then we decided to go to a soccer field a block away with a soccer ball, where we played a quick game because it was 10:00 pm and bedtime was at 10:30.  When we got back, we had a glass of water and went to bed at 10:33 pm.

Thomas