Nat & the Strad's

What a weekend. For Christmas this past year I bought Natalie some tickets the symphony, a night at the Anniversary Inn, & dinner at the Olive Garden. While we were in Salt Lake we decided to stop in and get Natalie's violin repaired because the glue was coming undone in one spot. They said that the repairs wouldn't take too long and we could wait while they got it done. Nat has been thinking about purchasing a new violin so she started playing some instruments in the $10,000 to $20,000 range. Peter Prier showed her quite a few & she found one for $24,000 that she really likes. He said that the violin has a really good one and then set it down on the table and suggested that they try some real violins. He opened a safe and handed her a violin. It was the Stradivarius "Firebird" made in 1718 in Cremona, Italy. The violin was worth about 8.2 million dollars not to mention that she was holding a piece of history. That is the violin in the first picture. The second picture is of a violin made by Joseph Guarneri in 1734 in Cremona, Italy as well. She really like that violin. At 5 million it was quite a deal. She then played another Stradivarius called the "Reyneir" made in 1681 & named after one of Napolean III's generals. The violin was apparently a part of Napolean III's collection & given as a gift to the general. It was amazing to think of history and the places that those instruments have been. It was also amazing to think that Natalie was holding something worth that much. Needless to say we didn't come home with a new violin. It was fun to see & hear them.

The symphony afterwards was great as well as the Anniversary Inn & Olive Garden. It is always fun to get away and spend time with just the two of us. The kids had a blast staying with grandparents & going to McDonalds with them. I think that they would have rathered stay with them then come home with us and go to school this morning. It was really nice to see most of the Family. We missed not seeing Mike & Becky.