IHS Choir 2026

Baylie had a great year in choir. It was one of the highlights of her senior year. After not making ACDA last year, she made it this year and was excited to go. Sadly, a bad storm came in and it was cancelled. Fortunately she made All State for the third year in a row, not a very common accomplishment.

Seven kids from Irmo High School were in the choir. That's a lot from one school. They were placed in three different choirs. Baylie ended up with the best of the directors, Michael Barrett. He chose such fun music and the performance was fantastic.

Can you find Baylie??

Baylie loves her choir director, Mr. Frank Turner. He has inspired her to be a choir director as well.

We all went to Winthrop for the performance.

Choir besties - Sal, Baylie, Jayden

At the annual Concert Assessment Performance, they received a Superior With Distinction, the highest honor possible.

The Seniors - they will be much missed next year.

One of the highlights of the year was when they sang David's arrangement of Lift Every Voice and Sing. You can see the performance HERE.

The final performance of the year was a little emotional. 

They always recognize the seniors and other accomplishments.

Baylie was a co-recipient of the Chorus Student of the Year.

The seniors surprised Mr. Turner by not only giving him a gift, but also because they had each written him a personal tribute. It was very moving.

Baylie and Ava Alsup

Add in Alexa Alsup - these girls have spent so much time together over the years

Tania Turner was Baylie's 5th grade music teacher and chose her to play Mrs. Clause in the school Christmas program. It's Baylie's favorite memory of elementary school. The Turners have been such great role models in her life.

Christopher Moore is the middle school choir teacher. Baylie helped him this year as part of her teacher cadet class. She loved it and it solidified her desire to teach choir.

The family

Baylie and her "let's not put a label on it" friend, Jayden Samuels.

Family+

Some of my favorite performances.

Spring Break 2026 - Puerto Rico

I wanted to go somewhere fun for Spring Break, but we didn't have much money. I looked at several options and decided we could make a quick trip if we only stayed one night in a hotel. The kids decided they were up for the adventure.

It started out exciting because the flight we were going to take from Columbia filled up so we decided to leave much earlier and drive to Charlotte. (In the end we would have made the Columbia flight - oh well! That's the standby life.) David was a good sport and drove us all the way there before heading to work back in Columbia.

We had a layover in Houston.

And made it to San Juan by 3:00 in the afternoon.

We cought an Uber and our first stop was the temple. It was very small and the street was kind of busy. We hopped out and took a quick picture and continued on our way.

We were staying in Old San Juan at the Casablanca Hotel.

I didn't take this picture - I stole it from the internet.

Check out this amazing room!! Baylie and I shared the bed.

Jalen slept on the couch. Seriously though - such a cool room. Check out the chandeliers!

Waiting area in the lobby.

The lobby.

We walked around the city and headed to el Castillo de San Felipe del Morro because that is supposed to be the best place to see the sunset. There are stunning views everywhere.

And also lots of cats.

Beautiful banyan tree

The sunset.

It was a scenic walk back. Here you can see the city wall with the only remaining of six original city gates - la Puerta de San Juan. They used to close the gates at night to protect the city. 

We walked down and crossed through the gate.

The walls are 15 feet thick.

Above the gate is inscribed “Benedictus qui venit in nomine domini”- Latin for “blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”. 

We then walked around the outside of the walls along Paseo de la Princesa. It was lovely.

We found a hole-in-the-wall local place that sold amazing empanadas. We were exhausted and our feet were aching when we finally got back to the hotel. But we decided to still make a visit to the rooftop to see the tubs that look over the city. It was very cool, but the water was slow and cold and we were tired so we didn't stay for a soak. 

The next morning we were ready to go again! We got some breakfast at a grocery store and bought Jalen a "Bad Bunny hat." It's actually called a pava.

We loved the colorful homes and blue cobblestone streets.

Calle La Fortaleza leading to La Fortaleza, the governor's residence. It is one of the oldest executive mansions in the Americas.

Next we went to Parque de las Palmoas - Pigeon Park.

It runs along the top of the wall that borders the sea. 

Pigeon boxes

After that we went back to Castillo de San Felipe del Morro. "El Morro is a huge, six-level fortress built to protect the city from sea invaders. The Fort itself was originally “completed” in 1589, but the massive walls were added in the mid 1700’s ." It is truly massive. We only explored three levels of it. 

This doesn't truly show how steep these stairs were. They looked like escalators.

Amazing views

Upper walkway

Right next to the castle is Santa María Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery. It's right on the edge of the ocean. 

Next to the cemetary is La Perla, them most dangerous part of Old San Juan and site of the music video Depasito. You can see it from above as you walk down this colorful street, but tourists are advised to avoid the area. It can only be accessed through three entry ways.

View of La Perla from above.

There’s also a cool basketball court that was built by Carmelo Anthony. 

We walked from there to the Castillo San Cristobal (Christopher Columbus) when it started to pour down rain. We didn't spend much time there as we were running out of time and we had spent so much time at El Morro. We walked the short distance to Parroquia San Francisco de Asís to see the crypts beneath it. They were small and underwhelming. At that point we had to return to the airport so we called another Uber and headed back.

We caught the last possible flight, which was to IAD.

Beautiful views from the air.

We then made our flight to Columbia where we were picked up by David. It was a crazy whirlwind trip that felt much longer than it actually was. It was nice because we had days of rest before and after the trip so we still got to relax over Spring Break. Perfect!

One day I'd like to go back to Puerto Rico to kayak in the bioluminescent bays at night and visit El Yunque Rain Forest.