Goodbye, Joseph

Monday was the last night of Joseph.  We sold all 965 seats in our pavilion and still had people come with lawn chairs and sitting in the grass. It is the first time ever that the Pavilion has been sold out. Over the entire run of the show 3600 people came and saw Joseph, smashing all previous records and expectations. We had a great show and everyone was very sad to see our time together come to an end.  Most of the cast was in tears before they even took the stage.  I, however, was mostly relieved to see my time as Children Choir Director come to an end.    When the show was over Kaitlin, Ruth and I ran around taking pictures on the set.  On Friday we had a cast party. I received a very nice thank-you and gift card for my service.  I am happy to announce my retirement from production for at least a little while.

A New Look

Kaitlin has been plotting the demise of her long hair for some time now and finally this week she got eight inches cut off her locks.  She loves her new hair and I think it is sassy and befitting her personality.  She is so excited to start High School this next week, and this haircut is just an outward expression of this next phase of her life.


"Over hill, over dale, Through brush, through brier, Over park, over pale...I do wander everywhere."

On Wednesday we left for Cedar City and the Shakespeare Festival.  We saw Midsummer Night's Dream and The Music Man. Both were excellent. We especially enjoyed Midsummer Night's Dream which had some of the best performed physical comedy I'd ever seen.  (Before we went I had the girls read a simplified version of the play. I worried that Shakespeare might be a little hard for Ruth, but she was laughing and loving it the entire time).  The next day we drove to Navajo Lake and spent the morning hiking to Cascade Falls. It was a wonderful hike with both beautiful red rock and tall pine forests. After a picnic we drove to Mammoth caves and did some spelunking.  These are lava vent caves that are open to the public.  We had fun exploring them. Ruth, who is terrified of caves, was brave enough to go into the entrance area and a little ways down one shaft.  We were proud of her.  On Friday, before heading home, we took a backstage tour of the Shakespeare theaters, which we all enjoyed.

In the statue garden outside of the theater. 

Jared is "trying on" King Lear's" crown. It fit perfectly

At a lookout point with Zion's National Park in the distance.

There were a few scary drop offs along our hiking trail.

A funny sign posted on the bathrooms at the trail head. Not sure why I should treat the bathroom like it's in my face.

On the way to Cascade Falls.

At the mouth of the small chute of Mammoth Cave

Kaitlin decided against crawling through this small entrance to one of  the chutes. 

Down the "long chute". This cave was pitch black and is a wintering place for bats.  (We wished we had brighter flashlights, but alas, we only had the $3 one from Walmart)

On the backstage tour at the festival. 

BomBora

Saturday was Chuck's work day at our local amusement park.  We were exhausted from our Cedar City trip the day before, so we slept in and showed up around lunch time.  That still gave us ten hours of fun.  Our favorite ride was a new roller coaster  named BomBora, which we rode eight times.  This was the first time Jared was brave enough to ride the coasters, and he went wild riding almost every coaster in the park.