Nauvoo or Bust

Kaitlin had to dump the sand from her shoes.

On Saturday we started out on our two day journey to Nauvoo, Illinois.

Our first stop was to pick up Kaitlin from Trek.  Every four years our local church group does a pioneer handcart re-enactment.  Kaitlin was assigned to be a "big sister" to a family of nine kids and two parents called "Ma" and "Pa".  They all loaded their gear onto a handcart and over three days pulled it nearly 30 miles through the sand and sage brush.  She slept under the stars and ate broth and rice.

'Selfies' in the van.

We met the handcarts at the end of the trail when the kids were just eating lunch and loading on buses to come home. Instead of getting on a bus, Kaitlin got into our van.  She was so happy to see us, and so excited to climb into an air-conditioned van. She was filthy from head to foot, and spent the first while wiping herself  down, leaving odd black dirt stripes down her arms and legs.  She thought trek was a great experience and she shared many with us over the next eight hours of driving as we headed east across WY and NB.

WY Museum

Jared: Are we still in Askaban?
Dad: Do you mean Nebraska?

We slept in a bit at the hotel and took our time getting breakfast before hitting the road for our last leg.  We pulled into our Nauvoo Condo around 6pm.  Now we are settling in and getting acquainted with our new little home away from home.

A newspaper article came out about the pageant and the families that participate in it.  You can read it here. 

Nebraska had lots of windmills. This one was right next to our hotel.

This was a scary little bridge that we had to pay $2 to get across the Mississippi.  It reminded me of our Footloose bridge.  The bridge was the theme of Footloose - broken bridges, building bridges and crossing the bridges of our lives.  As we drove across this bridge we were crossing a bridge figuratively to new growth and adventure.

Happy Birthday Kaitlin!

Kaitlin asked for lemon bars rather than a cake.

In the midst of the whirlwind that is our life of late, Kaitlin had a  birthday.  We only had one free night all week and I set it aside to celebrate.  Kaitlin's activity of choice was to stay home and watch TV together (does that tell you how tired we are?), so that is what we did.  We also had pizza.  On Kaitlin's actual birthday we went to the dollar store and bought Kaitlin a birthday sash to wear. She also got to pick out other things because it was her birthday so we just went crazy.  She insisted that we all wear funny hats to the store, and so we did. We had a performance of Footloose that night, so I made a big poster, the cast sang happy birthday to her, and we gave out rice-crispies to everyone.  Kaitlin asked for and got money for her birthday.

We blended right in at the dollar store.

Kaitlin on TV

On Tuesday morning at 5:30 am Kaitlin went to be on TV to promote Footloose.  She was on several segments on the morning news between 7am and 9am.  You can click here to watch a clip from that TV appearance.  You see Kaitlin dancing on the second row at about the 2 minute mark. You can watch all the clips here (she is also in 'Cowboy Bob' and Hero).

Broken Window

The little hole on the lower right is the original hole.

While Kaitlin was dancing away on TV. I was dealing with a broken window on the van.  When we came out of Footloose on Monday night we found our drivers side window had been shot out with a bb gun or something.  Nothing was taken from the car, just the window broken.  It was really late and we decided to drive home with the window. When we started there was just a quarter sized hole missing from the window, but it cracked and moaned and little pieces started to fall off as we went. It was like a scene from a suspense movie.  But slow driving and prayer got us home with the window intact.  After a morning on the phone with the insurance and police I was able to get the window replace. Yeah, that was a hundred dollars I wasn't planning on spending.

Space Derby

As luck would have it, I had Wednesday night free to go to Cub Scout Pack Meeting and help run our first ever Space Derby.   The boys made rubber band propelled vehicles that self propelled down a fishing line.  The event was a challenge because each vehicle had to be twisted 100 times before they could be placed on the line.  It was tricky and fraught with technical problems, but in the end Jared one first place in the Webelos division. He made it to the semi-finals overall.

Goodbye Footloose

Nine performances later we are finished with Footloose.  It was a fun experience and I loved every  minute of spending time with my girls.  The show was a big success, and we had full crowds and standing ovations.  The teens doing the show were all so talented and hard working.  Kaitlin worked hard, and learned that she enjoyed dancing, and that dancing was hard work.  Overall we are really glad that we decided to take part and hope to do more with this community theater in the future.

Backstage, trying to look intimidating.

In her 80's prom dress.

Ruth was only in three scenes so she spent a lot of time sitting backstage.

Here are the rest of our Footloose fans. Thanks for supporting us!

Footloose

Our stage is simple. 3 levels and an upper bridge.

We've been having such a good time this week with the opening of Footloose.  We had dress rehearsals all week, and by Tuesday the show was feeling really good. The next two days of rehearsal were just icing as we moved closer to opening.  At notes on Wednesday, Kaitlin was asked to stay after by the choreographer, and was surprised to be told that she was being moved from the back to the very front row on one of the songs (to replace a gal who had missed lots of practices).  This stressed Kaitlin out a great deal as it meant learning new dance moves just one day before opening night, but it was also a giant complement.  Kaitlin, who's only experience before this was a semester of ballroom, has worked very hard since January to learn the six difficult dance numbers required by this show.

Kaitlin about to dance "I need a Hero"

We opened on Friday and had a good show with a full house.  On Saturday, Kaitlin danced her way down a three mile parade route and then in the afternoon put on a 30 minute highlight performance at the city fair.  Luckily the weather was cool, but she was still exhausted and came home and grabbed an hour of sleep before we left for the show.  Our Saturday show was only two-thirds full, but we are told that that is normal for the second night.  Kaitlin did have a funny experience on stage trying to zip up a girl's dress during a dance number and then after the show we went out for icecream.

 

Kaitlin dancing at the BBQ where Ren takes Ariel and Rusty to dance for the first time.

Ice Cream after the show. No shoes no pants no problem!

Singing at the city carnival.

It's been a fun challenge to do 80's hair.

We decided to take pictures of everyone who comes to Footloose to see us!  Our little thank you for taking time out of your lives to support us.

For those of you far away who can't see the show, here is a little highlight reel they made. You can see Kaitlin really well at 47 (She is in white.  Also at 105 she is in the back on the right and in several other shots if you have a good eye.).  There are glimpses of Ruth and I at the very end.

Happy Father's Day

While the girls and I are doing our theater stuff, Chuck has been holding down the fort. He's been working on his new motorcycle and he and Jared have been doing computer stuff together.  He took Jared to our city's annual "Touch a Truck" on Friday and then we all (minus Kaitlin who was in a different parade) went to our city parade on Saturday.

Chuck doesn't expect much on Father's day but he did get a new shirt and tie and his favorite dinner, chicken enchiladas.  Chuck always works hard for us and looks out for all our needs. He's a great husband and father and I love him with all my heart. Happy Father's Day!

Happy 15 Years

Scout Falls

We have hit another milestone in our Happily Ever After.  On Wednesday we celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary. We had originally planed on going on a cruise, but our call to Nauvoo changed all that.  So a month or so ago we were talking about it and decided on a short overnight trip and we agreed that because I have so much going on that Chuck would be in charge of making arrangements. I didn't hear anything for weeks, and the few times I'd ask Chuck he'd say he was handling it.  Because of Footloose rehearsals we had to plan a mid-week get away, that coincidentally overlapped the last day of school for the girls.  This was our first couple get away in over ten years.

A selfie on our hike.

On Wednesday afternoon I was whisked away to destinations unknown.  We landed in Provo (a town about an hour south of us) where, after dinner, we enjoyed an evening of theater at Hale Orem.  Chuck isn't a big theater fan, so surprise tickets to see a show was a real treat. After a lie-in and two trips to the continental breakfast, we spent the next morning playing mini-golf, and then a hike up the canyon to a beautiful waterfall.  It was such a beautiful day and we had such a wonderful time, when we arrived home Kaitlin said we looked younger and happier than she had ever seen us. 


No More Pencils...

Last Day!

School is out for the kids.  Ruth ended the year with straight A's, Kaitlin also ended on a high note with all A's and B's.  Jared was lucky enough to be on the track that lets out early, so he finished only a few days later than Kaitlin and Ruth. He also did well in school (except for "independent reading" because his mom didn't fill out those dumb read at home charts the last few months.)

Kaitlin got to sing at Graduation this week, and is in a bit of shock to realize that she is now a Senior.  Another shock came when Kaitlin was made A'cappella Choir Vice President. That is the largest choir in the school, and her presidency oversees all the others. It will be a lot of work but she is excited.


Footloose!

I'm center, back, in the green.

Want to discover new muscles you never knew you had? Do a dance musical! I dance for about 30 seconds in the musical, and I've been hobbling a bit this week.  Kaitlin dances for about 30 minutes in the show, and has been dancing 3 to 6 hours a day for the past few days. It's hard to remember all the dances but she is doing a great job and I'm very proud of her.   We have dress rehearsals all this week and then our show opens this Friday.



New Bike

After buttering me up with a romantic get away, Chuck bought a new (to him) motorcycle yesterday.  It's a Suzuki and it's bigger and red and Chuck has wanted one for a long time (that's all I know about it).  It will a few days before he'll be able to ride it, as he has to relicence for a bike of this size. We talked about me keeping his old motorcycle and learning to ride, but my scooter goes fast enough for me for now.