More Les Mis

I've seen this show now twelve or so times and I'm not tired of it yet.  Thank you all (especially my loyal blog readers Amy and Lisa) for coming out to see the show.   It's fun for me to sit up in the back of the theater and watch people watching the show.   People are enjoying the show so much. Last night we had a really receptive crowd and during the final moments of the last song I saw them ripple to life,  sway and bob in their chairs like popcorn kernels, and then finally jump out of their seats when the last note was done; like they couldn't wait to stand and cheer, even before the curtain call began.  We have three shows left. 

Happy Birthday Kaitlin

Kaitlin's birthday was this week. We sent her a package that has been sitting in customs for over 3 weeks and were very happy to hear that it was delivered just days before her birthday. She was so happy to get a big bag of Lucky Charms, boxes of American Mac and Cheese, and pop tarts. Her package also included clothes, a pair of shoes, and a nice flashlight (power outages are regular there).  Also this week, Kaitlin's "friend" Ben came home from his mission to Brazil.  He showed up on our doorstep two days later to shake our hands and invite us to his homecoming talk.  Only Ruth made it to his talk (I was conducting the choir) but we did make it to his house afterward and ate some cake and met his parents and several of his siblings.

Freedom Festival

Ruth and I drove down to the Freedom Festival tonight to see her friend Quaid speak, who had won the Freedom Festival speech competition. He was able to get us down in the VIP section so we sat right in the front row. Elder Christofferson was the keynote speaker and the governor was there and it was broadcast on TV (you could see the back of our heads on TV). It was a pretty cool and Ruth's friend did a really good job.

Les Mis has begun.  The show opened on Friday and despite some technical problems, the cast was on point and the crowd was good. Only one other time do I remember being part of a show where the standing ovation started before the curtain call.

On Saturday Chuck, Jared and Ruth's friend Quaid came out to see the show.  The show runs for two more weekends through July 2nd.

I'm having a blast running one of two spotlights for the show.  I've learned a lot too. This is my favorite theater non-actor job I've had by far.  I might just volunteer to do this all the time.

We spent an afternoon attending the National High School Debate Tournament, that just happened to be in Salt Lake this year.  It was amazing! The talent of these high school kids is off the charts.

Our city days was this weekend.   We came home from the parade with a big bag of candy, and then scored some frisbees and other things at the fair.    We love our little town and love living here.  

Anniversary Get Away

Chuck and I ran off on a mini-getaway to celebrate our anniversary.  We spent a day at the Olympic Park. They have an array of zip-lines, rope courses, and an alpine slide. We were able to see some ski jumpers and watch the bobsleds run. It was a beautiful day and we had a good time.

Family Get-Together

I failed to mention last week that we got together with all our family for Memorial Day up at the farm.  We had another get-together this week with some other family at a park downtown.  It's nice to see some nieces and nephews and great-nieces that I don't usually connect with.

Dress Rehearsals

Ruth has started into dress rehearsals for Les Mis, which opens next week.  The show is  coming together pretty well.  They are letting me run the spotlight for the show and I had my first go at it on Saturday. It was pretty fun.

School's Out

We have made it to the end of another school year.  It's amazing how time flies.  Both kids did great this year, Jared got all A's, and Ruth got all A's and B's.  Jared got an award for Citizenship and Ruth got her certificate from seminary.   I couldn't be more pleased with these hard working kids.

GamingCon

Ruth and I spent a day at GamingCon and competed in their cosplay contest.  We'd never been to this con before. It was smaller and there wasn't a whole lot to do.   Still we had a fun time walking around and getting our picture taken and we tried out a new board game and met some people.

The contest went really well and in the end Ruth got 2nd place in our division for showmanship (that is her stage presentation) and I won first place in our division for craftsmanship.  My 1st place win came with a 50$ gift card. So in the end we broke even on this one.