Monday, April 30, 2018

March Begins with a Lion (King)

I was very grateful that I was able to go on that St. George trip with friends, but it did come at a cost. Troy's Birthday was on Saturday and I did not want to miss that. I started driving pretty early on Saturday and arrived home in the late morning. It was a really weird day since I had been gone and didn't do a fun breakfast or anything, and Romney was in a play that had started the night before and she was pretty tired and emotional, so she got a lot of our attention that day. I don't feel like I was able to really celebrate Troy's birthday well, which I felt bad about. Troy is such a sweet and wonderful man, husband, father, brother, son and friend. He deserves the world. We did go out to dinner and get Indian Food which we both enjoyed a lot. He couldn't decide what present he wanted so that was put on hold. It was definitely a low-key birthday. We did have family over for lunch after church on Sunday and got to have meatballs followed by cake and ice cream which is always fun. Sadly, I forgot that we had no birthday candles in the house except for a one and a five. So 15 he was. I thought that would be better than being prematurely 51. 



Later on Sunday I made my way over to The Becky's house because it was The Oscars. How we love making delicious food and eating it together while judging the oscars. They've almost become irrelevant now because we never watch the movies that are up for the awards. Most of them are just not our speed. But you know we can still appreciate the movie clip montages and the crazy clothes and the fun stuff like that. It was a fun night. Here are two terrible pictures of us.



And now to the big event of March. Romney goes to a middle school that puts on a play every year. When I say, "puts on a play," that really does nothing to describe the magnitude of what is really happening. The kids who participate in this absolutely colossal event basically disappear from their home lives starting around Christmas and they are put through an exhausting rehearsal schedule. The demands are HIGH and EXACT and there are dozens of parents who throw themselves into the production as well. Romney came home crying from rehearsals more than once, and I wasn't sure she was going to be glad she had taken part. Especially after the first show, which was a Friday. On Saturday she was a bit of a wreck. And by that I mean a TOTAL wreck. I was impressed and proud of her that she regrouped and went back on stage the next night. Happily, after that first disaster she seemed to love every moment.

I helped out by doing makeup on several of the nights and that was fun to get a backstage look at this show. It's total chaos. I mean there are more than 300 middle school kids in the show so obviously it gets a little nuts. And yet somehow it all comes together and everyone knows where they are supposed to be and when.

They put on The Lion King and I can't really put into to words how impressive it was. The costumes, the sets, the singing and dancing...just jaw dropping.



Here are two dear friends, Lydia and Daffodil. Lydia played Rafiki and Daffodil was in this lovely chorus of 8th graders who sang through much of the show.


As Romney's play was in the middle of its 10 day run, her dear friend who goes to another middle school was playing the part of Iago in their production of Aladdin. Romney was heartbroken to miss it; since she had performances every night she couldn't go see Abby. Then we found out that our elementary school would be paying a daytime visit to see the show and I totally let Romney skip school to come see it. Naughty naughty but it sure lifted her spirits. I know Emma wishes that she could take her big sister on every field trip.






Here is a tiny little clip from Romney's show:






I can say after it was over that Romney was glad to have done it and at this point is saying she can't wait to be in it next year. Since 8th graders always have much bigger rolls than 7th graders I'm sure the number of days she collapses in a heap of teary exhaustion will pretty much double. But I'm also sure that she will show the gumption she did this year and get through it and end up loving it. I hope.

Tuesday, April 03, 2018

St. George. Twice.

For several years our family has taken refuge from the woes of Salt Lake City's February in the south of the state, St. George. Thank heavens my brother lives there because we are not the only ones who do this. Every year on President's Day weekend it seems that at least half of the city migrates to Utah's Dixie and we are super lucky that we have a local in the family with a home where we can hide and insights into where we can go to avoid the crowds but still have fun. It's become an annual tradition for us. Salt Lake City in February can be pretty bad - cold, dark and wracked with pollution from the winter inversion. So naturally we made arrangements for our St. George trip again this year.
I do have to say that this year, Salt Lake City had a super dry and extra warm January and February. This is not good for our snow pack, but it really helps in not having an issue with inversion collecting in the valley. Our air has been pretty clean and we enjoyed a lot of sunny lovely days. So when President's Day rolled around, we were still excited to see our family but weren't pinning all our  hopes for happiness and emotional well being on escaping our valley.

The journey down there was way more adventurous than we expected. Like I said, half of Salt Lake seems to get on I-15 driving southbound and we ran into some serious traffic. The worst was just past Cedar City when we pretty much came to a standstill for a half hour or so. Maybe longer. And...we were almost out of gas. That was exciting! We made it to St. George on fumes and were very grateful for not having a disaster and running out of gas on the freeway. We were all so hungry by the time we made it to Cedar City that we could only remember to fill up our tummies and not to fill up our car too. Even getting food was challenging; the lines were so long everywhere we went. I guess St. George was the host city for multiple tournaments in more than one sport.

We sure were happy to get there. Especially little Iva to see her big cousin. These two - what a pair.




Iva even invited Chase to her tea party and much to our shock he complied and attended with pinkie lifted.





Sheri always seems to have new places to take us. I keep thinking that we have visited all her out-of-the-way places but low and behold she had another one for us. This time it was a lovely little canyon called Padre Canyon, next door to Snow Canyon, accessible from behind the Tuachan amphitheater. It's not a super long hike but it was pretty steep and scrambly, so I was impressed when all the kids but Sam walked the whole way. They were awesome hikers and found lots to enjoy on the trail like the little hidden caves and crevices.










The hike ended at a saddle with lots of great rocks to climb. We reenacted a scene or two from The Lion King. Sam made a great if unwilling baby Simba.













We didn't do a ton of other activities. We got there so late on Friday night, then hiked and played on Saturday. We initially planned on staying until Monday but after the nasty traffic on the way there we figured that Monday would be equally miserable. And then we realized that a massive winter storm was headed to the state on Sunday and travel would be seriously affected. We made a hasty decision to leave on Sunday morning, much to our childrens' chagrin. The drive home was quick and much less stressful, what with a full tank of gas and no stopped traffic on the road. We did jump the gun just a bit - we wish we had stayed until Sunday afternoon now that we look back on it, as the storm didn't really arrive until that night, but from all the weather reports it seemed urgent that we leave. And we did end up with a pretty good storm. 


On Monday we spent the day shoveling and going sledding - it was so nice to get some real snow in the valley. It wasn't quite as big of a storm as we imagined, but it was decent for sure. And good for us since it had been such a dry winter.










It was only two or three weeks later that I made another trip to St. George. This time it was with a group of friends who try to take a girls trip every year. Sometimes it's St. George and once it was to Midway, but wherever we go it's always so fun and refreshing. I wasn't able to stay for the whole trip - I had to head out a little later than the rest of the gang and I definitely had to get back early since that Saturday was Troy's birthday as well as Romney's play. But the two nights and two days I was able to go just filled my cup. It's always great - dinner out, (and breakfast and lunch...), lots of hot tub time at the condo where we stay. Long walks and everyone wanted to go for a hike, so I led them right back up Pedro Canyon!








This is an amazing group of women. I love them dearly. I'm thrilled when I get to spend time with them and especially enjoy the long conversations we have together. I'm blessed to call them friends.

I zoomed back on Saturday morning early, wanting to be there for as much of Troy's birthday as I could. And funny enough, another winter storm was on its way. I was glad I wasn't driving back on Sunday with the other gals, although I understand they did just fine coming home. This storm didn't carry the heavy warnings and predictions as seriously as the President's Day Weekend one did, but I feel like we ended up getting even more snow this time around. I'm very grateful that with all this traveling I and my family were all safe and never really had to drive through it. 


By the time the weekend was done I can tell you that I was very glad to not be sitting in a car any more! That was a lot of travel in my dear old van.