Summer Vacation 2025 - Week 8 - The Twins are driving

This week was kind of odd. The first half of the week wasn't very eventful. And the second half was super eventful. 

There was one common thread though. The twins now have their driver's permits so they can drive with me or Brandon in the car. Up until now I've been really nervous to drive with the twins. Part of the problem is that I'm just really anxious. I'm nervous when Brandon drives. And that guy can fly planes and helicopters. So to put a newly permitted driver into a car makes me incredibly nervous. 

The other problem is that the girls have experience with the little sedan sized drivers ed cars. They aren't as used to the big mini van and pilot. So I wouldn't drive with them until Brandon took them out in the bigger cars and got them used to them. 

And then I gradually started letting the girls drive with me. Overall it's actually been okay. But we learned that I can't be in the backseat if Brandon is in the passenger seat. I just feel too out of control. The one time we did it was AWFUL for everyone involved.

Anyway let's get talking about this week.

When I was at church on Sunday I picked up four donation envelopes. When we came home I had each kid take turns filling out their camp money donation slip with me. Charlotte and Lydia had earned the full $100 fee. But they hadn't been paid for one job yet so I wrote out a check to cover that last little portion. I showed them where to fill out the amounts for cash and check and we made sure it matched the total. (They will learn accounting techniques whether they want to or not.) Derrick and Veronica had each earned $40. So I wrote checks to cover the difference for them. I also had them fill it out. In other years I've just paid online, but since we had so much cash this year it made sense to actually fill out the donation slips so the kids could see how that works.  

Here are some pictures I took on Sunday evening. Derrick likes to go sit in the chicken coop. He likes the birds a lot. Before I took this picture one of the birds had been sitting in his lap.  

Here's a picture I took for Facebook. I was doing before and after picture to compare this July to last July. 

Here's the same area last July. A lot has changed. 

I took this picture to highlight the changes from this angle. But I just laughed because the sunflowers are so tall you can't even see anything. 

 Monday was kind of a funny day. Derrick was supposed to have Outdoor camp, but the office texted me and said that the lady in charge had food poisoning so they were moving it to run Tuesday- Friday instead of Monday-Thursday. 

Veronica was supposed to have her first day of physical therapy for her knees, but that office called me and said her therapist went home early so we rescheduled for Wednesday. 

So the day was a lot more open than it would have been. 

Lydia wanted to buy yarn at Hobby Lobby so she drove there with me. And Charlotte drove on the way back. 

Then Lydia crocheted this cute goat for Charlotte. She did this without a pattern. That girl is so talented. 

That evening Peyton came over for the first time in a while. She'd been on vacation in Washington with her mom. (That's where they are from and they go there every summer when Kerri is done with work.)  Her mom and dad are both in Much Ado About Nothing so they had rehearsal. I offered to take Payton to the pool with us because I knew she needs a break from the Orpheum every so often. So Peyton went to the pool with Derrick, Veronica, and me. 

Lydia wanted to stay home alone (and work on her goat.) Charlotte didn't want to swim either. She went to Lowes with Brandon and bought wood for the picket fences that are part of the Much Ado Set. 

On Tuesday I woke up early and watered my lawn and garden really well. I'm STILL watering the front yard with just a regular sprinkler. Our sprinkler system has been quite the saga. We got it all put in, but something is wrong with the pressure. 

Brandon ordered a special pressure thingy, but it took FOREVER to ship. When it did finally ship it was delivered to the wrong address. We got a package, but it was for a house down the street. When Brandon took the package to the correct house he saw another package for a different address sitting on their porch. And about three days later some guy came to our house with our real package that had been delivered to his house by mistake. So something was wrong with Fex Ex that day. (We reported it and I told the delivery guy about it and he said, "I take one day off and this is what happens!")

And after all of that Brandon opened the package and it was the wrong part. This one is for the wrong voltage or amps or something. So he had to call the company and they "opened an investigation."  That was like 2 weeks ago. He followed up with them on Friday and the customer service guy he talked to said, "Oh I don't know why nothing has been done with that."

So at this rate I should have a working sprinkler system in November.

In the meantime I'm forced to water areas for 20 minutes at a time and then drag the sprinkler to another area. It's a pain, but it works. 

Brandon and I had switched vehicles for the day so I could take the pilot in for an oil change. I took it over to Jiffy Lube right at 8:00 and was the second person there. I think I drove out of there at 8:25. 

Derrick had to be at Outdoor Camp at 10:30 and so I had some time that morning to work on a tricky billing thing for Gaining Perspective. I had to make three phone calls, but in the end I think I figured it out. That felt really good. 

Veronica and I took Derrick to Outdoor Camp and dropped him off. Then we went and did a massive grocery shopping trip. It was the type of trip where we first bought all the bulky non perishable stuff like laundry soap and toilet paper. We took that to the car and then went back for small perishable food. We picked up Derrick at 12:00 and came home and all the kids helped bring the food in and put it away. 

Then I went to work. I was supposed to be there at 12:00 for our admin meeting. But obviously that didn't happen. It was fine though. 

I was at work for a long time. When I got home Brandon wasn't there because he was at CSI. We've started calling these "fend for yourselves" nights because I just can't be bothered to make dinner when Brandon isn't around. (Making dinner when Brandon is around is pretty iffy too. He usually makes dinner.)

Charlotte had been working on a lego house for several days.

 It was done and had the cutest accessories. Here is the kitchen.   

The bedroom.

Another view of the kitchen with the stairs. 

And the living room.

The kids talked me into going to Dierkies Lake. Lydia drove there and Charlotte drove back. On the way there. I realized that oops, we were in Brandon's car which doesn't have a Dierkies lake pass. So we had to pay the $5 entrance fee. But it was worth it because the kids swam for over 2 hours and I just sat there and read. 

Wednesday morning I was up at 6:00 with the twins. I took them and Addy to Tubbs Berry Farm for work. Then I went to Aspen Grove for about two hours and Castle Therapy for about 15 minutes. Ivan was out of town on his ward's high adventure, so there wasn't much for me to do. 

I went home and picked up Derrick and then we went out to the farm to get the girls. We dropped off the twins, then Addy, and then I dropped Derrick off at Outdoor Camp. Then I hurried home and got ready for Scripture study. 

Originally I'd planned to continue to host my scripture study group every other week all summer long. But when I saw how much each week differed from each other I realized that I would be miserable trying to keep up that routine. So I decided to just do one meeting for the summer. 

And even that was tricky. Outdoor camp was supposed to happen in June, but it was moved to July because no one else signed up for the June session. And then it was supposed to be in the afternoon, but they realized it would be to hot so they moved it to the morning. And suddenly that meant that I was starting Scripture study at 11:00 and had to be done at 11:45 in order to pick Derrick up at 12:00.

This is when I decided that I LOVE the fact the twins have been doing drivers ed because next summer THEY WILL BE ABLE TO DRIVE ON THEIR OWN. Next summer they will be able to drive Derrick and Veronica to random middle of the day stuff. But in the meantime, I'm stuck as the sole taxi driver during the day. 

So scripture study was 45 minutes for the whole summer. But it was still really good. Jori came and all four of her kids played in the basement. Rachel came too. And Diantha attended via zoom. We discussed the book "Crossings" by Melissa Inouye. It was the perfect summer read. Melissa was an LDS scholar. She passed away from cancer last year. She was first diagnosed in something like 2017. Her children were really small so she wanted to leave them a collection of her writings. That idea evolved into a book. It's a collection of her essays, lectures, emails about cancer, and her yearly newsletters - with little doodles in the margins. We all loved the book so it was fun to talk about. 

At 11:45 I left to get Derrick. I told Jori and Rachel to stay as long as they wanted. I thought they would be gone by the time I got back, but they were still there!  So that was great. We all talked and updated each other about life. At some point Jori and Rachel remembered that Jori still needed to pierce Rachel's ears. 

So Jori ran home and got her supplies and pierced Rachel's ears right in my living room. That was exciting to be a part of. 

And then we talked and talked and talked and all of a sudden it was 1:20 and I needed to make sure Veronica was ready for physical therapy at 2:00 so we all started saying goodbye and Jori rounded up her kids. It had been a great time together. 

I took Veronica to physical therapy. I was little on the fence about this whole thing and honestly I was kind of hoping she would have a terrible time. But she ended up having a super fun time. We go to a business that is almost aggressively friendly. The staff is like SUPER encouraging and will talk to Veronica the whole time. She LOVES the attention.  And at the end they had her sit with something warm on her knees and she liked that too. She said it was really relaxing. 

I'd been super tired while I was waiting for Veronica so I took a nap as soon as we were home. It was a good nap and I was in a really good mood the rest of the evening. Brandon came home from work and made pizza for dinner. I put on our fun play list of songs and we all listened to that. 

The girls didn't have Young Women's. (The Young Women's president's oldest son was getting married that weekend so that effectively cancelled the activities for everyone.) I took them all secret sister shopping at Walmart. We'd premade the lists of what they were going to buy so we just had to go in and find the things. 

Brandon took Derrick to Young Mens which was some sort of equipment check for the High Adventure part of Boys Camp. They are having all the young men start out together at a Base Camp of sorts. Then the priests and teachers will go on an overnight hike for 2 or 3 nights while the younger (and less inclined to hike) boys stay behind. Brandon is in charge of keeping the base camp boys busy. 

I thought Brandon was going to stay at the activity, but he came home and worked on the fence for Much Ado. When I came home with the girls I helped sand the boards down while he worked on screwing them onto the fence.

Here I am sanding. 

And here is the first fence. 

And the second. 

Also, here's a picture of my tomato plants. They are doing well and starting to have ripe tomatoes. 

Thursday was busy as usual. It started with watering. Then I went to Castle Therapy and met up with Ivan. He was back from his High Adventure and we were catching up on stuff. 

When I was done with that I came back home for more watering while also emailing Cassy about Gaining stuff. We'd decided not to have an in person meeting this week because it was too crazy with outdoor camp.  

At 10:30 I dropped Derrick off at Outdoor camp and went to work for about 80 minutes. Then I picked up Derrick and we went home. 

I helped Charlotte, Lydia, and Veronica start packing for girls camp. They were going out of town for the weekend so we needed to pack for Girls Camp and also pack for the weekend. It was easiest to start with the girls camp stuff. Charlotte and Lydia found most of their stuff on their own, but Veronica needed help tracking down some things. 

I'd ordered camping backpacks for Derrick and Veronica. They were supposed to show up that day. Well, Derrick's did. But Veronica's wouldn't come until Tuesday. That was disappointing for her. But Derrick let her borrow his. 

I'm always so happy when we are packing for things like this and the kids have their own sleeping bag. I didn't have my own sleeping bag until college. Every year for girls camp I'd have to borrow one. Sometimes I don't know what I'm doing as a parent, but knowing my kids have camp gear helps me feel like I'm doing something right. 

At 3:00 the girls had to be at Production Camp. I dropped them off at the Orpheum. They worked on spray painting their lamps. (Lydia later showed us her spray paint circle in the alley behind the Orpheum.)

And when I was back stage on Friday I saw the lamps hanging high above the stage. These will be props in Hadestown next week. 

I went to work and stayed there for a really long time. I was planning to work very reduced hours while the girls were at camp so I was trying to get ahead of a few things. I was there until 5:30 and even my boss Michael left before I did. 

Brandon had dinner ready when we got home and we ate that and then got ready to go to the Orpheum to see The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised] (again). 

At this point I had seen the show from back stage three times during tech rehearsal and one time during a real performance. I was excited to see it for real. And I was really excited for the kids to see it. 

I took these pictures while we were waiting. These are very, very misleading. Derrick looks happy while Veronica looks indifferent. 

And Lydia looks miserable, while Charlotte looks like she's smiling just to make me happy. 

In reality, all three girls LOVED the play while Derrick was miserable. I'm not sure what his deal was. He'd had kind of an off day. He hadn't talked to me much on the way to Outdoor camp. And at camp he'd been laying down and saying he was tired. So maybe he wasn't feeling well?

Also the play takes a little bit to get going with the zany stuff. It starts out with the actors just talking and they sound like boring adults. If you get the jokes you know they are saying really funny stuff, but if you are a 13 year old boy who had been promised physical comedy - well you feel like you're in the middle of a bait and switch. 

Derrick was NOT happy at all. He shut his eyes and missed the part where they have a "three stooges" type fight. And then he was getting agitated. 

I was thankful that I already had four nights of experience with this play, because if this was my only chance to see it I would have been pretty annoyed. But as it was, I was willing to be pretty patient with him. I tried moving with him to the back of the theatre to see if that helped. It did a bit, but he was pretty determined not to enjoy the show. 

Here are some pictures I stole from Facebook. Diana took these during one of the tech rehearsals. 

This is Tyler, Jen, and Tim in Romeo and Juliet. 

 

Here's Jen reading from the book while Tim is Juliet and Tyler is Romeo. 

Jen as the Friar and Tim as Juliet. 


Here's Jen doing Titus Andronicus - as a cooking show. She's wearing an apron that says, "Mrs Lovett's Pie Shop" which is a reference to Sweeny Todd.  

And here is Tim as Lavina. The cooking show is demonstrating how to cook someone and turn them into a pie. I'm not sure how much of this actually happens in this play. I honestly didn't even know about this play until this show. 

Here is Tim doing Othello, but he was confused about what a Moor. He googled it and thought it was a place where you dock boats. So you can see all the little boats on his chest. 

And here is the segment where they do all the historical plays as a football game with the crown getting passed all over the place. 


Derrick didn't make it to that part. I wanted him to stay around until Tim came out in a Godzilla head during Troilus and Cressida. (It's not supposed to make sense.) I figured if Godzilla didn't snap Derrick out of his mood nothing would. And unfortunately Godzilla didn't help. 

I knew that if Derrick didn't enjoy the madcap dash through 36 of Shakespeares plays in Act I - he was not going to appreciate Act II that focused on Hamlet. So I took him home. Again - I was so happy that this wasn't my only chance to enjoy this show. 

I dropped Derrick off and was back at the theatre before intermission was over. I was able to check in with the other kids who were having a BLAST. Lydia said she was laughing so hard she couldn't see because her eyes were shut. I'd been hearing Veronica laugh her guts out all night. She thought everything was funny. Charlotte and Brandon were also loving it. 

Act II was so much fun. Act I ends with Tim refusing to do Hamlet and running off. Jen chases after him and Tyler is left on stage to fill time. Act II starts with Tyler still on stage and no sign of Tim and Jen. They come back and Tim is now Pshyched to do Hamlet. He leads everyone in a cheer where he spells out H-E-L-M-E-T. And then says, "Yeah, I've got to go get my helmet."

When he comes out on stage he is wearing non other than Brandon's French Taunter Helmet. (In it's second cameo appearance of the year.) There are two Tim's in Magic Valley Rep. "Little Tim" was the one on stage. "Big Tim" happened to be in the audience this night. Big Tim is who directed Spamalot. As soon as Big Tim saw that helmet he laughed and cheered loudly. My family was also going crazy for that helmet. 

Act II was so fun without having to worry about anything back stage. When things go crazy at the end with Tim switching between Ophelia, Gertrude, and Claudius I was like, "Oh this is actually kind of slow from this perspective." It was still crazy, but as a passive observer it was nothing like the sheer terror that is going on back stage. 

The show ended and we took time to talk to friends and the actors. Our friend Crayson had been there and had a high pitched giggle through most of the show. Our acquaintance/friends Ryker and Natalie had been right behind us. Ryker and Brandon talked for a while and somehow got on the subject of Sweeny Todd. Ryker mentioned he was building the set. Brandon was like, "How are you doing the chair?"  And somehow that turned into Brandon being added to the set crew. Ryker was like, "I'm happy to design the set, but I don't want to build it."  And Brandon was like, "say no more!" So that's on our plate now too, but Brandon's really really happy about it. 

We went home and spent the rest of the evening talking about all the funny parts. Ironically, Derrick loved to hear about how silly the play was. Veronica would say, "and then Tim pretended to throw up all over the audience!"  And Derrick would laugh and laugh. But when he was RIGHT THERE WATCHING IT HAPPEN he'd refused to crack a smile. 

Autism is weird guys. 

Anyway, Derrick is not going to any shows at the Orpheum for the forseable future. I wasn't really planning on it anyway, because shows like Hadestown, Much Ado, and Godspell would be boring and Sweeny Todd is inappropriate. But now I feel really good about leaving him home for those shows. 

The next one I'd even remotely consider trying to get him to see would be Anastasia. But that's not until March. 

And here we are on Friday. Derrick was supposed to have his last outdoor camp, but he told me he didn't want to go and he was so out of sorts and I wasn't going to force that on the poor therapists. Plus that meant I could go to work without having to stop what I was doing and come home and get him. 

So I went to work for about three hours and then came home and helped the kids with last minute packing. 

Brandon had been going into work an hour early all week long so he could get off four hours early on Friday. He was home around 11:30. He was taking his nephew Bryson camping in the Uintah in Utah. Bryson's dad doesn't like to camp so Brandon takes Bryson every year for Uncle Brandon Camp. The kids were all going down to Utah with him. But they weren't going to Uncle Brandon Camp. They were going to stay at Steve and Jacque's. On Sunday Brandon's other nephew Wally had his mission homecoming. So the kids were going to be there for that. 

Originally, I was also part of this trip to Utah. I'd briefly thought about visiting my sister Emily and my parents on Saturday. But I heard the siren call of the play before any plans were made. So Brandon and I decided that I'd stay home in Idaho, and help with the play while he took the kids to Utah. 

The plan then evolved a little further. All three girls were going to camp on Monday. I realized that this would be a good - and perhaps only - chance to get the kitchen walls sanded and painted. Sanding the walls would make a lot of dust so we wanted to put plastic up all over the kitchen and seal off the doorways, but that was crazy to do with the kids all home.  If three of them at camp it would be less crazy. And if we found somewhere for Derrick to go that would make things even more convenient. 

Brandon asked his parents if he could leave Derrick with them for the week. They agreed. So suddenly I was committed to getting the kitchen done while the kids were all gone. I planned to work very reduced hours so I could focus on the kitchen. 

So Brandon took the kids and I stayed home and prepped the kitchen for sanding and painting. Also in the middle of all the last minute packing on Friday we realized our fridge and freezer weren't working. Veronica had actually noticed something was wrong on Thursday morning. She's been eating cereal and asked, "Is this milk warmer than usual?"  And I was like, "Someone must have left it out."

But on Friday I opened the freezer and noticed that all the frozen bananas and peaches were thawed out and leaking out of their baggies. Everything was thawing out. 

This wasn't great, but in a way it was perfect timing. I was the only one home so it was okay to not have a fridge. I ended up living out of a cooler and the deep freezers for the weekend. And I was going to move the fridge to paint behind it anyway. Now we could move it out, paint, and then put a new one in. 

As soon as the kids and Brandon left I made a big todo list for myself for the weekend. One of the first priorities was cleaning out the freezer and the fridge.   

I threw away a lot of stuff. (Food we should have probably thrown away anyway.) I put all the bananas and peaches into the compost. The chickens got the peas and blue berries that were thawing out and a cabbage that I'd forgot I bought like a month ago. (One reason I love chickens is they can eat the veggies that I let sit in the fridge a little long.)

Thankfully we have two freezers that aren't connected to our fridge. One is in the basement and one is in the garage. I moved a lot of food to those freezers. 

And then I took a nap because all of that was A LOT. 

In the early evening I let Charlotte's little chickens out of the coop. I tried to get good pictures of them.  

Here is Raspberry and Seed. Raspberry is the red one. Charlotte says she is the friendlies of the new chickens. Seed is the one with the lace patterns. I always tell Charlotte, "When I was a kid chickens were just brown. I had no idea they could have designs like this." 

This is Sunny. She is a Silky. They are so funny looking. 

And here's one of the original chickens. This is Rosy. She's a Rhode Island Red. 

This is Ginga' (Like Ginger with a Britsh Accent. Derrick named her after the main chicken in Chicken Ru) and . . . shoot I can't remember that other chickens name. I'd filled up the water dispensers by putting the hose in the coop and it left a big puddle. There were lots of bugs around that water and these two chickens loved scratching to find them.  

At 5:30 I started getting ready to go to the theatre. I took a shower and pulled up my hair. I don't like my bangs in my face when I'm back stage so I make sure to secure them tightly. Then I make myself a quesadilla. This is something I did during Cinderella. It's my favorite thing to eat before a show because it fills me up and I stay full. 

At 6:15 I drove over to the theatre. I arrived at the same time at Chris and Karin (pronounced like Corrine.) They had been back stage Thursday night and planned to help again that night. But that meant there would have been 5 of us and we didn't need 5. So they ended up watching the show. They said it was so fun to see what the actors out of the back stage sight lines. I was like, "Yeah, It was so great to finally see the things that make the audience laugh."

I was on Stage Right. Elleree was on Stage Left. And Delaney was bouncing back and forth helping as needed. I was a little nervous because I hadn't done this since Saturday night. But I remembered most of it. 

I took this picture with some of the costumes. The pink dress is Gertrude. The red cap is Claudius. And the white smock is Lavinia. 

That night we started a tradition at intermission that became one of my favorite parts of the show. When Tim comes back from running off he's eating candy. Tim had a bag of M&M's as a prop for this. He wanted it to be mostly empty, but didn't want to eat the whole thing. So he went around back stage handing out M&M's to everyone. I always really liked my little handful of M&Ms during intermission. 

After the show was over the cast went out to eat at O'Dunkin's which is like three store fronts down from the Orpheum. They invited us back stage helpers along. So Chris and Karin and I went over there first. I liked hanging out with them. I first "met" them at the Rupert Theatre when my family sat behind them during the Play that Goes Wrong. I had no idea I'd consider them good friends just 18 months later. 

Karin was a professional opera singer until a few years ago. Chris was in the Airforce. They met in Germany years ago and Karin pulled Chris into the world of theatre. He's really good at building sets. (He built the Cinderella set) And I found out that he's sewing all the costumes for the musical that Karin is directing called Hello Girls.

I love talking with them. Chris also had vitiligo so we were comparing light splotches. I told him that lately I've been joking that I'm "the chosen one" and a treasure map is slowing appearing on my skin. He liked that joke. 

Soon we were joined by Tyler, Jen, Elleree, Brendon, Tim, and another actor Curtis. We all talked and talked. People were talking about what shows they had been in together. Brendon said he's never been on stage with Tim or me. At the same time Tim and I both said, "We were in a show together!"  Tim played Sebastian in Cinderella. Later I realized that Tim has been involved in everything I've done at the Orpheum. He was in Cinderella. He was the Emcee at the Curtain Call Awards. And now we were doing Shakespeare. 

The evening was so fun. I like the whole play part of theatre, but the after parties are a really nice perk. 

I made it home a little before 11:00. I made sure all the chickens were in bed and locked the coop up for the night. Then read a little and went to sleep. 

And here were are on Saturday. There were four main things for Saturday.

1. Water

2. Clean out the kitchen

3. Errands

4. The play

And I got them all done. 

Here's the kitchen looking very empty. I moved the table and the microwave stand into the living room. 

I took everything off the top of the cupboards. 

I went to Lowes and started trying to figure out paint colors. Most of the kitchen will be a neutral bluish grey. But I have an idea for pops of color. The colors come from the color scheme for the dining hall at Canyon Village in Yellowstone. In 2017 it was redone with a 60 vibe. Since our house was built in the 60's I want to lean into that a little. Also I have no plans to replace or even refinish our orange cabinets. So I figure we need to play into that orange. Here's my wall of color ideas. 

One of the errands I ran was to get a haircut. I had about 3 inches of really damaged hair from the last time my sister Hillary bleached my hair. I had that cut off and my hair is so much healthier. Here's how I looked after my shower before I pulled my bangs back. 

I went through my pre-show quesadilla and other routines and was back at the theatre at 6:30. Saturday night might have been my most favorite show. It was Elleree, Delaney, and me back stage again. We had everything down to a science. This was the night that all the crazy costume changes during Hamlet felt slow to me while I was doing them. 

And the crowd was awesome. There were a lot of magic valley rep people out there because there was a get together after this show so they were having a great time. It was a really good night. 

After the show I went out to say hi to my friends. Sara, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, other Rachel, Rylee, and a bunch of others were there. They were all staying for the after party. 

If this was a musical we'd all be going out to the Redhawk for 4th Wall Night. But it wasn't a musical. So instead we were staying at the Orpheum for the first ever Improve night. Brendan asked a few of the improve people from the community to come and anyone else could sign up to participate. Most of us just watched. It was a hilarious evening with stuff that I can't explain. 

I'd thought the party would last until 12:00 like 4th Wall night does. So I'd had an energy drink at 2:00. But the party actually ended at 10:00 and I was left feeling VERY ALERT. 

I came home and ate ice cream and then talked to Brandon on the phone. He'd had a great time camping with Bryson. They had been rained on, but still had a fun time.  

And here are are to Sunday. I spent a lot of the morning sitting on the patio working on Exponent Guest posts. At 8:30 Brandon called me and we both got on Lowe's website and picked out a new fridge together. I HATE spending money on a fridge because they are super boring. Like, there is nothing fun about a fridge. But considering this is the first fridge we've ever had to buy in 18 years of marriage - I guess that's okay. 

I went to church at 12:00, but only stayed for Sacrament meeting because I had to be at the Orpheum at 1:30. The matinee show started at 2:00. I've decided I don't like matinee's because they mess with my nap schedule and my quesadilla time. 

But once I was back in the theatre I was back in the zone. Chris and Karin were there to help. Chris was on Stage Right with me. He helped a lot during Act I, but stepped back for Act II. I was on my own and it went just fine! 

I found myself feeling sad after every costume change. When Cinderella ended I'd been relieved. Her dresses were so complicated that I was happy when we were done with them for the last time. But this time I was like, "No, I wish that wasn't the last time I pulled the bloody socks off Tim's hands." I really wish this show ran for another weekend. 

During Act I Tim throws a dummy during the football scene. Then it comes back stage again and we wrap it up in a blanket and tie twine around it to look like a dead body. They use it to represent Ophelia during Hamlet. 

We've done a lot of funny stuff with that dummy and I thought it would be funny to go outside and take an alley picture with it. Alley pictures are a tradition at the Orpheum for big casts. I was like, "Oh this will be hilarious."

But as soon as I turned my front facing camera on I was like, "Oh shoot, this looks like a real body."  And a truck was coming down the alley and I just knew this looked strange - even for Orpheum alley standards. So I took the picture and hurried back inside. 

I didn't plan to post the picture, but it ended up so goofy that I put it on Facebook with the caption: 

That awkward moment when you are taking "funny" pictures with the dummy you wrapped in a shroud, but you realize how realistic it actually looks and you start to panic that the people driving down the alley think you really wrapped up a person.

And all too soon the show was over. I was not ready to say goodbye so I hung around to help with the clean up - and to take pictures. 

One of my favorite elements of the show are the book cases. They start off empty except for a copy of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. As the actors bring on and use different props they put them on the shelves. Not all the props end up on the shelves, but most of them do. 

This is the middle book shelf. It has the book that is placed up there at the end. The swords from Hamlet, the Laurel leaves from Julius Caesar. The bush from Macbeth. The Masks from the mash up of all the comedies. The pie from Titus Andronicus. The robot from Troilus and Cressida. The puppets from the play within a play in Hamlet. the ukule from Romeo and Juliet. And the bowl of blood and the knife from Titus Andronicus. 

This is the book case on Stage Right. The top has the godzilla head and the dinosaur from Troilus and Cressida. Then there is Tim's wig from when he plays an audience member at the beginning of the play. Next to that is the helmet of Hamlet's ghost father. Then there is the crown which is used like three times. The cups of water are from every time Ophelia downs herself. (They do Hamlet three times and get progressively faster and then to it backwards.)

Then there is a maniqun head that Tim whacks into the audience with a golf club during Macbeth (Doing an accent like Scrooge Macduck.) Then there's a sweat towel, and a flag and whistle for the football crown part.  Anne Boleyn's head and a book are on the next shelf. I'm not sure what is behind the book. Maybe one of the poison bottles? Maybe a flower? The bottom shelf has the scripts for the comedy play mash up.  

And here's the book case on stage left. The chainsaw is from Titus Andronicus. OOB is from when they run Hamlet backwards. (All the actors signed it and put it up somewhere after the show.) Then there are more masks from the comedies, The skull from hamlet, Romos's rose, Cleopatra's asp, and a bunch of wigs, (I think they are Romeo, Laertes, Cleopatra, and Cressida.) Oh and Tim's boats from the moor scene. 

And here I am with a costume - The French Taunter Helmet. I made sure to bring that home. 

I helped lay all the costumes out on the chairs to dry. Not only did Tim get the Ophelia dress really wet, everyone was also sweating like crazy. So yeah, these needed some time to air out. I put all the wigs on the next row. There were so many wigs. Juliet, Lavinia, Cleopatra, Cressida, Ophelia, and Gertrude each had there own wig. There were also wigs for Tim as an audience member, Romeo, the nurse, Laertes, and a wig for Claudius' beard.  

There was no cast party because the three cast members were pretty tired. I joked they needed to do the shawarma scene at the end of the first Avengers movie.  

And then Brendon was like, "that's a wrap" and it was over. And it was sad, but also good. I'd been so honored to be part of this show. It really was the highlight of my summer. I'm so glad I made this a priority. 

I came home and about an hour later Brandon and the girls came home. They were all surprised by how empty the kitchen was. We had a nice evening and then went to bed. 

And tomorrow things are really crazy. It's the first day of Girls camp, but it's also the set building day for Charlotte and Lydia's production camp. So Veronica is going to camp with the main group at 9:00. Charlotte and Lydia are going to the Orpheum to build the set for 4 hours. Then I'm driving them up to camp. And after I get home I'm going to start working on the kitchen. 

I'll tell you all about it next week. 

Thanks for reading.