Summer 2024 - Week 4 - What day is it?

When I tried to explain the two weeks from Saturday, June 15th to Sunday June 30th to Brandon I felt like I needed a map and two little model cars to drive around to show what was going to happen. 

Here's the gist.

I was going to drive to Utah on Saturday the 15th and then drive back to Idaho on the 16th. Then I'd drive back to Utah on Monday the 17th. I'd sleep at my sister Emily's house and then ride with her family down to Cedar City. We'd meet up with my siblings and then drive together down to St George to see Anastasia at Tuacahn Tuesday night. Then it was back to Cedar City for the night. On Wednesday we'd drive back to Emily's house and I'd drive back to Idaho. I'd work on Thursday and Friday. On Saturday the 22nd Brandon would take the kids down to a family reunion in Utah for his side of the family.  

On Sunday the 23rd I'd drive down to Bear Lake on the Utah side. Brandon would meet me there with the kids. He'd help set up our campsite and then drive back to Idaho. I'd stay at Bear Lake for four nights and do cousin camp with my sisters and their kids. Then I'd drive back to Idaho on Thursday June 27th. Brandon would get off work on Thursday and drive to meet up with his sister and his nephew in Snowville. He was doing "Uncle Brandon Camp" in the mountains near City of Rocks. He'd be there until Saturday. 

On Saturday night he'd drive to his parents house. Then on Sunday June 30th he'd go to another nephew's Mission Farewell. The kids and I would drive down for the Farewell that morning and then we'd all drive home that afternoon. 

And then we would do NOTHING in July. 

I told you my summer was very top heavy. 

Also, I've had a really hard time knowing what day of the week it was ever since Monday, June 17th. For example, today was the most Monday-ist Friday ever. 

Anyway let's look at the little things that happened between all that driving. This will only cover the first half from Monday June 17- Sunday June 23. The next post will cover Monday Jun 24-Sunday June 30th. 

Monday June 17th. 

You may be wondering why in the heck I went to Utah for the weekend, came back to Idaho for a day, and then drove back to Utah. Wouldn't it have been easier to just stay in Utah? Yeah, Yeah it would have been easier. 

Trust me, I ran that scenario in my mind SEVERAL times. 

But I needed to go back to Idaho for a few reasons. The biggest one was that Charlotte and Lydia had Girls Camp on Monday. 

On Monday morning they got up early and went to Walmart with me so we could get a few last minute things like sun block and stuff for their lunches. 

Then I dropped them off at the church at 9:00. This was their 3rd year of camp. They were a little worried about it. The last two years they'd been in Air-BNB type houses. The younger girls had been shoved into odd rooms and just kind of slept on the floor or a couch. This year Charlotte and Lydia said they would bring their own tent and sleep in that rather than be crammed in with all the younger girls again. So they had their own tent. But I'd heard that this year they were in cabins with ample space so I didn't think they'd actually use it. 

I said goodbye to them and then drove to work. Until I remembered that I'd forgot to give the leaders the special letters I was supposed to write. These letters were a surprise for the girls the first year, but now they are kind of expected. The problem is that Charlotte and Lydia said they didn't really care about them so I kept forgetting to write them. 

I literally wrote the letters that morning. And since I type faster than I write I just wrote them on the computer. I was in such a hurry that I basically copied and pasted the letter for each girl and then just changed some details. I printed the letters off and put them in my purse. But I forgot to give them to the leaders at drop off. 

So I turned around and went back to the church. I handed the letters to Charlotte through my car window and said, "Here, give these to your leaders."

And then I drove to work. I was taking Tuesday and Wednesday off of work so I needed to do a lot to be ready to leave. Monday was a really cold day. I spent half the morning shivering at work. I even wrapped up in my blanket. I was like, "Am I getting sick?"  And then someone turned on the heat and I warmed up. I thought, "I'm healed!"

That afternoon I took Derrick to the orthodontist. He got braces put on his bottom teeth. He was really patient with the whole thing. 

I came home and Brandon was home from work. I'd planned to hang out at home for a bit, but I was feeling antsy and Brandon told me he had everything so I could just leave. 

So I left him with Derrick and Veronica and their LONG list of snack food they wanted. They were going to be home alone on Tuesday and Wednesday morning while I was gone. I'd toyed with the idea of them having a babysitter. But honestly it was easier to just have them stay home alone. They wouldn't really wake up until 9:00 ish and Brandon would be home each day at 1:30. So they would be fine watching TV - and eating snacks during that time.   

Brandon took them to the store after I was gone and bought them their snacks - not everything on the list - but enough to fulfill their dreams of "living like Kings."

They had a great time home alone and they also had fun with Brandon when he was home after work. On Tuesday he actually had to go back to CSI to help some more with the unit on welding. So he took Derrick and Veronica with him. They watched movies on the tablet in another room. When that was done they went out to eat at a burger place Brandon discovered. 

And this whole thing shows how much Veronica's separation anxiety has decreased. 18 months ago she freaked out if I left the house without her for 5 minutes. Now she was like, "by mom, see you in three days."

Anyway, back to me. I'd told Emily I'd be at her house around 9 or 10. And I was leaving at like 3:30 so I had a lot of time to kill. I drove to Snowville and then found the park I'd taken a nap at on Sunday. I hung out in the car just kind of laying back in my seat and listening to a podcast. Then I kept driving. 

While I was driving I was trying to figure out what day of the week it was. I was like, "I worked this morning. So I think it's a week day. Is it Monday? But I'm driving down to Utah so it feels like a week day? Did I just do this drive yesterday? Was that Sunday?"

I basically didn't know what day of the week it was for the next two weeks.

In Brigham City I got off the interstate and drove on Highway 89. That was a nice leisurely drive. And it helped me pretend that I wasn't doing the exact same drive I'd done on Saturday. 

I made it to Emily's around 8:30 as she was putting her kids to bed. She and I stayed up talking for a little bit, but we didn't stay up too late because we were planning to leave for Cedar City early in the morning. 

Emily and her kids were ready to go at 8:00 on Tuesday morning. We were driving down to my sister Lindsey's Inlaws house in Cedar City. Lindsey already had Hazel and Asher with her. She'd left Knoxx with Emily. Knoxx sat in the back of the van with Bridger and Titus. Unbeknownst to Emily they'd snuck the Switch from the house and played that the whole way. Vance and Juniper sat in the middle row. They watched movies on the TV in the van. Emily drove and I sat in the passenger seat. 

I was still trying to get the menu together for cousin camp the next week. So I asked Emily's kids for ideas of things to they liked to eat. I made a big list. 

Mostly Emily and I talked while we drove. We had a good time and the drive seemed to go really quickly. I thought we'd stop for a bathroom break for sure, but no one needed to stop at all during the 4 and a half hour drive. 

We made it to Lindsey's inlaws around 12:30. Her inlaws are Kari and Terry. They are the ones who owned my van. They've also been in my life more than you'd expect my sister's inlaws to be. Every time I go to their house I think it's the last time I'll be there. And yet here I was for like my fourth visit there. We'd all been at their house for cousin camp last year while they were on a mission. 

Billy and Becca and their kids showed up a little after we arrived. It was like family reunion part two. 

I felt a little untethered at the house. Everyone else had their kids with them and I was just kind of there. Lindsey and Emily took their kids swimming. And Billy and Becca took their kids to a park. I stayed at the house and took a nap. 

This was technically our "Sister's Trip" for the year, but it wasn't as well planned as other "Sister's Trips" have been. We'd been planning to see Anastasia at Tuacahn for months. I think we bought tickets when they were first released in February. But that's about as far as our actual planning had gone. We were still shuffling plans up until a few hour before the play.

I think our original plan had been to leave the kids with babysitters and share a hotel room in St George. But we kind of hamstrung ourselves in that regard when we bought tickets for a Tuesday night. The tickets were cheaper that night, but it meant that Emily's husband wouldn't be able to watch their kids because he'd have work. So she had to bring all her kids to Cedar City. She was okay with leaving them at Kari's for a few hours on Tuesday night, but she didn't want to leave them all night. So we just stayed at Kari's instead of a hotel. 

Also we'd originally planned to have Hillary with us, but she had things come up. We'd bought 5 tickets that were supposed to be for the Sisters; Me, Lindsey, Emily, Hillary and our sister in law Becca. When Hillary couldn't come we decided our brother Billy could have that ticket. But then he and Becca decided that their kids needed one of them to stay with them that evening. So the ticket went to Lindsey's sister in law Maria. 

Dinner also wasn't really planned. We decided to get burgers at a local place in Cedar. Billy came along for that. We left all the kids at home so it was a quick dinner. 

So everything just felt kind of strange and half planned that evening. 

Around 7:30 we left Cedar City and drove in Emily's van to St George where the Tuacahn Amphitheater is located. I'd never been to a show there. Lindsey and Maria had seen some shows there before. 

We found our seats and read the play bill while we waited for the show to start. The evening may have been a little crazy, but this was perfect. Here I am with Emily, Becca, and Lindsey.

And here I am with Maria. I've known her since she was 9.

Here's the stage. 

I was 12 when the animated movie Anastasia came out. Me and one of my best friends, Becky, went to see it opening weekend. We both loved it and I was pretty obsessed. I loved the music, the story, the costumes, everything.  That obsession tempered as I got older, but I still really liked the movie.

Last fall Lindsey went to a local production of Anastasia because someone in her ward was Young Anastasia. She raved about the show in our Marco Polo group. She told us, "If you ever get the chance, you should see Anastasia."

Then Emily saw an advertisement for Anastasia at Tuacahn and we knew that had to be the Sisters Trip for this year.  

The play started at 8:45 just as the sun was setting. It started off very emotional and we were all close to tears. Everything was incredible. The sets, the costumes, the dancing, the singing. 

I'd listened to the musical music a lot when Lindsey first started raving about it. They have most of the songs from the animated movie, but they are in a different order and some of the words are changed. The only song that is missing is "In the Dark of the Night."  Actually everything about Rasputin is taken out. Instead they have a Soviet official as the antagonist. He was super good looking in his uniform and also sang really well. His song, "The Neva Flows" was one of my favorite songs of the whole play. I'd had trouble figuring it out from just the sound track so it was good to see how it fit into the plot. 

The best song of the whole play is probably "Stay I Pray You." It has elements from "In the Dark of the Night." It's super emotional and beautiful. When the play was over I was like, "Hey, could we get an encore of "Stay I Pray You?""

One of my other favorite parts was Quartet at the Ballet. They literally had ballet dancers performing a Swan Lake scene. Meanwhile Anastasia, Demetri, The Soviet Official, and The Dowager Empress sing a quartet. It was full of so many layers and was absolutely beautiful.

The ending of the play was another part I was really curious about since I couldn't fully figure that out from the soundtrack. It was so so so so so good. 

The whole time I was watching the play I was thinking about how I wanted to BE in the play some day. That's not as far fetched as it sounds. My friend Ivan also saw Anastasia at Tuacahn a few weeks ago. He told me that his new dream is to play Vlad in Anastasia. Since his old dream to play Harold Hill in The Music Man came true last year I'm pretty certain this one will pan out eventually too. I've already told Brandon that if Magic Valley Rep does Anastasia I want to be in that play. I'd love to be Alexandra, but I'd be happy with any little part as long as I can sing the songs. 

The play ended close to 12:00. We went back to the car and waited a little bit for traffic to clear out. Then Emily drove us back to Cedar City. As we drove we all shared stories about how we met our husbands. It was really fun. 

We got back to the house at 1:00. Kari's house has plenty of room, but Lindsey didn't want to wake any of the kids up so she had a mattress on the floor of the family room for me and her to share. We got in bed and were talking. Then Emily came in and snuggled between us. 

All three of us laid on that mattress and talked until about 2:00. I said it reminded me of when we were little and all shared a couch bed. We'd started doing that when I was about 5 and Lindsey was 3. Emily joined us when she had to give up her crib when Billy was born.  All three of us shared until we moved to a new house when I was 7. 

At some point one of Emily's kids cried so she left to help them. But me and Lindsey shared the mattress all night. 

On Wednesday I slept in until 8:00 which was the first time all summer that I wasn't awake by 6:00. I got up and helped make French Toast for everyone. 

Then we left and started driving back north. As we drove I took all the food ideas that Emily's kids gave me and turned them into a menu for Cousin Camp. Making a menu had felt impossible a few days ago, and now it was DONE. We stopped at Cove Fort for a little while. I thought I took a picture there, but guess I didn't. 

The drive back to Emily's wasn't as smooth as the drive down had been. It was hot and Juniper was not happy.

When we got to Emily's I hung around for a bit to make sure she was situated. And then I started driving home. I stopped at Wendy's for dinner.

I got home around 8:30. Derrick and Veronica were so happy to see me. Kari had given me a Golden Spike with a small model train on it. I gave it to Derrick. He said, "Oh WOW."

On Thursday I spent a lot of time watering the garden. Here are strawberries growing in the front yard. 

Here's my catalpa tree.

Here's my Rainier Cherry Tree. 

Look at those good looking cherries. 

I was back at work on Thursday morning. My coworker had covered for me while I was gone and Wednesday had been the Juneteeth so there was no mail that day anyway. But I still wanted to make sure everything was ready for the end of the pay period. Also I was trying to get ready to leave for four days the next week.  

I came home around 11:30 because that's when we were expecting the girls home from girls camp. But they really didn't get home until 1:00. When I picked them up at the church they were all smiles. They said it was the best year of camp ever. They'd had plenty of room in their cabin. The younger girls were split into two groups so they weren't all squished together. Charlotte and Lydia really bonded with a girl their age who moved in during the last year. And another girl who was doing her first year of camp. 

They'd been in the Sawtooths and had been snowed on during their first day at camp. But the cabins all had fireplaces so they were warm. After the first day things warmed up a bit and the snow melted. They were able to go to a hot spring. (the girls said it was cold) and also a hike. 

At 2:00 Brandon took Veronica to her last Vision Therapy appointment. This was her evaluation. After that was over we officially entered into Therapy Free Summer!  For the first time in 5 years we have no therapy. 

I stayed home and worked on things for cousin camp. I made the schedule and then I made a list of who would help prepare and clean up meals. I also made a big shopping list for the trip. 

That night Brandon and I went to see a production of Les Misérables put on by Jump Company. Jump Company is for kids from like 8-18, but this production was just for teenagers 14-18. When I was in highschool I saw Hunter High School put on Les Mis. It was amazing and I've always wanted to see it again. So even though this was my THIRD play in two weeks I made sure to get tickets so Brandon and I could go.

It was so well done. Obviously it didn't have the production value of Anastasia at Tuacahn. But it seemed to have more heart. Maybe that was just because I felt more of a connection to the actors. I went into the play thinking I didn't know anyone in the play, but as it went on I realized I did know some of them. The girl playing Eponine had been in Music Man. I recognized Javair from JIVE. He'd sung Agony from Into the Woods during JIVE and I'd been impressed because he'd made me like that song. As Javeir he was INCREDIBLE. I also recognized "Tommy Djilas" from music man in the ensemble. There was also a live orchestra in the pit. I knew some of those people as well. So I might have liked Les Mis just a bit more than Anastasia because I knew that all these local people were putting so much effort into it. 

There were a few technical issues that were unfortunate. Some mics weren't working. And one of the musicians would blow on their horn randomly and sound like a train whistle. But hey, for $12 a ticket those things happen. 

But the rest of the show was stunning. All the singers were incredible. The costumes were done by Britt who does the living nativity. Here's an example of her work. 

There's a lot of cross over between Jump Company and The Magic Valley Rep/Orpheum. People from Magic Valley Rep serve on the board of Jump. So some of the props were from the Orpheum. One scene was set on a dock and there was a ships mast on the stage. I leaned over to Brandon and asked, "Is that your mast from Treasure Island?"  He said, "Yes, and those are our barrels too."

He said there were a lot of props that he recognized. 

Brandon was going into this play completely blind. I thought that he'd at least heard the songs from when I was really into the soundtrack in like 2009. But I guess I mostly listened to that at work. He didn't know anything about the songs or the story. 

He was totally into it though and loved it. 

The kids gave it their all. They were all such good singers and everyone nailed their numbers. Eponine is my favorite so I loved Luxie's performance of "On My Own."  (I was partially pretending to cast Anastasia while I watched this so I decided she should be Anastasia.) Javier was also incredible. All the revolutionaries were great, but the guy playing Enjolras was on a whole other level. The kid doing Jean Val Jean was also good, but I think he was losing his voice so his version of "Bring Him Home" wasn't the best I've heard, but it was still very good. 

Anyway it was fabulous. As we left the director was filming people's reactions. As Brandon and I walked out we said it was great. And then, because I realized this was the director and I wanted to let him know how amazing it had been - I turned back and said "I was at Tuacahn two days ago. And this was almost as good."  (Honestly if the mic issues hadn't happened I would have said it was just as good.)  I figured he just show the cast the reaction video. But it ended up on the Jump Company Facebook page and later someone said they saw me on the news. 

Friday felt like it should have been Saturday. But instead I had to go to work. I'd been planning to get a lot done to prepare to be gone the next week, but after a while I was like, "Oh well, it's as good as it's going to be."

Derrick and Veronica were super antsy so I took them to the pool that afternoon. I ended up running into Liz for the first time this summer. It was great to catch up with her. 

When we got home I picked all the cherries. 

Brandon was getting ready to audition for Spamalot. He was getting nervous so he just wanted to get it over with. Auditions started at 4:00 and he was there at like 4:30. Spamalot is the musical version of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. He's only seen that movie like once in the last 15 years but he still had so many of the lines memorized from when he watched the movie as a teenager. The play is being directed by Tim who played Long John Silver. Tim is hilarious and all during rehearsals for Treasure Island people were talking about Spamalot. Brandon knew it was going to be a fun play and wanted to be part of it. 

He came home in SUCH a good mood. His audition had gone really well. They'd had him read lines and he'd been able to nail the delivery just like the lines were in the movie. He especially liked doing the Taunting French man and the ugly woman who says, "King of the OOO?" He said everyone laughed really hard at everything he was doing. 

He'd been asked if he would want a lead role and he was like, "Um maybe."  But really he just wanted to be there in the background having fun. 

That night we watched Wonka. I can see the appeal, but honestly after seeing Anastasia and Les Mis in the same week I was not impressed by Wonka. I fell asleep during most of the movie. 

Saturday was a busy day. Brandon's mom's family was having a family reunion. The two times that I did go to that reunion were really boring for me so I had no plans to attend. But Brandon loves that reunion. So he was going for sure. At first we planned for all the kids to go with him, but Charlotte and Lydia wanted to spend a little more time at home. So he was taking Derrick and Veronica and Charlotte and Lydia were staying with me. 

I was planning to buy ALL the food for Cousin Camp. Emily had sent me home with two of her coolers so I could pack the perishable food in those. 

Around 7:00 I went to Winco. I said goodbye to Derrick, Veronica, and Brandon because they would probably leave before I got home. 

I did THREE different rounds through Winco. First I bought the big stuff, then I bought all the non-perishable stuff, and finally I bought all the perishable food like the dairy, meat, and produce. Here's all the food in the back of my van. I'd folded down the back seats so there was lots of room. 

I felt like I spent SO much money, but when I did the math it worked out to be about $10 per person per day. And that's not so bad. 

Brandon and Derrick and Veronica were gone when I got home. Charlotte and Lydia were still in bed. They got up and helped bring the food in the house. I only really had room for the perishable stuff so we brought that in and put it on the table and left the perishable stuff outside for the moment. 

The girls helped me prep food like cooking the taco meat and the bacon. 

Then I took a break for about an hour. After that I went back to work prepping food. I made cowboy caviar and pasta salad. Charlotte and Lydia helped divide up goldfish, pretzels, and oreos into snack bags. 

I emptied out the two pink totes I use to store travel blankets and pillows in my car. One tote was full of the breakfast and snack food. The other had lunch and dinner food.

By this point it was like 3 in the afternoon. We decided to take a break and watch a movie. I picked Divergent. The girls kind of liked it. 

In the evening we started packing the car with all the camping gear. We were bringing camping stuff for Lindsey to use too so we had a lot of it. We brought 3 tents, 9 sleeping bags, 8 camp chairs, all our water floating toys, so many towels, extra blankets, all the food, and a lot of small things. 

I went to the store and bought ice, but we wouldn't pack the coolers until the morning. 

Charlotte and Lydia stayed up until about midnight, but I went to bed around 10:30.

They stayed up working on this perler bead creation. 

 I guess this post is actually going to end here because Sunday was the first day of cousin camp and I want to keep all the cousin camp posts together. 

But I will tell you one thing that happened on Sunday. I happened to be scrolling Facebook and I saw that the cast list had been posted for Spamalot. I hadn't talked to Brandon yet so I didn't know if he'd made it into the play. I looked at the list and saw his name in the ensemble. When I saw him later I was like, "Congratulations!"  He was really happy. He said, "I got the part where I'm the ugly lady that says King of the OOO."   

And the cast list is incredible. A lot of the leads from Guys and Dolls are coming back as leads in this. Our friend Nate is going to be King Arthur. Basically it's just going to be hilarious. 

Okay that's all for that week. Next I'll tell you all about Cousin Camp. 

Summer 2024 - Week 3 - Surprises

So I'm in the middle of the busiest two weeks of my whole summer. And let's just say things have been crazy. I spent each day of last week confused about what day of the week it was. 

But as always, I'm trying to not get behind on this thing. And so we need to go back in time TWO weeks to the week of June 10th. This feels like a month ago. I'm going to do my best to write about it. The main thing I remember about that week was that there seemed to be a surprise every day.

Monday June 10th.

The reason this second half of June is so busy is because my side of the family is having a lot of get togethers. My sister Lindsey flew in from Houston with her family on the 9th. She spent the week with her in-laws. And then would spend the rest of her visit with my family. My brother Billy also came into town. He and his family drove down from Canada. 

His route from Canada would take them right past Twin Falls. We were planning to meet up at a park so his kids could get their wiggles out while we visited. So after I was done with work that morning I stopped at the store and bought two boxes of ice cream sandwiches. 

A little after that Billy texted me and told me there were near Boise. They were at a park there and hoping to get the kids really worn out. He expected that they'd probably be sleeping when they went through Twin Falls. He was still willing to meet up, but I told him that I didn't want to mess with sleeping kids on a long road trip. If the kids were asleep when he came near Twin Falls they should just keep driving. I was going to see Billy on Saturday anyway so it wasn't like this was my only chance to see him. 

I told the kids, "I have good news and bad news."  They wanted to know the bad news first so I told them, "We aren't going to see Billy and Becca today."  Then they asked what the good news was. I said, 
"I bought a bunch of ice cream sandwiches before I found out."

So we had fun eating those sandwiches over the next two days. 

It actually really worked out because Charlotte and Lydia had an orthodontist appointment that afternoon and it was going to be hard to work in meeting up with Billy while also making it to that appointment. 

Their appointment was quick and then we went to the mall to go to Hobby Lobby to get some gifts for their girls camp secret sisters. Before we did any shopping we went into the mall to see their art display for Art and Soul. Here's Lydia with her picture. 

And Charlotte with her wings. 

We bought some things at Hobby Lobby and then went to Walmart and got the rest. We still had a week before they went to camp, but I wanted to get as much done ahead of time as possible. 

Back at home Derrick's new goggles showed up. His old goggles were starting to break in the back so I'd ordered new ones. But he was very particular about them. He wanted "Oval Goggles" and stood over my shoulder as I ordered them from Amazon to make sure I got the right ones. He was so excited about these. 

There was a slight problem with them though. The oval is made of glass, and so the pool doesn't allow them. (If they break that's a big clean up problem for them.)  So he can only use them at Dirkie's Lake. He's still excited about them though. 

Lydia had been working hard on a project for about a week. She made the Mystery Shack from the TV show Gravity Falls. She made it out of cardboard boxes and popsicle sticks. 

She did a really good job. 

It was so cute. 

The big surprise for Monday was that Brandon had a play performance. I'd been a little confused about the dates of this play for a while. Way back before auditions were announced Ivan had told me the dates of the play. I'd written them down on my calendar. When auditions were announced I saw that the play dates had moved back a week. But some how I never deleted the old dates. So for a while my calendar said that the play ran for three weeks instead of two. I eventually got everything straightened out - or so I thought. 

Somehow I never realized that there was now a performance on May 10th. Brandon had mentioned over the weekend that he needed to be at the Orpheum on Monday night. I was like, "Is that the pick up rehearsal?"  But he told me it was for a performance. I was like, "WHERE DID THIS COME FROM?"

So that whole night just felt weird. 

My friend Jori and her husband Tim had known there was a performance on Monday because that's the night they had tickets for the play. They LOVED it. They said Brandon looked like he was born to play a pirate. 

So now it's time to look at some pictures. Here's his really cool picture that made it onto a promo for the play.

Here's an older picture from when he was practicing the sword fighting. 

Here he is arguing with Hans Israel about something. (And check out Long John Silver's peg leg. That thing was a character itself.) 

Here are Hans and Brandon's character being drunk.

Here they are fighting. 

And here is Brandon's epic death scene. Hans slits his throat and then Brandon would fall face first and lay on the stage for the next 5 or so minutes. He said that some nights he landed right on his cheek bone and it would be really uncomfortable to hold the pose - but that his Army training would kick in and he'd be like, "MUST HOLD STILL."

Actually his army training came in handy a few times. He'd learned how to knife fight in Korea and so he was giving other cast members pointers on how to do that. I was like, "If your drill sergeants could see you now?"

Okay one final picture of during a rehearsal. There are so many good things about this picture. 

Jori also told me that Brandon had one of the most consistent accents in the play. She liked that. Also her husband Tim really loves movies, but he was like, "This was better than a movie."  (When I told Ivan that he pumped his fist in the air and yelled, "YES!")

Okay let's move onto Tuesday June 11. 

I was about to do a bunch of driving over the next few weeks so I realized it would probably be a good idea to get an oil change for the Odyssey. So I took it over to Jiffy Lube right at 8:00. Derrick came with me because he wanted the free soda and popcorn.

Jiffy Lube was great and we were in and out of there really fast. They'd reset the oil change light thingy and so the car was displaying it's milage. Usually I switch it over to the temperature display because 1. I like to know the temperature and 2. It's kind of freaky to be constantly reminded how many miles this thing really has. But I left it on milage for the day because I realized we were close to a cool number. Later in the day I took this picture of the milage at 280028.  My goal is to get this car to 300,000. 

I also went around and watered the yard a lot that morning. Here are blooms on my blackberries. 

The yellow rose bush was looking lovely.

I love this thing so much in June. 

On Monday night I'd taken the kids swimming while Brandon was at the play. Veronica had been complaining about a sore throat all day. I'd been a little concerned, but also kind of like, "sore throats happen, it will probably go away."

Well at the pool she stopped swimming after a few minutes and came and laid on the blanket with me. That was unusual enough for me to really pay attention to how she was feeling. I realized that he hadn't been eating much, she'd been more tired, and now she wasn't even swimming. HMMMM. 

I took another look at her throat. It was really red and swollen. I also thought I saw a red sore on the roof of her mouth. Something in the back of my mind said, "It's hand foot and mouth disease."  And I was like, "Oh shoot!"

The kids had all had hand foot and mouth disease back in 2014 towards the end of when Brandon was in Korea. It had been awful because we'd had to cancel EVERYTHING. So now I was wondering if we'd have to cancel all our plans for that week and weekend. I started checking her hands and feet for sores. I thought I saw one on the palm of her hand. 

But part of me was like, "Hopefully it's JUST strep."

So I got online and made a doctors appointment for the next morning. 

On Tuesday, after the oil change, I came home and picked up Veronica and took her to the doctor. It's kind of funny because her Primary Care doctor never seems to have openings when she is sick. So we usually end up seeing the one of the other doctors when she's sick. I joke that our Primary Care Doctor is just for Well Checks and this doctor is for illnesses. 

So our illness doctor took a look at her and ordered a strep test. We got that swabbed and then went home. A few minutes later we were called with the results. She was positive for strep. 

Hallelujah!

Strep sucks, but it's easy to treat. I picked up her antibiotics a little later and had her take them. She wouldn't be contagious in 12 more hours. We didn't need to cancel any plans.  

Charlotte had seen a really cute little wooden house at Hobby Lobby that she just HAD to have. So she'd bought it. She'd started working on it right when she came home. On Tuesday she finished it up. She'd put shingles on the roof with popsicle sticks. And she'd cut the windows deeper and removed some railing from the porch. 

It was adorable. 

She also put lights in the windows. 

Veronica's strep wasn't the only surprise of the day. I'd been really excited because Tuesday was the one day that whole week that Brandon didn't have to be at the Orpheum. He was going to be HOME that evening. 

But at some point the instructors at CSI called him up and asked him to help out with the Welding Unit they were doing. I guess they decided they needed more instructors around to help with the hands on part of it. 

So Brandon went out to Burley that evening. And I was like, "WHAT?"

Wednesday's surprise happened pretty early in the morning. Lydia was outside. She'd taken Marcia out and was letting her run around. Lydia was in the chicken run doing stuff with the chickens. Somehow Poppy flew under the chicken netting and over the fence. Marcia caught Poppy before Lydia could get out of the run to save her. 

Poor Poppy probably died of a heart attack. She was dead before me and Lydia got her out of Marcia's mouth. 

It was a traumatic morning. 

Marcia got yelled at and will NEVER be allowed off her chain in the back yard again. 

All this happened before Veronica woke up so we had to tell her. Poppy had been her chicken

Lydia and I buried Poppy under the yellow rose bush. All the kids were sad, but Lydia was probably the most traumatized. She kept saying she wished she'd been able to save Poppy. I told her there was really nothing she could do. A lot of things had gone wrong very quickly. 

I texted Brandon and asked him if his coworker had any extra chickens. His coworker had gone on quite the chicken buying spree this spring and had something like 12 chickens and was a little overwhelmed. But he'd given his extras to his mom.

Brandon called around on Wednesday evening. and found out that there were about 7 more chicks out at the store in Buhl. He asked the people to hold one chick for him until Thursday because he couldn't get out to Buhl that night. They said they would. 

But on Thursday afternoon when we went to get the chick, he found that they'd all be sold. The kids were super disappointed. But I was like, "This is kind of the best of both worlds. You get parent points for trying, but we don't actually have to start all over with a baby chick." 

Anyway, back to Wednesday morning. At 10:00 I had my ladies scripture study group. Jori brough all her kids over. They ended up staying for lunch. 

At 1:00 I took Derrick and Veronica swimming. There was nothing too special about that trip. But I think I forgot to tell about a swimming trip from the week before. I'd taken the kids to the pool on in the evening one night and the pool was PACKED with people. We like to swim at 7:00 because the pool is less crowded. But this time it was busier than in the afternoon. 

I don't even know why. 

The kids played for a bit, but since it was so crowded they didn't want to stay long. We left after only about 45 minutes. One of the pool employees - who usually seems pretty indifferent to us - noticed us leaving. I guess she's not very indifferent after all because she said, "Wow, you guys are leaving sooner than usual? Is it because it's so crowded?"  And I was like, "Yes, it's crazy out there."  She said she'd never seen it that crowded in the evening. I agreed. 

Anyway, this time it was a very normal Wednesday afternoon. I wasn't in my swimming suit so I just laid on a blanket in the grass and read. It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon. 

Charlotte and Lydia didn't come with us because they were going with the other set of twins. This was the first time that the girls had been able to coordinate getting together by themselves. They've all been friends since third grade and their mom and I usually text and figure out what days and times work. Well now that Charlotte and Lydia have a phone they can do the texting with the other twins directly. So they figured it all out and then had a great time together. 

At three I went over to my friend Uli's house to help her pack. I'm sad she's moving, but I wanted to help her. 

This was at the same time that I'd made an appointment to get the tires rotated on the Odyssey. So Brandon took the van and I took the Pilot. 

When I got back out to the car I couldn't get it to start. The engine would turn over and die. I was like what the heck? Uli doesn't live that far away so I just walked home. Later Brandon went to get the Pilot and it started right up. I was like, "what was wrong with the way I did it?"

He didn't know. 

Back at home Veronica had been working on a Lego Empire State Building. 

It was quite impressive.

I was starting to wear down from the week - and it was only Wednesday - so after dinner I took a nap. Brandon had to be at the Orpheum that evening, but it was just for a pick up rehearsal. No costumes, no microphones, just running through the script again to get used to it. So he didn't have to be there until 7:00. He took Derrick to Young Mens before the rehearsal and picked him up after. The boys had been at one of their leaders houses that night. They watched Space Jam. 

When Brandon got home at 8:30 I was like, "I don't even know what to do with you home this early."

He and the kids finished putting together his Indiana Jones Lego Set. 

Thursday's surprise had to do with the Honda Pilot. I wanted that car to have an oil change too. So Brandon took the van to work. At 8:00 I drove it over to Jiffy Lube. It's been like 9 months since it's last oil change. But it hasn't gone over 5000 miles since then and the employees told me that the oil would be good for up to a year and a half. So they just topped off fluids and I could be on my way. 

Except when they tried to start the Honda it did the same thing it had done last night. It just turned over and then died. 

I was like "What the heck?"

The best minds at Jiffy Lube couldn't figure it out. They were like, "It's got to be the starter."  They ended up pushing it out of the bay and into a parking spot. I was prepared to walk home, but first I called Brandon. He was like, "Are you using the right key?"

And I was like, "OH DUHHHHHHH."

Remember like 2 years ago when Brandon had to take the ignition cylinder apart? The end result was that any key could go into the ignition cylinder and turn. But only the key for the Pilot would keep the car running. Any other key would cause the car to turn off. 

I'd completely forgot about that. I was trying to start the Pilot with the Odyssey key. That's what the Jiffy Lube people had done too. 

So I tried starting the car with the right key and it worked. I drove over to the bay and said, "My husband figured it out! We were using the wrong key."  Everyone laughed and groaned and then I was on my way. I had planned to fill up the Honda with gas, but I didn't really trust it 100% yet. So I just drove it to Brandon's work and switched back to the Odyssey.  

I'm trying to remember what else we did that morning. We must have just hung around. Anyway, here are pictures of some strawberries in the front yard. 

They are so cute! (And yummy.)

Veronica made this cool rock design.

I'd been trying to figure out how to make Veronica's last vision therapy appointment fit the schedule for the day. But all that was solved when I found out that the eye doctor had to reschedule for the next week. 

That made the afternoon so much simpler - but it was still busy. 

Veronica had girls activity at 4:30. It was a "Friend Party" so she could bring a boy or a girl friend. At first I was like, "You're going to bring Derrick." But she was like, "What about Parker. I haven't seen him all summer."  So I texted his mom and got that coordinated. So at 4:15 we drove over to Parker's and picked him up. Veronica was so happy to see him. 

I dropped them off at the church. 

Then I came home and picked up Charlotte and Lydia and took them over to the twins house. They were going to have a sleep over. 

Brandon had the play again that night. Payton, the daughter of two cast members, came over to spend the evening with us. Pretty much as soon as she came over it was time to go pick up Veronica and Parker.  They were WILD!  They were running around and showing off their secret hand shake. It was so funny. 

We dropped off Parker and went home. I made grilled cheese sandwiches for me, Derrick, Veronica, and Payton. Payton had a pickle and did a happy dance because she loved it so much. 

The kids watched Treasure Planet and then we all walked to the school. Here's Payton playing around. 

The play was over at like 9:30 and when Kerri came to get Payton it was still light outside. We were all like, "How is it still light?"  That's summer for you.

Friday's surprise was pretty small. I was brushing my hair in the morning and noticed strange markings on my arm. They matched Brandon's knuckle "Tattoos." He'd slid his hand under my arm during the night and the ink had rubbed off. 

The day was pretty uneventful. I worked in the morning and then picked up Charlotte and Lydia on my way home. 

That afternoon we did a lot of packing. I was taking the kids to Utah on Saturday. Charlotte and Lydia had girls camp on Monday and their wouldn't be much time for them to pack after we were back from Utah. So I had them pack their stuff for girls camp too. We had a big pile of sleeping bags, back packs, and camp chairs on one side of the living room. On the other side we had all the bags for Utah. 

At some point the new sister missionaries stopped by to say hi. I could see them eyeing Brandon's "tattoos" I told them, "He's in a play." They were like "OHHHHH."

Brandon had the play again that night, and so the kids and I went to Dirkie's Lake again. Derrick was really excited to try out his boat again. Here it is on the water.

We stayed from 4:00 until a little after 8:00. I had fun floating around again. Jori and her family came and I talked with Jori a lot. 

Here I am toward the end. 

When we got home I took a shower and got ready for another after party. Normally the cast goes out to dinner. But this time they were meeting up at Tim's house to celebrate his birthday.  

Brandon picked me up around 9:45 and we drove over to Tim's. We had the address, but when we got to the house it was obvious this was where the party was. It was 10:00 at night, but every light was on. The door was open and there were people going in and out. 

We went in and everyone cheered as we entered. That was fun. It was great to look around the room and see so many friends. 

There was good food and we had fun talking to people. At some point Jarod, who owns the Orpheum, started telling stories about funny things that happened in past shows. He became the center of attention as he told the stories. 

After about 45 minutes of that he started talking about his ideas for upcoming shows. And everyone REALLY started paying attention. 

He's says something like, "for next years Holiday season I'm thinking about White Christmas."  And the room would erupt into cheers. I didn't recognize the names of a lot of the upcoming ideas, but most of those theatre geeks did. They were so excited about EVERYTHING.

Someone had set up a karaoke machine. But it never got used. We'd all been entertained by Jarod.  

At 11:45 someone suggested we sing Happy Birthday. It was the most beautiful rendition of Happy Birthday I've ever heard. That group can SING!

We got home at midnight and all the kids were still awake. They'd all taken showers so that was good. We went them to bed and went to bed too.

I didn't need to be in Utah until 12:00 that day so it was nice to have an unrushed morning at home. I was able to get all my plants watered before we left. I love how these poppies look in the sun. 

They are so cheerful.

My catalpa tree was just starting to have flowers. 

I really like this lark spur.

And in the back the Rainier cherries were getting close to ripeness. 

Here's chamomile that is growing in a rock. 

Around 9:00 the kids and I got in the car and started driving to Utah. Brandon still had two more plays, one on Saturday and one on Sunday so he couldn't come. 

We got to my sister Emily's house around 11:30 and soon more people were arriving. We were having party with my siblings and my parents. We were mostly in the back yard. We had good food and lots of good conversation. 

I kept misplacing my phone so I didn't take many pictures. But at some point we realized that all my parents grand children were there. So we rounded them up. Here are my parents with all 17 grandchildren in one place. This has actually never happened before. 

And here's our attempt at a group photo. We are only missing Brandon and my sister Hillary.

Gradually people left, but then my Aunt Vera showed up and that extended the party. The party went until about 9:00 PM when Emily and I were like, "we should probably put these kids to bed." 

The kids had sort of been planning to have the Second Annual Trampoline Sleepover - this time with Bug spray. But that idea never really materialized. So me and Veronica were the only ones that slept on the trampoline. It was probably the best night on the trampoline yet. We had a lot of blankets and that helped. But every so often they'd slide off and I'd wake up to Veronica shivering. I'd adjust the blankets to get her warm and she'd fall back asleep. Later she told me she didn't sleep at all, but I told her that was because she fell asleep every time she was warm so she didn't remember that. 

We hadn't planned to go to church with Emily's family so we hadn't brought church clothes. Then we found out that it was actually the Temple Dedication for the Layton Temple. I told Emily that we could watch the little kids while she went to that. So we watched Hazel, Vance, and Eliza. 

I got the car packed up, and stopped to admire Emily's yard. I kept thinking about how tiny these plants were when we planned them a few years ago. The big Penstemon was especially impressive. It had HUGE bubblebees buzzing around it every time I looked at it.  

After Emily's family came home we said goodbye. I'd noticed that my kids hadn't been eating much. I decided to take them to McDonalds to make sure they actually ate something. 

Then we drove out to Promontory. Whenever we drive to Utah we pass the big "Welcome to Utah" sign. Lately it's been a picture of the two trains at Promontory. Every time we pass it Derrick says, "I want to go to the place with the two trains."  And every time I'm like, "Yeah we should do that sometime."  And then completely forget. 

Well that happened on Saturday as we drove down, but this time I was like, "Oh we should do that on our way home on Sunday."  Brandon's play started at 2:00. After the play they were going to tear down the set and then have their end of play party. That meant he was going to be busy until like 6:00 or 7:00. So I needed something to keep us occupied. Going to the Golden Spike National Historic Site was the perfect idea. 

So we drove out there. Derrick was very excited. 

He liked posing by the trains.

He and Veronica pretended to run away from the train like it was chasing them.

And then we were kind of like, "Now what?"  It had been 7 years since we were last here and I'd been wondering why it had been so long. But now I was remembering. Its not actually that interesting for that long. 

So we left and drove over to the ATK rocket display. All the kids were like, "where are we going?"  And then we got there and they were all "OH RIGHT."  Everyone except Veronica. She was like, "I still don't remember this."  I told her, "that's because you were three the last time we were here."

We walked around for a little bit and then got in the car and kept driving. I quickly realized we had a problem though. I was SUPER tired. I was actually afraid that I would fall asleep while driving. So when we got to Snowville after only about 20 minutes of driving I pulled over. I found a park with some shade. I got a blanket out of the back of the car and laid down on that and basically fell asleep immediately. 

The kids were good sports. Derrick and Veronica made a list of all the candy and junk food they wanted to eat the next week. Charlotte and Lydia drew some pictures. When I woke up about 15 minutes later they were all content on blankets in the shade. 

My little nap gave me enough energy to drive the rest of the way home, but I was asleep on the couch pretty much as soon as we got home. Note to self - don't sleep on trampolines when you are the sole driver. 

Brandon came home and told us about his weekend. They always give our awards at the cast parties. He won, "That guy looks awesome when he gets murdered."  That's an actual quote that Jarod heard someone say.

Brandon had many complements about his character and his death scene. People told him he was so scary. 

He'd loved being in that play. He had so many little stories about the fun things. 

Things like how Sara broke an oar when she threw it and Jarod was like, "We had that oar for 7 years!"  Ivan took it home and glued it back together and it didn't break again.

There was also some funny back stage chorography going on. During a scene with Jim and his mother there was some music playing. The cast waiting back stage would sway and bounce to the music. At one music cue they all spun around like ballerinas. They'd even done this during the pick up rehearsal. Ivan had been like, "does this happen every night?"

In the second half of the play the set switched between the island and the boat a few times. There was one part where everyone was working frantically to switch the set while Jim was doing a scene in front of the curtain. Jim is supposed to overhear Brandon's character talking with Hans. Brandon says the line from behind the curtain while Jim is in front of the curtain. What the audience doesn't know is that Brandon is frantically running around with set pieces while he's saying the lines.  

I loved hearing Brandon tell these little stories. 

He had a little bit of the Post Play Blues. But not too bad this time. He was already planning to try out for Spamalot the next weekend and a lot of the same people were going to be in that play. So that helped with the end of this one. 

Anyway, that's where we will stop for now. But that's not the end of the business.