College Girl Update

I realized I hadn't shared these fun pictures of Cali's weekend with Hannah. The week before Cali came home Hannah flew to Utah to spend the weekend with Cali. I knew they would have too much fun. The adventures began with Cali's first experience pumping gas!

It looks like they had lots of fun just hanging out and what would a visit to the BYU campus be without eating JDawgs!

Lucky Hannah was there for the Ward Skit Night too. She got to help the girl's get ready and make their tablecloth dresses!

The girls did the SNL skit of the Lennon Sisters from the Lawrence Welk Show.l If you want to see the girl's actual performance you can check it out on Cali's Facebook page. It is a little hard to understand but I've included the link the actualy SNL skit below. Cali plays the funny one - no surprise! They also won the prize for the funniest skit!

Here's a link if you want to see the actual skit they did on SNL

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/the-lawrence-welk-show/727501/

Gotta miss those college days!!

Rocky Raccoon

We thought our raccoon story was over. We saw the raccoon out in the yard and Jim closed up the hole - problem solved!

Jim has been out of town this week - since Monday. He got home last night (Thursday) from Denver. He went to take the garbage out this morning and there he was - Rocky or Rachel Raccoon - in the trap! Yes we had left two traps sitting out in the garden area, waiting to return them to our friends. It was the trap with the eggs in it that caught the thing!! Wonder how long it has been in there???

Now Jim gets to figure out what to do with it! Guess Jim and Rocky are taking a road trip today!!

Favorite Vacation Memory

My blogging friend Rhonda over at "Because Mom Said So...That's Why!" (I love the name of her blog) is having a giveaway/contest. She is giving away a round trip ticket to Connecticut were she lives and I would love to meet my friend in person so I am entering!!

Last night at the dinner table I told Jim and Tessa about the contest and asked them for ideas of funny travel stories we had. We had fun reminiscing over past vacations and trips.

The one I decided to share for the contest is from my childhood. Some of my fondest memories of growing up are of our annual summer vacation. My father was the Executive Director of the Barbershop Quartet Society and each summer they had a National Convention somewhere in the US. The convention was our annual family vacation. We enjoyed the hotel and pool while my father worked all week.

I grew up in Wisconsin and most trips were taken in our big old family Buick station wagon with the wood paneling on the side. We would strap all the suitcases on top and pile into the car. Back in the olden days no one was in a car seat and I don't think we even wore seat belts all the time - it's amazing we're all still alive!

It never failed, we would be all packed up and actually sitting in the car ready to go and my dad would decide he needed to mow the lawn before we left! Yes we would all sit in the car, waiting, while dad mowed the lawn!

One particular summer back in 1971, we were headed to New Orleans for convention/vacation. My favorite place to ride in the big old Buick wagon was in the way back - we could spread out blankets and pillows and really stretch out! We were zooming down the highway - headed south when all of a sudden I looked out the back window of the car and there was our luggage, sliding and bumping down the highway behind us! "Hey dad - you may want to pull over!!"

Somehow the bungee cord or whatever was holding our luggage down to the top of the car released! Fortunately there were no cars behind us and believe it or not none of the luggage came open. My dad pulled over and quickly ran down the highway to retrieve our luggage. The luggage was a little worse for wear with the vinyl (this was the early 70's!) scrapped off but all the clothes were in tact!

We loaded the suitcases back into the car and continued on our way!

More Joseph

Here are some pictures I took during dress rehearsal for Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat..

Tessa is a member of the company and has four different costumes - her townsperson outfit, Go-Go outfit (the black and white one), her Egyptian costume and her Can Can dancer costume.



Here she is in her townsperson outfit!






And then her Go, Go Joseph costume - I love this number - it is such a cute sixties number - the choreography is great! You can't see Tessa in this picture but they dance so fast it was hard to get a good shot! Her costume was complete with white go go boots!



The second half of the show takes place in Egypt so they are all dressed like Egyptian women and men!

And then her featured dance number in Canaan Days...and the costume I made for her....

She does the splits three times in a row!

Go, Go, Go, Joseph

This is show week at our house - it makes for a fun and crazy week.

Wednesday was dress rehearsal so I went and took hundred's of pictures. I have posted some on Facebook but will post some more here on the blog too.

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is such a fun show! There is no dialogue - only singing and dancing. Lots of catchy tunes and the costuming is so pretty in the show. I have now seen it 5 times (3 performances and 2 rehearsals) and will see it four more before it's done and I don't think I will get tired of it! And I don't think I'll get the song Go, Go, Go Joseph out of my head any too soon!

After seeing it Friday night, my dad commented that he thinks it is the best show the school has done and they've done some pretty amazing shows!

Jim picked Cali up from the airport Thursday night while I was at opening night and got her to the school just in time for the Meet and Greet afterwards. Cali had fun surprising people and there were lots of squeals and hugs!

Friday Cali and I went downtown to get her hair cut at the beauty school where a friend of hers is going and then we went to lunch and wandered around the Pearl District and NW 23rd for a while. We picked up Tessa after school and headed to the mall for some more girl bonding time before Tessa's evening performance.

Tessa had lots of friends from school and church attend performances including Grandma and Grandpa Best and our neighbors the Osbornes.

It was fun to see the younger girls ask her for her autograph.

Tessa is a member of the company but is also the featured dancer and has a spotlight dance she does with one of the brother's all to herself. She looks beautiful and so graceful and pretty cute in the little french can can outfit I made for her. The lighting during her dance number is pretty dark so it is hard to get good pictures although I do have a few I will post later.

Her dance partner, James, and Tessa did a demonstration in the hall though of one of their moves - she does the splits three times in a row during the dance and always gets lots of groans and applause from the audience when she does it!

The costuming for the show is wonderful and two of my favorites are Pharaoh/Elvis' costume. Jim is still searching through his Old Testament to find Elvis in it!

And of course Joseph's Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat is truly amazing!!!

More pictures of the show to come soon!

It Makes Me Happy!

I just have to say - that seeing these two faces across the table from me at dinner this weekend just made me HAPPY!!

Cali flew home on Thursday evening to see her sister in the play this weekend! Pictures of the play coming soon!!