A Play a day...

A couple of weeks ago Rose and I went down to the Shakespeare Festival and to see our cousin Megan who is living in St. George and doing the Dental Hygiene program at Dixie. It was probably the funnest road trip Rose and I have taken, it was all out fantastic!
We drove down on Sunday, so our typical raucous road trip-y music had to wait. But it set the stage for a wonderful chat with Rose. She had just returned from a pioneer trek, so we chatted about that in addition to the general catch-up on our lives. We read Elder Eyring's conference talk and shared our testimonies about family, marriage, and the purpose for all of it.
We drove straight to St. George to stay with Megan, our plan was to stay with her that night and get a hotel in Cedar for Monday night, but we decided to stay with her for the whole trip since it really wasn't too far to drive from the Festival. We played a very distracted game of up and down as we attempted to catch up on everyone and everything. Thankfully Andrew kept the game rolling reminding us which hand we were on amidst our chatty conversation.
Monday morning we got up and went hiking at Red Cliffs, beautiful with HUGE red rocks canyon/camping place. We found the hike we wanted, but it was 1/8th of a mile. So we forged our own and followed Rose up the rocks. This woman is a hard core cliff conqueror. I don't know when Rose got so adventurous, but we didn't stop til we reached the top and I mean the top of the red rocks. After conquering each big rock I looked at the next one in disbelief asking "are we going up that one?" But we didn't stop. At the top while we rested we caught up with Megan and rekindled our cousin connection. It was so good to catch up with her.
On the way down I began navigating until we were headed farther away from our car below. Then Rose led, I have much more practice following her than leading, so I happily turned that role over to her for the descent.
That afternoon we hit the pool at Megan's complex, perfect timing, lunch time when all the kids are eating and napping, so we had the pool almost all to ourselves. We chatted, played water volleyball, had canon ball contests, caught some serious rays, and chatted some more. So fun!
Once we were home, we showered and dolled up for our play that night and our traditional dinner at our favorite, The Pastry Pub, mmmm!
On the drive, we sang our hearts out to all our favorites: ABBA, Grease, Hairspray, Michael Buble, etc. And wow, we have a lot of inside jokes, I would like to say they are common the family, but a lot of the ones we reminisced about on this trip were RMO: Rose and Mere Originals.
After drinking in all the thrill of play orientation with Fred and the Green Show, we saw Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors in the Adams Theater. Our attempt to get a picture in front of the wooden Adams Theater sign was a hoot. We couldn't quite get it without our heads in the way when we took it so we asked Diane, one of the ushers to take it. The bells signaling the start of the play are ringing and we were explaining to her which way the camera faces and which button to push and make sure to get the sign. We just laughed when hers turned out just as unsuccessful as ours, heads in the way.
We sat in the balcony on the side, never again, you only get half the facials which are the best part. But the play was fantastic, as always! Rose had brought goodies for the play, so she was furiously unwrapping starbursts at intermission for the second half.
We drove back to Megans for the night and at 11pm we started the 2 hour Bachelorette finale and ate Megan's yummy peach cobbler with Breyers ice cream. I think just about anything else in the world would have been more productive for me to do, but the peach cobbler and girl time justified the show.
Tuesday morning we hit the outlet mall in St. George and ran into the most fantastic sale at Shade, buy 2 get 1 free. Rose and I now have multiple matching items in our wardrobe including some fantastic retro dresses.
We rushed home and grabbed some snacks for the road as we headed out for Cedar to see The Secret Garden in the Randall Theater. Our beloved Brian Vaughn played Dr. Craven, the choreography was awesome and the whole design of the play was fantastic! We loved it and cried multiple times, then sang the songs for the rest of the day.
After the play we headed back to Megan's to chill for a bit. We watched this fantastic cake show where a team of cake artists made a tiki torch cake that breathed fire, it was so cool!
That night we were treated to dinner at Cafe Rio, so yummy. We gabbed our way through the meal and ate way to much. Then we headed to Tuacahn to see Footloose. Megan works at the gift shop there, so she got us free stand by tickets. We saw the last part of the pre-show, dedicated to the 80s in the spirit of Footloose and we danced on the sidelines. Afterwards, the cutest little Downs girl got up on the stage and did a show for us. Her name was Kaitlin, but her stage name was Millie. She sang the Star Spangled Banner and invited us on the stage to sing "Tomorrow" with her. Hysterical!
Footloose was great, Thayne Jasperson, a fantastic dancer, played Ren. A bit after intermission it started to lightning and sprinkle with some serious wind, so they cancelled the show and invited the audience back another time. Shoot, we will just have to go down again, darn it! ;)
We crashed at Megan's one more night and drove home at 6am so I could get to the Hall's by 10:30am Wednesday. Even at 6am, we were singing away to Kieth Urban, Michael Buble, Toby Kieth, etc.
Rose is an absolute gem and I got to experience her nurturing side this trip. She has the incredible capacity to make everyone feel included and like they are the top, not to mention the generosity and F-U-N that oozes from every cell in her body. Wow, I got lucky to be on this mortal trail with her.
Wednesday I spent at the Hall's and semi coming back to reality.
Thursday I went swimming with Taylor and the Hall's. Taylor was perky for hours in the pool, he loves being in the sunshine and going swimming, so it was a double bonus day for him.
Starting Friday I was housesitting and dogsitting for Angie in Salt Lake. She has 2 dogs and 1 cat that I was taking care of for the weekend while she was in Italy. Friday I went up and got settled, let the dogs out and fed them, then crashed for a couple of hours before picking up Rose to go see The Fantasticks up at Sundance. I picked her up from work, saw her work, and we headed south. We looked all around for the UVU School of the Arts reception I was invited to and finally found it after hiking up in our flip flops to the theater. We found the party and instead of a few complimentary tarts there was bean dip and chips, fruit, veggies, rolls, artichoke dip and a man at the end cutting succulent delish ham. This is why I want to be a wealthy philanthropist, to be invited to parties like these with fine dining and professional arts performances. We sat fifth row just off center in the reserved section and loved it! The play was hysterical and kept us laughing, our favorite line "Come on Mortimer, die for the man". It was super well done and we finally connected the songs we know with the scenes and storyline. 4 plays in 5 days equals Happy Souls, I recommend it.
Friday night Rose slept over with me at Angie's and got up for work at 6. Didn't even hear her get up, but I was good morning-ed at 6:30 by the dogs ready to go out. I guess their day starts that early, mine typically doesn't.
Saturday I took care of the house and dogs while planning my sunday school lesson on D&C 121-123. Beautiful lesson with a heavy climax. Saturday night I was with the Halls for a typical movie night and bedtime routine.