Summer begins

Santa brought us Cherry Hill passes, so we got an early start on summer with mini golf on the weekends before school started. Now that it's truly summer, all we had to do was add swimsuits and pizza! Easy, right? Except Vilina always wants lobster or something. I told the kids I would bring pizza to Cherry Hill and she said, "But can you bring ME sushi?" Ha ha. This little Empress hasn't gotten the hang of living in a big family.

Of course, even with summer, I still have to run the music store and a million other things. Tziporah wonders why people keep calling me. The solution to having a lot to do is to layer more to do on top of it so the kids don't notice that "pepl kep kolen" me. We had the neighborhood kids over for a spur-of-the-moment slip-n-slide party. They loved it.

Vilina's friend Tressa

Oh look, another kind of pizza party, at Lucky Slice in Ogden.

And finally, Vilina's sushi. It's a new place in KAysville called Fuku Sushi. The Chinese/Vietnamese owners were baffled that Vilina spoke Mandarin. When she addressed him, he turned to me and said, "Where did she learn Chinese?"  Since she's not ethnically Han, Chinese people don't know what to make of her. Many of them have probably never interacted with a Uygher.

Araceli is working at Truman Carver's old time photography studio at Pioneer Village in Lagoon. The kids working there like to have a few parties throughout the summer to build unity. Knowing that she could make me happy by offering to host the first party, Araceli did. It didn't start until 9 pm, when most everyone was off work, so they stayed late and had a great time. We're looking forward to the next company party!  In short, we got summer off to a roaring start, and it hasn't slowed down. At all. To pack it all in, we have to go full steam ahead. I'm ready!

Delicate Adventure

Araceli always has big ideas, and I love it when I can facilitate them. And if I can combine her big ideas with a road trip, even better! The kids didn't have school Monday, so we set off early Sunday morning with a motley crew of teens and tweens, to hike Delicate Arch. The weather looked iffy, so we left at 5 am instead of 4, to avoid the cold and possible rain.  We had Riley Servoss, Araceli's friend who moved to Idaho Falls, Carson Gapinski, Araceli's love interest du jour, Vilina, Freestone, and Ptolemy, our trip mascot.

Well, the weather didn't pan out like expected. There was son on Highway 6 between Provo and Price. When we got to Price, I thought we were through the storms, so we stopped for an unhurried breakfast. I was peeved when the snow started falling between Price and Green River. It got bad. There was noplace to pull over, low visibility and the roads were starting to cake with snow and ice. The kids were having a jolly old time in the backseat, which led to more angst on my part as I gripped the wheel. Long story short, there was an accident just ahead of us and we were stopped on the roadway for over an hour. The whole time we were stopped, I was just grateful that we were safe. Nobody minded much that we were delayed, and soon we were on our way again, driving slowly past the grim scene of the accident. It didn't look like there was enough damage for anyone to be seriously injured, so I hope everyone was ok.

The weather cleared for us as we started our hike to Delicate Arch. It's a fun hike with a big payoff at the end, so I like it. Delicate Arch is one of the most iconic landmarks in the state. By the time we got there, however, it was windy and there was a fine snowfall pelting us in the face. We stayed for awhile taking pictures and joking around, but it wasn't comfortable, necessarily. On the way down, Araceli realized she had lost her glasses. Carson sprang into action and found them by asking various other hikers, one of whom has set them on a rock. Crisis averted. This was the most easygoing, fun group of kids ever. By the time we got to the car, we were frozen, and it took us hours to thaw out. We had lunch in Moab and headed back to Price to enjoy our hotel's hot tub. That was nice!

We stayed at the Greenwell Inn, which I highly recommend next time you're in the boomin metropolis of Price, Utah. It was 60 bucks a night, and the pool and hot tub are in a nice, big building. There's actually plenty of food options in Price, and even some things to do.  The kids were pretty beat, though, and everyone fell asleep without me having to tell them to. Mission accomplished.

In the morning, Ptolemy and I went on a little tour or Price where we admired the Greek Orthodox church and the McDonald's. He's at an age where he realizes that not everyone is just like him, which is important. The other day, he said, "I was watching a show, and I'm guessing the characters weren't Mormon, because the dad said, 'It's Sunday! We dont have anything planned! We can spend the whole day together as a family!'" Poignant, sad, funny. I guess that's how a kid feels when his dad is in the bishopric. Anyway, the Greek Orthodox church in Price is beautiful.

In no tie, we were headed home, with no weather or traffic problems, and another fun adventure was in the books. For one last memorable event, my car hit 100,000 miles between Price and Provo. Exciting! I've put over 75,000 miles on it in 2.5 years. Man, that's a lot of memories!

Nutcracker

Auditions for Ballet West Nutcracker were before Clytie's this year, so I thought it would be fun to have all the kids try out, just for practice. Ptolemy isn't old enough for Clytie's, so he might as well try out for BW for the experience. Xanthe was looking forward to being in Clytie's Nutcracker, but nervously agreed to audition for BW, just to brush up on her audition skills. Freestone was obviously going to try for BW, since he wasn't at Clytie's anymore, but we were worried there wouldn't be a part for his height. Araceli ended up being sick the day of the audition.

So we went with three kids and low expectations. When results came in, I got an email that said Freestone had made it. BW created taller parts for the older boys, and he was a Butler and Mouse Minion. I didn't see anything about Ptolemy or Xanthe, so I thought they didn't make it. I told them, and they were disappointed, until we went through all the great reasons why it was better that they didn't make it.

So when I read the email later and discovered that ALL THREE KIDS were in, Xanthe and Ptolemy were mad. You can't win! I felt really bad for Xanthe.

A few weeks later, Clytie's auditions came up. By then, Clytie had called me and asked if Freestone would be willing to be the Nutcracker Prince. Would he ever! He was on cloud nine about it from September to Thanksgiving. So I was hoping that Araceli and Xanthe would make it into the production, since we were already doing it. I was pretty confident that Xanthe would make it. She didn't. Vilina didn't either! I really wanted her to have the experience. And Araceli didn't make it either. We were 0 for 3! Auditions are never what you think they will be. At this point, I felt even worse for encouraging Xanthe to try out at BW. Not only was she scared of the other dancers, now she didn't get to do her home school.

The next day, Sarah called me and said that they had a special part for Araceli, and would she be the Mouse King. Mouse King is always a chosen part that they kinda give to someone in particular. And she would be fighting Freestone in the Fight Scene! What a riot.

Needless to say, Nutcracker season, beginning in August and ending Christmas Eve, was utterly insane. We usually had between 6 to 8 rehearsals a week, on top of the 37 dance classes we have weekly in our family. I just laugh! For most of the weeks, Ptolemy and Xanthe had opposite days for rehearsals, since Ptolemy was a Party Boy in Party Scene and Xanthe was a soldier in Fight Scene.  Freestone just rehearsed when he was at ballet. And then Leslie or Sarah rehearsed Celi and Freestone for Clytie's whenever they could fit it in, in addition to fight scene rehearsals with the mice. We were at Ballet West every night, which isn't unusual, since Freestone dances there six days a week, but for Nutcracker, the kids often had one or two hour rehearsals, and it didn't make sense to go home. Scott and I both enjoyed driving them in and then sitting in Starbucks reading or something. We carpooled a little bit with the Jenkins, but for the most part, we have enough logistics of our own without throwing another family into the mix.

The week of Clytie's Nutcracker, it would have been a miracle if we hadn't made any blunders. Alas, a miracle did not occur. Thursday, opening night, our entire family was at the theater in Ogden. I was thinking how amazing it was that we were all able to be there together. It wasn't until the next morning that I realized Xanthe had missed a rehearsal at Ballet West! I quickly died and then emailed Heather, the ballet mistress. No sooner had I emailed her than I realized the Ptolemy had also missed a rehearsal! I cannot believe it didn't occur to me. I completely spaced it. Fortunately, Heather has a "three strikes" policy, and we were more than OK. I still hate when I make mistakes! Out of hundreds of rehearsals, I think we did OK. Plus, I have no idea how the kids would have gotten to Salt Lake if I'd remembered the rehearsal.

Even Main Street Music got in on the Nutcracker spirit.

Ridiculously, blogger won't let me upload pictures from my Google Photos more than one at a time, so I had to screen shot all these photos. Lame.  Anyway, I was a ballet mom instead of a teacher for the first time ever at Clytie's and I got to be on the props committee. I was backstage the whole time. I loved it. It was a hoot watching Freestone and Araceli swordfight.  I was worried Araceli would win the fight. She is headstrong and competitive and doesn't care about convention. Freestone, on the other hand, will go to great lengths, at his own personal discomfort, to make sure nobody is hurt in any way.  I breathed a sigh of relief when they stuck to the choreography.

More BW lobby photos. We went to so many performances! Because of Freestone's scholarship, we have to log volunteer hours, so Scott, Golda, Ruby, Araceli and I all got turns at the Academy table, the boutique and chaperoning. All those volunteer gigs come with free tickets, so we were lucky enough to see almost all of Ptolemy and Xanthe's performances. Freestone ended up doing 4 or 5 extras and understudying for many more.

An iconic Dopp moment: The Mouse King and the Nutcracker Prince.

Scott and I are in the BW Guild, so we get even more volunteer opportunities. This time, it was selling charms to raise money for the new Nutcracker costumes. This year, the sets and costumes were new, and turned out wonderfully.

At Clytie's, Stella and Freestone got scolded for PDA backstage. Oops! They had a pretty good run!

We hosted our traditional Nutcracker Lunch on opening day.

So many fans

I love being involved with Freestone's ballet world. LOVE IT!

This was his first year as Nephew, or as Jeff Rogers says, "the little porker." Or maybe that's his PArty Boy costume. I can't remember.

Celi and Kayden were dating, and Freestone and Stella were a thing, so the four of them had some fun times over the holidays.

I probably have about a thousand more pictures from Nutcracker this year. It was a lot, but it never seemed like it. It was just fun. Ptolemy loved being part of the boys' club, and Xanthe overcame her fear to be a great soldier. She made lots of friends. She was disappointed not to dance with her close friends at Clytie's, but it was a growing experience. You can't make every audition. When you do, you enjoy every second!