Friend to Friend Theatre class

Jena finished her semester at Wonderwood/BYU and is back at home full-time for the summer.  The timing was good because the first week she was back, she had theatre practices every evening (thanks, Gary, for getting her there.)  They were preparing for their two performances for "Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat".  They performed it twice--on Friday night and Saturday morning.  It was quite a performance.  This group is a free theatre class for individuals with disabilities.  Shelley Davies and all of the amazing coaches who help truly know how to help these adults shine when they are on stage.

Jena was one of the many people who did the part of the narrator. She loved it, of course.  The costumes were amazing and everyone looked like they were having the best time.

Gary took this picture during a dress rehearsal. The young women you see behind Jena are
some of the coaches.  During the performance, they dress in dark clothes and help
the actors get to their spots and help with their lines if needed.

Gary went to the Friday performance and I went on Saturday.  I took Jena's friend, Emily.  This is Jena, Kaitlyn, and Emily.

Jena and Kelsey Hayden who was also a narrator.  Jena did not like the headpiece so took it off before she came out for pictures.  She loved the rest of her costume.

Kayla, Kelsey, and Jena
They are also on the same Special Olympics team.

 Cory--the tall one--is also on their Special Olympics team.  He was one of the brothers in the play.

So after the performance, we headed out for lunch and then came back to the theatre so Jena and I could usher.  Emily had to wait for us, so we put her on a chair behind Jena. Jena is often very quiet when she talks and I am always reminding her to speak up.  Emily started thanking the guests like Jena and I were doing.  At one point, Jena turned to me and said, "Emily is my announcer."  It made me crack up!  I love it when she says something funny...and she knows it is funny.  It is the best.

Then Jena and Emily spent the rest of the afternoon and the evening, singing and dancing to the Wii.  Emily is Jena's roommate in Provo and you could tell they were excited to spend time together.

You would have thought that Jena would have been tired of singing and dancing after three days of dress rehearsals lasting 2 hours each and then two performances.  But no, she just kept on singing and dancing.

I love that Jena enjoys the theatre so much and that amazing people like Shelly Davies and others are willing to share their time, passion, and talents for such a great cause.

Grandchildren Times

The first Sunday of June (yes, I am that far behind on the blog), Jessica, Elessia, Liam, and Zander joined us for dinner and presents for Liam's third birthday which was the next day.

I think my mom would love how much my grandchildren love
to play on the piano.   I really don't remember our children
playing on the piano like that.

Happy Birthday, Liam.  So glad to have you in our family.

He loved his new bat and t-ball.  Love his concentration. 

Playing on our new slide and climbing toy.  Yes, grandchildren are spoiled.

Later in the month, I meet Liam and Zander at Liberty Park while Jessica and Elessia headed up to the major ultrasound (twin babies still doing well.)   We went to the Aviary and then went to the playground.

Our selfie.  We tried to get Zander into the picture, but he was not interested.

Climbing the wall is one of Liam's fun things.

There was an area that had these bird shapes with facts about birds.  Zander went to each one of them as if he was reading them and then to the next one.  Liam and I just sat and watched him for several minutes.  It was serious business for him.

The playground was awesome, despite the hundreds of kids running around everywhere.

Playing the Xylophone 

They had a tunnel that went under a wall separating the playground from a grass area.  The kids loved it, but it made me nervous because if they went out one end, you had to run around a bit of a distance to get to the area (or go through the tunnel which would not have been a fast trip for me either.) While Liam and Zander were playing, a small little girl went quickly through it and out the end where I was and headed running away ...with her mom frantically calling her to come back.  I pointed the mom in the right direction.

 They loved this tunnel and played for a long time in it.

Such a fun day.  Liberty Park is a place that I can't wait to take all of the grandkids to some day.

I didn't spend as much time with Scarlett and James this month and of course, not with Niki and Cooper at all.  Some photos of their cuteness are below:

Summer fun in Seattle:

The Russells including Niki LOVE car shows.

Scott and Chantel and their kids love the lake, especially nearby Pineview Dam.

Scarlett and Scott

Scarlett

James

They are all growing so quickly.  Hard to imagine that by the end of the year, we will add three more little ones to the crew.

Saturdays--Block Party,Plays, and yard work

On June 3 we were able to attend the Avengers Block party down at Erin and Kyle Corbridge's backyard.  They lives a few blocks south of us and are in the other section of our old Walnut Grove Ward.  It was great to see them and many of our cherished friends from down south...that means the three blocks directly south of our street.  It is like they moved to another state.  They asked everyone to wear their favorite Super Hero shirt.  I didn't have one so I borrowed Gary's Batman which was actually my mother's favorite Super Hero.

It was a bit windy, but a beautiful night for a BBQ and visiting with friends.

We had to leave early as Jena was performing at the Center Pointe Theatre Gala with her Friend to Friend group.

The Gala started up on the upper level of the parking garage where they served a formal dinner and music.  We arrived just in time to see the attendees walking down from the garage to head to the theatre for a special performance, including Jena's Friend to Friend group, acts and numbers from different musicals performed, and also a mini concert by Jenny Lind who sang some of the songs in The Greatest Showman.  The women attendees were in long dresses, the men in tuxes, it was pretty impressive.

On the way out, Jena posed on the red carpet they have entered in on.

It was a good day and evening,

The following Saturday, Jena started back to practices for her upcoming performance in Joseph and the Technicolor Coat which happens next weekend.  Then we headed down to the Hale Theatre in Sandy to attend "The Music Man" which is always a fun production.  Grandma Hall came with us which was an added bonus because she hasn't been feeling great lately.

The new theatre is truly amazing and I love the extra leg room between the rows.

THE VERY LAST DAY OF PUBLIC SCHOOL

I tried to find the photo I took on Jena's first day of public preschool, back when she was not quite three (yes, she started early, that is a whole other story which will need to be recorded.)  I can see the spot in her scrapbook where the picture was suppose to go, but apparently, some time ago I decided I needed the picture for something and it is now in my boxes of photos and stuff that needs to organized and cleaned up.

But here she is years later, finishing her last day, riding on the yellow school bus one last day.  She has grown up as quite a young lady--she has done and continues to do things that we could have only dreamed about back then---if we even knew that those dreams of being in plays, serving a mission, or going to college were possible.  I just knew that I needed to do the best I could to prepare her for adult life in the "real world", the same goal I had for my other kids.

One of my goals (silly as it seems) was that Jena was not going to ride "the special education bus" when possible.  I didn't want something like that separating her from her peers.  That is one of the reasons we built a home a couple of blocks from an elementary school back in 1998, so that Jena could walk to school.  In high school, she rode the neighborhood bus to and from school.  It was only in junior high (coming home from school) and in post-secondary school which was in Farmington that she rode "the special education bus."  And she loved riding the bus for the most part.  The bus drivers were kind and the aides loved her because she never caused trouble.  A couple of years, she had a good friend on the bus, which made the trips much more fun.

We are grateful for everyone that as contributed to her education up to this point.  We have had some of the best of the best along the way. Thank you, one and all!

And in the fall, one, maybe two, of my grandchildren will be in public school preschools--such is the circle of life!!!