Labor Day Weekend

Tyler and I had the opportunity to head down to southern Utah for the Labor Day weekend. We decided to celebrate our 8th year wedding anniversary early while Tyler had the weekend off.

BIO (ie, long and journaly version): We dropped Samuel and Jocelyn off at my parents house in Mt Pleasant (thanks again to Levi, mom and dad for watching the kiddos!) We then headed down to St. George. Tyler's brother Troy and his wife Jana live down there and they were gladly willing to watch Cecily for us while we attended the Utah Shakespeare Festival!!! Remember how I majored in Acting and Theatre Education at BYU? Ya, sometimes I forget too it's been so long since I participated. But now I get to participate as an audience member more often than on stage (sigh). Anyway, I had been once before with my Aunt and Uncle when I was younger and single and loved it! I've been wanting to go since then and take Tyler but it's so dang expensive. But after Tyler's dad gave us a commission for referring my sister to him as a Realtor, (thanks Steve!) we were able to afford to see 3 shows and to stay in my other uncles condo down there.

Some people have a hard time with Shakespeare. He's one of the people I would LOVE to meet in heaven. I don't know what I'd ask him, I just want to observe him. And yes, I think he did pen all of his plays, all by himself. I am not of the belief that it was a committee or even a female that wrote his masterpieces. I think he was a pretty special and oober talented guy like Mozart or Monet. I've heard many people say they don't understand Shakespeare and would rather not see his plays, too daunting. Well, it is like a separate language. All the "thee's" and "thou's" etc etc, it's like the scriptures sometimes. But after the first 5 minutes you really begin to settle into the rhythm of the language (especially if the acting is good enough) and you don't even notice it anymore. Fun times :) And this is also why I love Tyler so much more. Because he understands it! Better than I do, in fact. Plus he wanted to see these Shakespeare plays, which is so attractive to me. I have culturized him!

So we were able to see 3 shows. The first and the best, Merchant of Venice. Shylock was amazing. Then Much Ado About Nothing, a great romantic comedy. And then the tragic Macbeth. The cursed Macbeth. You know you're not supposed to say that word on or behind a stage? You have to call it "The Scottish play." It's bad luck if you do. Superstitious really. If you do, you have turn in a circle 3 times and say something that I can't remember. You should say, "Break a leg" instead of "good luck" also.

So anyway, our bad luck did not come from saying Macbeth on stage. Our trip started out nicely. We headed down without having to calm children down, break up fights or throw water bottles to the back. We just had Cecily to take care of. We were able to talk or think in quiet! Ahhhhh. Then we got stuck in some construction that set us back a bit in time. And right as we pulled off the freeway to drop Cecily off we got a flat tire. But Tyler was the quickest flat tire changer that I have seen and we were on the road again quickly and made it to the show (which is in Cedar City, 1 hour north) just in time.

That was the worst of the weekend though really. Other than my stupid head cold and Cecily not being the best sleeper. And having to drive b/w shows (2 hour round trip) to feed Cecily. We had a fabulous time at my uncle's condo (jetted tub and double shower heads....ahhhh) and enjoyed some time with Troy and Jana and Carson as well. Plus I scored a piece of furniture that I've been needing for a project that I haven't been able to find up north. (More on that around Christmas time when I finish it for Jocelyn. )

It was lovely and relaxing and I rarely missed our children. Of course, I did think about them but Tyler and I remarked, "notice how quiet it is? Oh, yes, it's because we are eating or driving in peace". So rejuvenating!

I would love to do this trip again sometime soon.

Here are a bunch of pics, taken after the fact bcse we never had time to take any while at the shows.


Tyler ate one of these apple tarts for dinner one night while I had a veggie pastie. Yum yum.






I love this outdoor theater. Perfectly cool in the evening. And so fun to watch shows under the stars. When I went to the original Globe Theatre in London I was a "groundling" because they were the cheapest "seats". It is where the peasants would watch the shows. See where the front row seats are, the most expensive today? That is where the groundlings would watch, except that there were no seats! They (we) had to stand the entire show! It was sort of exhausting at times. But if you really got tired you could just lean on the stage, right under the actors feet. Feel the spit when they spoke. It was that interactive back then b/w the actors and audience.

We set the timer on the camera. First take didn't work so well :)

While passing through Manti on the way to Mt P we stopped at the Temple we were married in.

Happy 8 years to us!