to Utah and back

I loved the contrast between the brown mountains, the white snow and the dark shadows...it looked better in real life.

I had my first visit to the Ogden Temple. My sister-in-law came from Farmington to attend a session with me. Very neat.

Glen and I took his drama students (well, 10 of them anyway...including one of our sons and a niece...and a nephew as another chaperone) to Utah for the annual theatre conference put on by the UTA (Utah Theatre Association). This year Weber State hosted and it was in Ogden. The weather was gorgeous and the kids were great. I didn't attend the workshops, but went to see the productions.

We saw the musical "Into the Woods" put on at Weber High School. It combines a few fairy tales...Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Jack and the Bean Stalk. They did a *fantastic* job...I just didn't like the play. Why not? you may ask. Well, the story line wasn't to my liking. For example, after Prince Charming and Cinderella marry he's off in the woods kissing a married woman. Then the woman gets kills by the dead Giant's wife (from Jack and the Beanstalk). And Prince Charming winds up with Sleeping Beauty. Cinderella stays in the forest with her new friends [Little Red, Jack-who's mother has been killed by the Prince's steward-and the Baker (whose wife was the married woman kissing Prince Charming who has since been killed)]. Confused? Sorry, I'm not good at explanations.

We also saw "Camelot" which I really enjoyed...you might say there was a similar theme so why did I like one but not the other, but in Camelot there is a "real" price to be paid for the infidelity. It was put on by Bonneville High School. Great job.

Saturday night was the Aerial Angels show. It involved aerial stunts as well as a bullwhip segment and a fire-eating segment. Amazing.

Besides the temple and carting my van load of kids around (Glen had a van load, too), I relaxed by reading in my room. It was wonderful.

One sad note to the trip, while there we learned of the death of a wonderful lady back home. She'd been battling cancer and we knew the end was near, but it's still a bit of a blow. My heart goes out to her family. We'll all miss Rita. She was a great woman and will be sorely missed by all. I'll have to bring a ton of kleenex to her funeral. I'm sure it will be very touching and emotional. She was a great example. I'm so glad that I had the chance to know her.