It's Autumn Time

A quick travel log:


After the family camp in early July, I was in full swing rehearsals for Annie the musical. Patrick got to go to a few rehearsals and even joined us in the American Fork parade. Scott and I tried to get really thrifty on fuel expense because we've been inspired by blogger "Mr. Money Mustache" to take our bikes and public transportation more regularly. Patrick was thrilled about taking the train (Frontrunner) down to the parade in American Fork. It was about a 40 minute ride and then we had my mom pick us up from the station and drive us to the parade. It was very hot outside and luckily, I was in a dress and Patrick was slathered in sunblock. Poor guy though, I used the spray on kind and the wind took some into his eyes :( It broke my heart. We had a blast riding the trailer for the parade and Patrick stood up most of the way, ate snacks, and waved at people. Friendly little guy.


Patch got in some quality cousin time when Maddie and Eva were in town. I think he's still a little young to really enjoy playing with them but, they'll get there :) One evening, the family was gathered and I noticed that Maddison was nowhere to be found. I asked Eva and she said "she's upstairs on the iPad watching Youtube". I went in to chat with her and ask her why she was secluding herself. While I do think it's appropriate for children to address their need for personal space and alone time, I felt that there was something else going on here. Maddison taking advantage of unlimited screen time with my parents, feeling emotionally overwhelmed by the amount of time she'd been away from her parents, feeling upset about something that the cousins had said or done? I wasn't sure what was going on but I felt that it would be important to talk to her. We chatted and she finally confided that she was upset because Eva and the rest of the cousins were making fun of her hat (which was a really cool baseball cap, imho) and I asked Eva to apologize. They both made excuses and pointed fingers but, I said "Maddie, sometimes people say things and don't mean to offend. You know your sister loves you " and "Eva, sometimes we say something offensive and don't mean it but we still need to apologize to the person because they did interpret the situation differently". Eva said "wow Auntie, you're really good at this". I was all sorts of proud.


At the end of July we attended Salty Dinner Theater's Production of The Little Mermaid. After a day of rehearsals for me, we met up with Bonnie and Steve, my parents, and Scott and Patch. It was adorable and during the "middles" or the "dinner break" (when there's lots of singing and audience interactive games) Patrick danced with one of his little girlfriends Scarlett. The audience adored their sweet little toddler dance and Beth announced to the audience that both of these little babies had been in Salty performances in utero (true!)


At the end of July we escaped the heat for an evening up Millcreek Canyon (we'd done a few Millcreek Monday evening events with the Hawkins family) and Leslie joined us. We ate left over pasta salad and dutch oven pizza. We had smoores for dessert and walked around the little day camp site. A rare evening off from play rehearsals so, we always try to take full advantage.


For the 24th of July, we hung out with the Brunson family and set off fireworks in the backyard. I was in charge of selecting music for the fireworks show and Patrick was super into the whole thing. Looking back now, I recognize the irony of the fact that I had him dressed in fire truck pajamas that night. LOL!


Later that week, Bonnie and Andrea absconded with Patrick and took him to the aquarium and to the ice cream parlor. They kept sending me pictures and while Mama was hard at work, it warmed my heart to know that my boy was having such a fun day with his auntie and grandma.


On July 26th, I found out that Banner Bank would be selling its Utah market to Bank of American Fork. My employer of almost a year shocked us all with this announcement and at that time it was made clear that they were not sure what the plan was going to be for employee retention. I was fearful of losing my job and sad to be leaving Banner Bank behind. More than that, I was thinking about losing Ian as a manager and I was almost certain that I would be losing Richard; even if they did keep the small business banking team. I threw myself into rehearsal that night but, a friend of mine gave me a hug...one of those knowing hugs where you get squeezed a little tighter and she knew. Somehow, she knew that I had just been thrown a bomb and was trying to hide it from everyone. I sobbed on her shoulder while she told me to "let it go. It's not your fault". Wow. Some people just know you!


On July 28th we flew out to meet up with the Biggs family in Tahoe for my dad's retirement celebrations. On our layover in Vegas, we stayed aboard the plane and Patrick was lucky enough to be invited into the cockpit! The pilot chatted with us for a minute and let Patch touch a few knobs and buttons. He was mesmerized. We had a delightful time in Tahoe. Everyone had arrived by Saturday. Sunday was a chill day/ church going day for my parents. Monday we went to the beach and rented a catamaran. Tuesday we all got to choose our own activities. Scott and Ted wanted to fly in a glider plane and since I'm skinny enough to ride as a $40 bonus rider...I joined Ted. It was one of the coolest things I've ever done in my life. It was a hot day and the thermo lifts were helping us gain altitude in the glider ie. without an engine!!! AMAZING. And our pilot gave us a thrilling ride...so thrilling that I spewed my lunch and I'm not a motion sickness person. I blame the heat and the sudden gains in altitude. It was still amazing. On Wednesday we went to the beach again and rented wave runners. On Thursday we had a beach day and a dinner cruise in the evening where we rode around Lake Tahoe and saw a really cool heiresses estate from afar. I would like to tour that the next time I'm there. On Friday, Mom, Brent, and I all went on a ropes/ ziplining course and that was also SUPER fun. Mom did two of the courses and Brent and I did 5 out of 6 (including the "black diamond" type course) and because everything is a competition for me and Brent, we were rating each other for style points going down the zip line. On Saturday, I was lucky enough to go gliding again. This time with Brent and we didn't have the thermal lifts or such a crazy pilot so, luckily, I didn't lose my breakfast. In the afternoon, we met up with Ted's family and a friend from Hawaii at the beach. I happened to buy the girls a fun little jelly bean game where you spin to pick from two beans that look exactly the same only one is a disgusting flavor and one is a good flavor. It was pretty rough for me. I had a sour milk flavored one and tapped out. I nearly lost my lunch on that one. One night we also played Midnight Taboo with everyone but Dad and the kids. I laughed so hard that I practically peed my pants. My mother describing some explicit/ adult material was just too much for me to handle and I just could. not. stop. giggling.


We got back from our trip to Tahoe and I dove STRAIGHT into performances for Annie. I had one super quick brush up rehearsal with just me, Star (one of the Mr. Warbucks) and Millie (one of the Annies) and then boom...I was on stage...after missing tech week. Who does that?! Oh wait...a lot of my friends do that. Anyway...It was bonkers and fun. Tuesday night we had a great show and good audience turn out. On Wednesday night we got rained out which is a crying shame because my hair looked amazing. On Thursday, after my early morning BNI meeting, I hopped in my car to head to my office as usual only something horrible happened...I had somehow forgotten to fully close my shaker bottle and chocolate shake spilled all over my seat and all over my skirt. Luckily, because the show was rained out on Wednesday night I had some of my costumes in the car and I was able to change into one of my Grace pencil skirt. hehe. At Thursday night's performance I had a bunch of family show up to support me which is always flattering. Unfortunately, all of our costumes somehow tipped over and were laying in the wet grass all day and were soaking wet. We dried them in the sun until the amphitheater opened and had a few soggy clothes that night...no biggie. The Warren women came out in full force. Luckily it was still summer break for the kids because the show didn't end until close to 11! On Friday, after spending the day off of work hanging with Scott, Patch, and Maddie and Eva (we went ice blocking and splashed around in a river at Sugarhouse park), I got to perform with Nikki and Andrew (the other Annie and Warbucks). It was like opening night all over again! More family and friends attended. On Saturday night, I closed my last show for a year. We struck the costumes, sets, and props. I stuck around to the bitter end...as usual...and the last of us went to In-n-Out for some late night grub. It was fun to laugh and hang out with the cast and it was also fun to close this "chapter"...the Annie chapter that is...I'm by no means done performing. It's too much a part of my soul.


On August 17th I closed a big loan that has been brewing for a while. It felt good to do right by my clients even though we found out days before that Bank of American Fork would not be keeping us. That evening, I met up with my parents for dinner at Apollo Burger, picked up Patch, and headed home. That evening, I had the idea to ask Patrick to read a favorite book to me. He told me the story of "Giraffes Can't Dance" by just looking at the pictures and sort of summarizing the pages. I was amazed at how vivid some of the phrases were for him as he was saying them exactly how I read them. Adorable. In spite of the crazy at work, being with him reminds me of what life is all about and why I work as hard as I do.


On August 22nd, my dad's birthday, I took him on a date. We drove downtown to eat at Blue Lemon, to see a friend perform in a broadway review, and enjoyed some AMAZING talent showcased by those 6 performers. Incredible voices and, even though it may have been a little indulgent on my part, my dad was singing along with a number of the songs and he seemed to enjoy himself. He's such a good man and someone I like to bounce ideas and plans off of. We're always talking about ideas, books, history, politics, religion...things that matter. I can count on my daddy.


Boy oh boy...I haven't even gotten to autumn yet and I'm feeling the need to take a break here. So, I will. I shall post this...even though the title doesn't quite make sense...and return to updates another time...hopefully before another month goes by :)