Into The Woods-The Play

Mountain View High Shool's Spring Musical is "Into The Woods" by Stephen Sondheim. It opened tonight and runs through Saturday, April 18th. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Show starts at 7:00p.m. Tickets are $4-$6. I saw their final dress rehearsal last night and it is an evening well spent if you can work it in to your schedule. Simon is in it. He plays Jack (as in 'Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack') It has fairytale characters in it, but I wouldn't say it's a children's show. Children can see it. In fact Simon just told me that a 4 year old little girl came up to him after the show tonight and told him that she stayed awake for the entire show...so it held her interest. Here are some photos from the show to whet your appetite. 

Here's Jack with his mother and beloved cow, Milky White. 

 

There has to be a Witch, of course.

 

Cinderella's Stepmother.

And Cinderella's Stepsisters:  Here is a side note about their dresses. SWEET, AMAZING Rebecca  Willcox, who has her own costume company, saw what these girls were going to wear and said, "Uh, I'll make you dresses over the weekend." That was Easter Weekend. She has 10 children (not all at home, but still!) including a set of twins at the bottom who are around three. She makes it look so easy. The dresses are beautiful. I just thought you should know, so you can appreciate her talent. She helped with other pieces as well, but whipping up two fancy, shmanzy dresses over a weekend...wow!

Florinda

Lucinda

There is a prince who looks for the girl who fits the shoe:

And the girl is, of course, Cinderella, who turns into a princess.

And, Simon, again, who is my son...

He gets to wear some nifty Lederhosen and some swell shoes in the second act.

There is a Baker and his Wife, a Mysterious Man, a Narrator, a Giant, a Wolf, Little Red Riding Hood and her Grandmother,Rapunzel, a couple of princes, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, Cinderella's Dad and a Steward and a Toe and a chicken that rolls across the stage. Congratulations to the entire cast and crew. I applaud you. The rest of the photos from the show can be seen here. 

My friend, Jo.

One of the ways photography has blessed my life has been the friends I have made. I met Jo only last year (it seems like it was a lot longer than that) and we became fast friends. There are no age barriers with photography. I feel like Jo's peer, and yet on paper, I could technically be her mother. O.k..., a really young mom! :-) I'm so impressed with Jo. She's so ambitious about photography. She's computer savvy. She's a great mom. I don't know how she does it all with an active pre-toddler. I also know I can email her at 1 a.m. and she's probably up working on photos. She's the one who showed me how to widen my blog among other things. She's great to work with. She has 2nd shot weddings with me and I can always count on her to fill in the cracks for me. So, here's the sad part: Jo and her husband, Jeremy moved with Emmalee to Idaho 2 weeks ago to start a new adventure at BYU-Idaho. Jo, I just want you to know that I forgive you...but I will still miss you. I went over to say good-bye the night before she left and thought she might like some photos, so I brought my camera. Thanks for all you've taught me and for being such a good friend, Jo. I love your passion and can't wait to see what you do!

Jo isn't the only one leaving friends behind.

Thanks, friend. Keep in touch!

Happy Easter, Navy Bean.

This is Navy's first Easter. She was born on March 5th to Lindsay and Dano and was just barely 2 weeks old when these photos were taken. Happy Easter, little Navy. It's hard not to call her Navy Bean. She's a cutie and so loved. Makes me excited for my nephew to be born this week. Can't wait.

Meet Navy:

She was so alert.

This is Navy with her grandma and her mom. A year ago I got to photograph Lindsay as a bride. Now she's a mom!

This last photo seemed to lend itself to this treatment. I think Navy has time to grow in to her tutu. :-)

Wishing everyone a Happy Easter!

Little Footnote: Enjoyed the Easter Pagent last night. Got to have a date tonight. Adam gets to give his first talk in church tomorrow. Simon gets to fill in as choir director...we're all singing in the choir, of course. In the afternoon we get to be with my brothers and their families. Looking forward to it. Loved, loved, loved the rain today. Started the day with a much needed bath for Annie(our dog) and ended it with a bath for Emma. It was a good day. 

Queen Creek & Spring Break

Over Spring Break we were invited to visit our good friends out in Queen Creek. I remember when we were moving to AZ from CA 6 1/2 years ago and we knew we were going to be planting ourselves somewhere east-ish, that Queen Creek came on the radar. It sounded so quaint, and still does.  It has the word "Creek" in it and you don't associate that with the desert. It sounds refreshing AND cooler...and it is both of those. Brian and Michelle have 10 kids. Seven of them still live at home. Michelle went to school with my Brian and she and I  became fast friends when we met several years ago. I admire how Brian and Michelle have chosen a simple life and really focused on their family. We always feel renewed after spending the day with them. Our children enjoy each other's company and my kids get to run around outside and play the old-fashioned way, climbing, running, getting dirty, eating simple food (when you have 10 kids, simple is a must!). In the evening, since it was a Monday, we had Family Home Evening together. We made it an impromptu evening of music. We went from youngest to oldest and each child played the piano, cello or sang. It was such a treat and a perfect end to a very nice day. Here's a little taste of Queen Creek. Maybe you can feel why we like it so much:

Christy is # 9. She was almost 2 when I met her for the first time and SO shy. Not shy anymore.

 

Love Calvin's freckles. Our family loves Calvin & Hobbs, so when we first met Calvin we just knew 

we were going to like him.

Cherish, riding to the creek to play while I've got the rest of the kids in the car.

This made me think of the movie "Castaway".

 

With this many children, we just had to build a pyramid.

Thank you, Solomon family for such a fun day.