Each week at horse back riding lessons I find myself more and more comfortable around the horses. Today I almost prepared Cookie for her young riders all by myself. I went out to her little pen in the field and put on her harness and led her into the barn. I brushed her thoroughly, even walking behind her several times, and then went to the tack room to get her saddle. I set it carefully on her back facing the right direction and thought about buckling the girth under her belly. This is the part that still makes me nervous. . . Kim walked by about this time and asked if I needed help. I watched very carefully to see exactly how she did it so that maybe, just maybe, I could do it all myself the next time. . . She put the bridle on for me, too, although I think I might actually have been able to figure that one out myself. Maybe. I've come a long way! Gloria is doing really well, too. She's very comfortable on Buttons and grins the entire time she rides. . .
. . . Except when she's really concentrating. . .
When she was trotting today, Buttons sneezed and threw her head a little bit, but Gloria held on:
After the lesson, Gloria showed me the newborn baby lambs. They were born this morning and were very sweet to watch:
Early Wednesday morning we headed out to Caldwell to run sound at a grade school. It was pretty cool, actually, considering the kids at this elementary school won a radio contest by raising the most money for the Keep Kids Warm program. Their prize: Josh Gracin in concert at their school! Gracin was an American Idol contestant several years ago and has gone on to have a few hits on the radio. It was a very small set-up and didn't really require my help, but I just had to be a part of this one. . . The kids were obviously very excited and had prepared ahead of time by making signs and learning the lyrics to several of Gracin's songs. . . It was a bit different from our last event. . .
These three guys put on a fairly good show. . . It was pretty early in the morning for a concert, so I guess their slight lack of interaction with the crowd could be blamed on that. . .
I'm pretty sure the kids still felt very, very special and will never forget the experience. . .
They only played about six songs so, including our set-up time, we were only there for about 2 hours. At least I have this to show for it. . . :
We went back to The Egyptian Saturday morning and loaded everything back into the truck. We did a final check of the stage and surrounding areas (affectionately called an "idiot check") and I took one last picture of the stage that looked as if nothing had really happened there at all. . . I'm usually very relieved when an event like this is over even if it's a really good event so I was surprised that I had a bit of a let-down feeling as we left. It was a crazy, busy week but there were so many really, really good things about it that I was honestly sorry that it was over. Weird, I know. . .
Once again I was surprised on Friday at how calm everything was, how well everyone was working together, and how un-stressful this potentially stressful event turned out to be. Kurt and Rob spent the afternoon at the theater although there wasn't much to do considering everything was still in place from the evening before. When the kids and I arrived around 6:00, the guys were sitting back in their chairs as if nothing major was about to happen!! In fact, everyone who was a part of the production seemed completely at ease. . .
Kurt introduced Hailey to the monkey . . .
I think Kurt may have gotten a little too attached . . . We got the kids settled in their seats up in the balcony so they could enjoy the show. . .
Even though they were almost in the back of the theater, the seats were still pretty good. . .
Everyone was in place and ready to go right at 7:30 and the concert began. . . Even though I had heard all of the songs the night before, I just sat back and thoroughly enjoyed the performance. . .
The theme of this concert was Onomatopoeia in 3D and everyone in the audience was given 3D glasses to wear during two of the songs. There was really no rhyme or reason behind it, Kevin just always wanted to do it this way! We moved the kids closer during intermission so they could really enjoy the show. . .
Just like in Thursday's performance, Rob stayed perfectly cool at the mixer. He received many, many, many great comments about how amazing the sound was. . .
I was actually disappointed when the last song was over! Of course, they received a standing ovation. . .
When the concert ended, it was time to take everything down. . . It took us 3 1/2 days to set it all up and it would all come down in about 3 1/2 hours. . .
We had a great crew so that helped speed things up. . .
I was too busy wrapping cables and pulling mics to take too many pictures but Hailey, Gloria and Zach helped a great deal and by the time we had most of it wrapped up and ready for Saturday's load out, we were all pretty wiped out. . .
