Week-At-A-Glance

In an effort to bring my blog current, I'm posting all of last week at one time! It was relatively quiet anyway in comparison to the weeks leading up to it. . .





When we arrived home Sunday night around 9 p.m., I went straight to my bed and didn't move until around midnight when I realized my laptop was in the unlocked motor home in the driveway. I got up long enough to bring it in the house and then I was out again. . . Rob and I were both up early on Monday even though we had no reason to be. More than 2 weeks straight of early rising had re-set our internal alarm clocks!! He had a 3-hour meeting he runs sound for once/month that needed to be set up in Caldwell at 1:00, so we made our way to the shop to load up the van. It sounds easy enough- just load the three cases he needs into the van and he can be on his way. . . Unfortunately, he had failed to get the required emission test several months ago and since we hadn't been driving the van due to high gas prices, it wasn't that big of a deal when the registration was revoked. . . Anyway, we loaded up the cases and headed for the downtown emission place where we take all of our vehicles when they are due. That's about the time we noticed the license plates were missing from the front AND the back of the van. I had noticed this briefly when I re-parked the van sometime between Mule Days and Cherry Festival but it didn't really register. . . The emission testing didn't go so well. Months of sitting in one place caused the van to fail miserably. By this time, Rob needed to head for Caldwell so we loaded the cases into my car -big, heavy cases, small car. I called the police to report our stolen plates and spent the next several hours filing a report, getting an oil change, driving around and around and around the back streets of Garden City to make the van emission-friendly. . . all in a van without air conditioning or windows that roll down in 90 degree heat. I wouldn't say I was cursing Rob's name, but I was thinking about a few things I'd say to him later. . . The van passed the emission test on the second go-round and I headed for the DMV to register Rob's van and get new plates. Monday isn't a great day to go to the DMV. After only about 45 minutes, my number was called and it only took the clerk 15 minutes to figure out how to tell the computer that I needed new plates to replace stolen ones. . . She was nice, though, so it could have been so much worse. . . I ended up driving out to Emmett (in the heat, without air conditioning. . . ) where we had left the short stage decks and several sheets of plywood on the grass and they were now in danger of getting hit by the sprinkler. . . Zach and I did what we could to rescue them and I finally made it back to my house in the early evening. It was a long, hot, blurry day.



Tuesday was much better. Way back in May when Rob installed a new sound system at the Hawks, we were given 4 season tickets as part of the package deal! We have beautiful seats behind the catcher for the entire season!!

We sat there and basked in our good fortune. . .

. . . who knew that someday all of our hard work would pay off in such a beautiful way. . .

The speakers sounded beautiful, the weather was perfect and the Hawks won the game!

We had so much fun that we went again on Wednesday evening!! My nephew was with a group of young ball players that took the field during The National Anthem. He's in the #11 black jersey:

It was another perfect evening. . .

On Thursday, I went to out to Nampa to give my Daddy his Father's Day Present and wish him a belated Happy Day!!

We messed around with the timer on my camera and took a few family photos:

After spending a couple of hours with my parents, the kids and I met Rob and Kurt at Nampa Nights for another evening of music. . .

The band for the evening was The Janet Driscoll band.

The kids entertained themselves and we all sat back and relaxed. . .

On Friday, we had a "swap" with the Adams'. I had the girls at the shop for a few hours and Rob put them to work. They didn't seem to mind and I don't really think it was work. . .

On Saturday we went to the Meridian Dairy Days Parade. I missed both of the festival parades so it was kind of fun to sit back and watch the floats go by. This talented boy is actually doing gymnastics while the float is moving!

After the parade, Rob met Kurt down at the shop and they finally had the time and the favorable weather necessary to put a coat of paint on the stage trailer!

On Saturday, we pulled the trailer onto the fairgrounds to set it up for a corporate party on Sunday. I'm still impressed with how easy it is to set up! It levels out in about an eighth of the time it took us on our old stage.

A storm was moving in so we set up the lifts and the truss for the canopy but left the top off to protect it from the elements.

Saturday evening we went to my sister's house for her 2nd annual outdoor neighborhood movie party. The kids played Guitar Hero while we waited to see if the storm would pass. . .

We finally made the call to set up the screen, projectors and speakers in the garage. A good crowd showed up and we all enjoyed the movie, RV, on the big screen. It was a little close to home since I just spent two weeks in an RV. . .

Even though my life is busy and crazy sometimes, I can look back and see how far we've come and feel really thankful that we are reaping some benefits now. We work hard, but we play hard, too, and right now as I'm writing this I can honestly say that Life Is Good.

Day 7 Cherry Fest

By Sunday morning we were all dragging . . . It had been a very long two weeks filled with 12-15 hour days with very little time off. The kids pitched in to help but we were all moving slow. . .

We weren't sure how everything was going to fit back into the truck since we had just about everything we owned on site due to having several other shows over the 2 week period.

By stacking a bunch of cases at the very end, we managed to fit everything but the short stage decks in the truck but it was exhausting!!

The two most intense events of the season are over. It should be all downhill from here. . .

Yeah, right. . .

Day 6 Cherry Fest

The last event day of The Cherry Festival started early with Rob and Kurt meeting in Boise to set up the stage for another event. By the time Rob made it back out to the festival, I had already run sound (by myself!) for 2 hours for a yo-yo competition.

The closing day is filled with lots of fun things like a pie eating contest and a parade.

Zach went to the parade with my camera and took lots of pictures for me. . .

It was interesting seeing the parade through his eyes. . .

The first band of the evening was The Knights Band. They were amazingly good, laid-back musicians. The two in the middle have played together and with other people for over 50 years. Rob called them his new favorite band.

The closing band for the festival was Straight Away:

The fog machine sits at the very back of the dome and, with the touch of a remote controlled button, fog shoots up and over the truss and into the crowd. I'm in charge of the fog machine and I may have gotten a little carried away. . .

All in all the week went by quickly and (mostly) painlessly. Kurt survived his festival and we even received an e-mail from one of the bands saying how impressed they were with him! Now the hard part: taking it all down. . .

Day 5 Cherry Fest

Friday at the Cherry Festival was laid back and relaxing. Rob was a little more rested and feeling better and everything was working exactly like it was supposed to. Kurt, on the other hand, was running another festival, in another town, all by himself, with someone else's' equipment that worked questionably at best!!

When we first started running sound, Rob worked with a band called Sparky Parks and the Aardvarks. They were a great band and they treated Rob like one of them. We even traveled with them to places like Seattle and McCall. Then we got busy and they semi-retired and we hadn't seen any of them for 3 or 4 years. Al, the bass player, just happened to be a part of the cowboy poetry group at The Cherry Fest! He and his wife sang a few cowboy songs and we had a chance to catch up and reminisce!

I haven't said too much about the kids in all of these posts and it's mostly because they were pretty busy doing their own thing. Zach took great care of the pups and Gloria made friends with pretty much everyone. She spent A LOT of time at the cool booth of her new friend, Selena.

The line-up on Friday consisted mostly of hometown talent singing, dancing and making music on the stage:

Rob's mom and dad came out to celebrate his dad's birthday and Father's Day. Jeanie brought dinner and we all just hung out for the evening. It was a fun way to celebrate with them! The kids even made an appearance while they were here:

Jeanie got to see the cloggers up close! They put on such a great show!

The Friday night opening band was Strangers In The Mirror:

The Soul Cats were up next and put on a great show, as usual. . .

It was a nice way to wrap up a Friday at The Cherry Fest. . . Kurt survived day one of his festival but both guys would have an early day on Saturday with a stage set-up in Boise at 7 a.m. and then one last festival day apiece!!!!