Tuacahn

My sister Deanna called me in August and said that the play AIDA (eye-ee-duh) was playing this summer at the Tuacahn Amphitheater in St. George. I've never seen the show so I was like "hell yeah lets go!". So we decided to get tickets for Labor Day weekend. We got 6th row, center stage tickets for $49! That's freaking cheap! I knew Nate would be going dirt biking so this was the perfect opportunity to spend some time with my sister.

AIDA takes place in Egypt and it's the story of the Nubian Princess (Aida) and she gets captured and is made a slave for the Princess of Egypt. Nobody knows she is a Princess because that would mean immediate death, so she keeps her identity a secret. Anyway, I'm not going to give away the whole story, but she ends up falling in love with the Egyptian Princess' betrothed named Radames (rah-dah-mays). If you want to know the rest of the story, you have to see it for yourself. It's a good one!

We left Friday and drove down. We stayed the night at the Best Western Abbey Inn in St. George. The reason I say the name is because it was a really nice hotel, with a HOT breakfast in the morning, and it was only like $89 bucks a night! So if you're going to St. George I would highly recommend this hotel. Here are a few pics of the outside. It just had a "homey" feel to it.








Anyway, so Saturday we went and walked around the Temple and kinda bummed around. Then we went to dinner and the show. The dinner was catered by Golden Corral - it was really good. You had the option to eat inside or out, but the weather was so nice we decided to eat outside. Well, little did we know that there were going to be like 1000 bees swarming everywhere. It was ridiculous! Luckily neither of us got stung, so that's good.

You're not allowed to take pictures during the show, but I snapped a few before hand of the set. If you've never been to Tuacahn, it's amazing! Because it's an outdoor amphitheater they can do crazy stuff. For example, there is a scene during the show where they're having dinner with the Pharaoh and all of a sudden, a camel walks onto the stage carrying a belly dancer. How many times do you see a camel walk onto the stage during a play? Um... NEVER! They can shoot off fireworks, and they even have the option to flood the stage. They can control the waterfall and stream behind the set to flood the stage. It was awesome!


Right at the entrance to the parking lot









This is the boardwalk to the theatre




from the amphitheater




the set of AIDA




Anyway - the weekend with my sister was awesome and it was great to just spend time with her. We are planning to go back next year because they are doing CATS, Crazy for You and Tarzan!
You should check out their website, if you haven't seen it already. it's http://www.tuacahn.org and if you get a chance to go down, I would say it's totally worth the drive!

Growing Puppies & Wedding Fun

Kristin Elizabeth Peterson Smith.... wow that is a long name! My good friend and front desk comrade at work Kristin got married on August 15, 2009. She looked SO FREAKING PRETTY! Kristin is from Tennessee and her husband Aaron is from Ogden. Because they met at USU they got married in the Logan Temple and then had their reception at the Ogden Country Club. Then two weeks later they had another reception in Tennessee.

I went to their lunch at Hamiltons (YUM!) it was amazing! She had the biggest selection of food and then at her reception there was another very big selection of food. Her decorations were gorgeous too! See, when normal people get married it take roughly 3 months (if not more) to plan a wedding. Well for Kristin.... it took 3 days. Her mom flew out from Tennessee and they had 3 days to get all the big stuff done. It was the BUSIEST 3 days I think ANYONE has ever been. It was hilarious how tired she was, but then 90% of her wedding stress was done, over, finished. She's a genius. If I ever get married again (ha ha) she is going to plan my wedding. (She doesn't know that yet.. probably because getting re-married are not any plans I currently have for my future). Anyway - here are a few pics from her wedding.

Beautiful! I was kind of slouching down because I had on 3 inch heals and I was WAY taller than she was. I didn't want to "tower" over the bride.








I think my favorite part about this picture is that all the boys were standing down (behind Aaron) to catch it and when he lifted her dress she was like "AH! You boys have to turn around!" it was just so funny.


This is the view from the country club patio. Talk about a perfect day. It was actually raining in the morning when they were at the temple, but it cleared up very nicely by the afternoon.


Oops... I caught the guys decorating her car. They were smart and locked her car and nobody had a spare key so luckily the inside of her car was saved.





Growing Puppies:

Nate and I went to see our puppies again the other night. They are getting SO big! And they're adorable. There is this one that looks JUST like tommy when he was a pup. SO CUTE! I want to keep one so bad - mainly just so Tommy can have someone to play with, but I really don't think I could handle potty training another dog. Not right now at least. Anyway, here are lots of cute pictures so enjoy!

This is the one that looks just like tommy. Doesn't he look like he's done something wrong? i love how his paws are curled. SO CUTE!







This one was just chasin his tail! he was NOT going to give up until he had it and by dang he caught it eventually.



These two would not stop wrestling. As you can see, they are at the "biting" stage with each other. The one on bottom has the face of "oh crap. you got me"



All of the babies with Mama Maggie. She is such a good mommy.


He was nibbling on me and it was so cute i had to take a picture. I would wiggle my fingers and she would paw at me trying to get me to hold still.



The puppies are going to be ready to go to new homes around the 21st of September. It's so sad to think they will be gone but at the same time I'm so excited that these little pups will make people really happy. Tommy has seriously been the best money I've ever spent! He is such a devoted dog. Anybody who's reading this that owns a dog, knows what I'm talking about.