Willy Wonka Jr - Night #2

Saturday night, Avery had a big fan club at the show! My mom, dad, grandma Ruth, Matt, Morgan and Grayson were all there (and me of course)!

Getting better at the hair

Here she is in her "I Eat More" scene. She said the candy has a "bread" aftertaste. Um, that doesn't sound good.

Of course, more flowers... and gifts!

Willy Wonka Jr - Opening Night

Opening night went great! Avery and all the other actors did great! Morgan and I went with my Aunt Lucy and Aunt Mary Alice.

Avery is at the far right in the pink. This is the opening number where the kids are all dressed as candy kids.

Here is her first big scene. She's the first ticket winner, Augustus Gloop. The German kid who likes to eat! She got to eat candy on stage while she sang her song!

Here is a scene with all the "ticket winners" at the gates of the chocolate factory getting ready to meet Willy Wonka.

This is Avery's other big scene, the Chocolate Smelting Room. She eats the chocolate and falls in the tube.

Then, she comes out to sing with the Oompa Loompa's covered in chocolate!

The ending!

Her favorite part... getting flowers! :)

Afterwards, the cast all went out to dinner to Portillo's. She had a blast hanging out with her castmates! All the girls (and one boy) that were a part of the show were really nice!

Oh, she loves the flowers! Ha!

It's Tech Week!

Avery's show is less than a week away! Tech Week is busy - rehearsals every night from 5:00-8:30! I helped out with rehearsal one night. I got to watch the little Oompa Loompa's backstage! Here's a picture of Avery in costume... our little Augustus Gloop!

Cast picture!

A&M had fun too!

While I was having fun in Palm Springs, the girls were having fun in DG with Dad!

They had dinner out at Neat Kitchen... and got yummy desserts!

Morgan made Monkey Bread for breakfast!

It was nice outside, so they rode bikes and Morgan played basketball at McCullom.

They raked up the leaves in the backyard... Milo was not a fan of the leaves.

Morgan is hiding in there somewhere!

To top off their weekend, they went to Olive Garden for lunch! Avery could eat a whole basket of breadsticks herself - ha!

Morgan loves the salad!

Girls Weekend in Palm Springs

Every year, I get together with two of my high school friends, Crystal and JJ. This year, we went to Palm Springs, where JJ has a condo. I love our weekend trips! Great food, fun drinks and time to catch up with long time friends!

I flew in on Thursday. I got in a few hours before the other two, so I went downtown and had lunch at Tommy Bahama's. The weather was so gorgeous!

I headed to the condo afterwards to rest and wait for JJ and Crystal. They got in around 6:00. Then, we headed downtown for dinner. There was a market on the main street, which had a little bit of everything!

We had dinner at Las Casuela's. The margaritas were gigantic and the food was delicious! We sat out int he courtyard and they had a band playing.

The next day we had to wait for a plumber to come to check why there was no hot water in the condo, so we grabbed brunch and picked up some drinks/snacks at the grocery store. We spent the day at the pool drinking mimosas!

Then, we headed back downtown for more drinks and dinner.

We started out at Tommy Bahamas.

Here we are by the Marilyn Monroe statue.

Just a nice view of the mountains behind us.

Then, we went to the Tiki Bar. They had some really interesting drinks!

Inside, they had some really interesting decorations! Yes, that's a puffer fish lamp and a picture of a naked girl in the background.

Here we are outside by the tiki torches (a little blurry!)

We ate dinner at an awesome Italian restaurant! No pictures of that, but we sat outside and enjoyed some wine and nice weather! The next day, we went to the drag brunch at the Saguaro Hotel.

Here's a picture of JJ's condo.

At the start of the drag brunch. The hotel was super colorful!

It was so much fun! We had unlimited mimosas!

Cheers!

At the end, you can get pictures with the stars of the show! They were all so fun and spent quite a bit of time walking and interacting with the crowd!

After the brunch, we went to watch some football and grab some food at a bar downtown.

The weekend went by really fast and it was back to the airport. Time to say good-bye to these beautiful views!