Phantom of the Opera (24hours in Orange County)

In the middle of August, Mommy and us four "olders" took a quick, spur-of-the-moment, 24hr trip down to Southern California to see the Broadway touring company's performance of the Phantom of the Opera.  IT. WAS. PHENOMENAL.  The performance was spectacular, the scene changes were amazing, and the production was unbelievable!  Best yet, we went with two cousins, an aunt, and two friends.  It was a party to say the least.  ;) 

The first stop was Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa to change from our travel clothes into our evening attire.

Jordan had to wait a bit, but I was the first of us girls to be done!

The church where we all started.

And the next stop was a quick drive by our neighbor's house to see if they were home.  Sadly, Mr. or Mrs. C. were not around when we made our appearance, but we took a picture in front of the house and said hi to their son, Elias.

Here we are in front of our old home!  Okay, whoever lives in it now did a terrible job with all that gray paint.  It didn't always look like that.  :(

Dinner before the show had us out with our show gang (except for Grace who had to meet us at the theatre)!

 Selfie stick for everyone!

COUSINS!!!
(Well, a few of us, that is)

  Heh!  I think she meant "pretty crazy".  ;)


Backseat Buddies.
Ilan S. is one of the cutest little guys I know!

At the Segerstrom Center... ready to find our seats!
You can not imagine the thrill of knowing that we were really going to see Phantom... TOGETHER!!!  So many tingles of excitement!

"One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

 We are so ready.  Excitement is in the air!

Leading up to the performance, we cousins had been sending little video clips of us singing parts of the songs.  We practically knew all the lines by heart by the time we watched it together!



Intermission (in the bathroom).

Eden and Grace ready to watch Act II.

Happy, happy!

 The Segerstrom Center is gorgeous!

Cousin love!

 This was a night we will all remember for... ever!

Okay, so there's a story behind this picture.  ;)  While we were sending Phantom videos back and forth, we decided to cast everyone as a role from the musical.  Can you guess who is who?

This has got to be my favorite picture of the entire 24hrs.

 "Alright!  Get into character!"

So we got back to Grandma's house quite late.  The plan was to spend as much time as possible together, so we knew that this was going to be a late night!  (Yes, we watched Studio C--it's the Cousin Addiction Tradition!)

We put together a funny Phantom of the Opera spoof video (at 1:30 in the morning) which I will post soon.
My cousins insisted on casting me as... The Phantom.
(I played my part well, don't you think?  And the mask.  Well, that was a paper-towel.)

Cousin sleep over at Grandma's house!
(Do I need to mention that this was at 3:00 in the morning?  I was awake at 7:30 the next morning because Grandma said that the time together was short, so we couldn't waste it sleeping!)

The next day we hung out with the cousins and relatives and swan in Grandma's pool.

 My balletic side.

 Shiloh and I enjoying the water.
(How I love swimming at Grandma's!)

 Mark and I.


Grace and I.

Pictures with Grandma!!!  She is the best!  Especially knowing that she can manage with six of her children and 16 of her grandchildren, plus all the other actives that go on when people come to visit!

And one last selfie with the group!
(This time with us five, Grandma, Aunt Laurie, cousins John, Mark, and Grace, and friend Nancy.  Yes, there are a lot of us to keep track of.)

And then we hopped on a jet and came home.  (We made the best of our 24hrs in OC.)

Oh.  Stay tuned for the video... Phantom of the Opera (in 213 seconds).

Posted By:

~Bethany

Camp Dwight 2015

 Camp Dwight.  It is the highlight of the year!  This year we enjoyed having our good friend, Amanda, join us for the trip.

 And this is how we travel. The whole ride is a big song and dance number from a musical.

Shiloh wanted to take a selfie, and I was still listening to a conversation. Yes, my results are awkward. Her results are just fine. 

Rest stop! And that was an adventure too. 

 Amanda's canoeing adventures! I do agree that it would have been way more interesting if it capsized.  ;)

 The mountain "Man Looks at Moon". Really, I'm sure the Indians named it something like that. Something really creative like that...

People everywhere! Extrovert's heaven!

 Sermon on the Mount. This was an excellent talk about how our hearts must be turned to the Lord, because He is our Master.

I was able to capture this beautiful sunset!

 Listening to the meetings.

This man was incredible! His story was about a Russian man named Vanya who endured persecution for his faith in Jesus Christ. Very inspiring and also sobering.

Selfies are for the people that actually look good in them. I'm sure you can figure out who fits that description. And who doesn't.

 Always, always get your energy level up before performing. This is one of the ways we do it. (Minus the sunburns. That's only how we do it at camp.)

Amanda is training for the Ripsticking Championships! 

 How many people can you fit in one kayak?  ;)

 I knew that if I were to try getting on there, it would be sure to sink. Nevertheless, it did sink. And they still blamed me for sinking it. (I didn't do it.)

 Tubing down the creek!

 Judah out on the water.

S.U.P (sorta).  

A few of us also got to spend some time life-guarding during the swim times.

 Eden and Elanee enjoying the sunshine.

 

Eden and Kathrina must have a telepathic secret.

 The Grande Finale... a dance! 

 The lovely Mrs. L.!

 Watching all the dancing and keeping cool by the big fan.

 The kids hanging out!

Daddy in deep conversation! 

 

 Jordan's closing thoughts on Camp Dwight. 

 

 Shiloh and Eden's closing thoughts on Camp Dwight. 

 We visited the Deschutes River on the way back home.  We are missing some people in the picture. And Jordan thought that getting his selfie-stick would help the situation. It only made things worse as he didn't make it in the picture. Poor Jordan.

Everyone left me to watch our stuff.  So I practiced my Ninja Training.  Nothing was stolen.

Posted By:

~Bethany

 

Shine Down