The Play's the Thing

This was the scene we left on Thursday morning.  Happy children, happy grandparents.  We could only pray the smiles would still be there when we returned Saturday night.  To celebrate 15 years of wedded bliss Abe and I treated ourselves to 3 days at the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City. 

Do you see our big smiles in this picture?  Well, I'm going to be frank with you.  In a way, they are very real smiles because we'd been looking forward to this trip for a long time. It had been five years since we'd taken a trip together.  We were excited to be going away and to take a break from real life.  But we'd exerted a lot of energy getting the house ready to function in our absence and clean it up for grandparents to stay over.  Our house was about as clean as it ever gets, but it took a toll.  We were exhausted, irritated, on edge, annoyed, and very snippy.

Our first stop was the Manti temple.  Oh, it was exquisite!   And of course going to the temple did help our snippy-ness.

The first night we saw The Merry Wives of Windsor.  Neither of us had ever read or seen this play before and it was so charming and delightful.  It was performed on an outdoor stage and although there was a little bit of rain, it wasn't a problem.  We really like to go to plays and you get some great talent at local theaters, but the actors at the Shakespeare Festival seem to be super-human!  It's hard to believe there are people that can do what they do so well.  What a treat!

I know all these pictures look the same, but, that's what this weekend was-- just Abe and me together a lot, with no one to interrupt us and draw us away.  It was lovely.  This picture was taken Friday night at Les Miserables.  We had close seats and it was MARVELOUS!! It is Les Miserables so it is always marvelous, but I was just mesmerized throughout the performance.
Years ago Abe and I saw it on Broadway.  At the time I was pregnant with Clark and very sick with the worst cold of my life.  I went through an entire roll of toilet paper Abe had swiped from the men's bathroom for me. We had the worst seats in the house.  I wept hysterically at the end-- but did I cry because I was so moved or because I was so sick and wanted to go home?  I don't know.  I just know that on this night I was happy to be in full health with a good seat.

I did cry at times, but not audibly and not hysterically, unlike the very emotional girl a few rows over from us.  I was stoic compared to her, poor girl.
Besides seeing the plays, the biggest thrill of the trip was strolling between the festival and our charming bed and breakfast one block away.  We did this numerous times on Friday.  We came back and napped twice on Friday just because we could!!  How glorious!  How relaxing!

Well, look at this-- here we are again, just Abe and I.  ALONE!  Eating a meal at a restaurant with no crayons or kiddie menus!  
This was after we'd attended a literary discussion and actor's seminar Saturday morning.  The day before we'd attended another literary discussion and costume seminar.  Oh, didn't we feel high brow!

But who are we kidding?  We couldn't get away from our roots-- we did still make a couple of stops at the local Walmart.  Drawn to that place like a moth to the flame.