Down to the Wire

Our first show opens this Friday, and I'm dead tired. When I woke up this morning it felt like each of my limbs had a 40lb weight attached; and like I hadn't slept at all.

This part of the process is stressful, but its also a lot of fun. We are getting down to the nitty gritty nit picky things, and its making the show come alive! So exhausting, but I love my job.

Because of all the rehearsing that is happening, I haven't had much time to do other fun things over the past little while, but a couple of weeks ago we went into Waterton for a hike, and it was stunning!

Waterton has become one of my favorite places! It is so beautiful! We took a hike up to a place called Wall Lake. Which is very fitting considering it is pretty much a wall and then a lake. The lake is full of glacier water so it is FREEZING, but crystal clear blue, and deceivingly inviting

Here is my attempt at patching different shots together to get a view... it kind of worked.

At the onset of the hike, none of us were planning on getting in the water, but once we got up there we "Yolo'd" it and decided to jump in.. . none of us brought swimsuits except for Rachel, so the rest of us stripped down to our undies for a freezing cold dip in the lake. We decided that since we knew it was cold, it would be a better idea to rush in instead of going in slow... so we did. It was SO COLD. The shock of the water made it hard to breathe, and my whole body went numb. It was kind of hysterical. We all looked like fools.

Luckily this picture does not come with audio...

Success!

Overall, it was a really fun day. I can't wait to get these shows open so I have more free time to go exploring in this stunning place. 

I can't get over how pretty the water was... these pics do not do it justice, but trust me!

One last thing worth noting is the Calgary Flooding. All of the towns around Cardston have been flooding. From what I know however, the town of Cardston itself has not had much trouble. Though, many people here have friends and family that have been affected. 

The only way I was directly affected was that on the night of the crazy rainstorm that caused this flooding, Brian and I were driving two and a half hours to Calgary to pick up Brian's brother from the airport. The rain was insane. So much lighting, and so much rain. We were praying the whole time. It was scary. I thought it was a normal thing for Alberta though, and had no idea that we were driving through such a bad storm. It was interesting when we woke up the next morning to find out that Calgary was flooding like crazy, and we had just been there five hours earlier to pick up Mark. We were contemplating getting a hotel because the rain was so bad, and we were tired and didn't want to drive back, but I'm glad we didn't stay.

My Amazing Father

There are a lot of great dads out there. There are also a lot of crummy ones...

I don't know why I got so lucky, but I got an amazing one!

When I was a teen my tune would have been a little different. But, when I was a teen I...... I was a teen. 'Nuff said. What I thought were masterfully crafted attempts to destroy my life, were actually firm and loving boundaries set in place in order to protect me from what he perceived as danger (and, looking back I can see that he was very wise in perceiving it as such).

These are just three of the reasons why I think that this man is the greatest.

1) He loves God.
     This has never been a question. I have always known it to be a fact. He is very devout, and he has made it his life calling to share his knowledge and love of God with my siblings and me. I am so grateful for this.

2) He loves my mother.
     In my whole life I have NEVER heard my father speak poorly about my mother. Not once! I truly believe that I am very lucky to have been raised in such a home. This is not to say that I have never seen him disagree with my mother or get upset. But any disagreement is resolved quietly, respectfully, and often with laughter. It's actually kind of fun to watch them become grandparents. They bicker about funny little things, and then laugh, and give each other a big smooch and move on.

3) He loves his children.
     This man would bend over backwards in order to support, understand, and help his children. He takes his fatherhood responsibility very seriously. As different hardships have taken their toll on myself and my siblings, I have witnessed him reach out with understanding and charity that has left me stunned. I'm kind of lucky in the fact that as the youngest of nine kids I've been the only one at home for a while. I've seen the behind the scenes of how he goes about supporting and helping his grown children with real, tough, sticky problems. And all I can say is that I hope I can be a father like him one day!

Now, my dad is not perfect, and I'm not claiming that he is.  But he is amazing! I will claim that. And I wouldn't trade him for the world. I'm lucky to have him, and I hope to have him around for a long long time! Even if he becomes an unbearably stubborn crotchety old man. . . And when I say if, I mean when. But those are the days I can look back on this post and remember that ornery or not, he rocks! ;)