Staycation Summer

Staying in Houston all summer is no vacation. And if it’s no vacation, then a staycation is totally out because that’s half the word. So, my new word is stayprison. It means staying in a really hot place with high humidity for a long time with no hope for escape.
Hhmmm, sounds kind of like he??
Anyway, we are trying to enjoy our last month before school begins again. Houston is a great place for the occasional day trip so I think we’ll survive.

Saturday night we went to Miller Outdoor Theater and saw Tuts performance of 42nd Street. The musical was pretty good and Loretta Swit had top billing so it was fun to say we saw her. It was very casual. We found a great spot on the hill and spread out our quilts. We were all pulling off our shoes as soon as we sat down. Jace brought a deck of cards and we played war and Egyptian Rat Crew until the show started and again during intermission. The most enjoyable thing about the whole night was watching people. The entire hill was full of people sitting on blankets enjoying the show. The couple to our right brought their two white poodles that wore matching pink outfits. The dogs were dressed better than the people. The large group of 20-somethings in front of us was more interested in socializing than watching the musical. The group reminded me of a singles ward, Erin said they were still in high school. One girl with large hoop earrings got up to go fetch things for the group probably 20 times. We decided she had ADD or restless leg syndrome or something. She was up and down the whole night. Someone was flying a kite at the top of the hill, behind us, throughout the entire performance. There were two middle-aged ladies sharing a blanket to our left. One was lying on the blanket and I don’t think she saw much of the show. The other, who wore a bright yellow t-shirt, sang along to every song and even entertained us with her sit-down dance moves. We decided she must have been in the chorus when she was in high school. The couple behind them brought a bottle of wine, two glasses, and these cool wine glass holders that they spiked into the grass. Obviously it wasn’t their first time to the hill. Into the second act there was a large man dressed in what looked like camouflage scrubs who walked behind us and then stood to our right. He looked around for a few minutes and then pulled out his cell phone. "Where are you guys?!? Do you see me standing here? Wave your hand or something! What are you talking about? Put your mama on the phone!" Then he hung up and walked two blankets to the left of us and sat down. We started cracking up! Isn’t the purpose of wearing camo to get lost? Blend in? His wife was wearing a camo hat so maybe he couldn’t see her, either. The theater is very close to the medical center and we heard many helicopters taking off and coming back. We wondered who was on them and how bad it was. We also ran into some friends from church that we hadn’t seen in a while, since ward boundaries changed. What are the odds, that out of a thousand people, we would be walking toward the performance at the same time as this family?

It was a wonderful time to spend together as a family, enjoying life around us.