.... Thriller.

There is a beautiful outdoor amphitheater nestled deep in the red rock mountains of  Southern Utah called the Tuacahn.  My extended family had a reunion down in St. George about ten years ago and that was the first time I had seen a production at the Tuacahn theater.  We saw "Oklahoma" and I don't think there could have possibly been a better setting for that play .... especially when Curly came riding down the back mountain on horseback singing, OOOOOOOK - lahoma where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain!

That is just one of the many attributes of this theater.  Chloe was in their summer productions two years ago when they put on Footloose, Annie, and Aida.  My favorite of the three was Aida, and one of my favorite parts of that show was when water came thundering down the mountain and flooded the stage so the "Nubians" could dance in the river.  It was quite spectacular. 

Once the summer season ends, the Tuacahn has other artists come and perform concerts into November.  One of the traditions is to have the Odyssey Dance Company perform their Halloween show, Thriller.  I have seen it once before here in Salt Lake, but this year, Haley, Sophie and I went down and saw it at the Tuacahn.  It runs for one week - just before Halloween.  

The night we went it was cool and cloudy and windy and drizzly and spooky and pretty amazing ....

Chloe was a Zombie.

She had gone down to visit her partner in crime and BFF, Trevor, a couple of weeks ago to see this years productions of Grease and The Little Mermaid.  (Chloe and Trevor actually met during her junior year at the Tuacahn High School of performing arts.)  The Odyssey Dance Company happened to be holding auditions for extras/dancing Zombies while Chloe was there, so she decided to try out.

Chloe and Trevor both made it and couldn't be having more fun.  (Except that by day three, their poor little faces were raw from the nightly makeup removal.)

The Zombies walk around among the crowd before the show, during intermission, and after the show and then dance the finale number of  Thriller with the cast.   Some of the Zombies are all up in your face (which I do NOT like), or they stay by your side far too long, making you extremely uncomfortable.

Chloe was my favorite Zombie. She didn't do that.  She would just appear in really random places, minding her own business, but making sure she was noticed.









She was definitely noticed.








Obviously, being a Halloween show, most of the numbers had a twist of the macabre side of Halloween .... like the one where Frankenstein and  his bride are wheeled onto the stage on their tables.  They both arise and start dancing a ballet number together until Frankie breaks his brides neck and the rest of the number is performed with her dead, being flopped around on stage like a rag doll.

There is an Egyptian number where princesses are dancing and then the mummies come to life and join them.  (Real camels walked across the stage during that number ... way cool.)  There is a number where a group of students all gather in a circle to tell ghost stories in a corn field.  The scarecrows come alive and attack the students with machetes ... some survive, some don't.

My very favorite number was when eight dancers came out to perform a Riverdance.  The dance is going along spectacularly (I love Riverdance) and then a sniper shoots and kills one of the girls.  Chaos ensues among the dancers, but only for a minute.  The music is still playing and the show must go on.  One by one, the dancers get shot until only one remains.  As she is taking her final bow - DOWN she goes. (It is actually really funny because the sound effects as the shots are fired are like the clanging of the metal in the duck shooting range at a carnival.  I thought it was very clever.)











I thought it was thoroughly entertaining ....

And speaking of Zombies ....

.... Lagoon.

... I really do love a good coincidence.  It turns out that Gray knows Shanlee who sang with Haley in the girls group "Echo," and Daniel who sang in the boys group "Frequency," because they used to perform at Lagoon with Gray.  The older I get, the smaller the world gets and the greater the connections grow - it is a little freaky.

Lagoon is our local amusement park.  I had only ever been once in the fifteen years that I have lived in Utah.  Why?  I didn't think I would like it.  It looked really cheesy to me.  Growing up in Southern California and going to Disneyland about a hundred and two times, I just didn't even have a desire, thinking that nothing would compare ... that, and I don't like roller coasters and rides that make me sick.  Lagoon is full of those.

It was probably five years ago when I went for the first time during the summer season and I must say, I was pleasantly surprised!  I was rather impressed with this little local park and thought it was completely charming. And the thing that I was most impressed with was the talent in the stage shows.  I thought it was every bit as good as Disney (dare I say?!).

One of the stylists that works in the same salon with Haley has also sang at Lagoon for at least the last five years.  She mentioned to Haley that they were holding an invitation only audition for dancers for their "Hackenslash" show and she would put Haley on the list.  Haley LOVES to perform so she took advantage of the opportunity and went to the audition.  She made it.  So happy.

Sidenote:  When rehearsals for the show first started, Haley didn't think she would make it.  She said they are in full costumes with boots, gloves, masks and wigs and they dance with real chainsaws.  She said the chainsaws weigh 18 pounds.  And then she showed me some of their dance moves ... I didn't think she would make it either.  But so far, so good - and they kind of blew me away when I saw their show for the first time. I had no idea how entertaining it would be, how complicated the choreography was, or what a fun variety of songs they would dance to.  (Katy Perry's California Girls is my favorite.)

(Haley is on the right ... creepy, isn't it?)

The regular summer season for Lagoon ends at the beginning of September.  The park closes for a few weeks and then reopens through the month of October for their Frightmares.  I thought they did such a cute job (relative word use there) of revamping the park into a spooky fall festival.  I especially got a kick out of the tombstones.

(Trick or Treating ...)

Libby was loving it too .... until it got dark ... and the chainsaws started.  How do you convince a two year old that the person underneath that scary mask and wig is her Auntie Hee?  (You don't ... you just keep your distance.)

The Hackenslash dancers were the opening number for both of the stage shows.  Once they danced a few ... theeeeeen Libby LOVED the singing and dancing ...

(This little baby , on the other hand, knew which one was her mama.)

As for me ... I loved all of it ... but especially watching the Hackenslash dancer wearing the darker wig!  ;)

And speaking of creepy stage shows ...

.... The X Factor.

Our DVR is almost always full ... my girls have every singing and dancing show set to record.  One night I was getting caught up, watching episodes of the X Factor - which I am absolutely crazy about. 

I had seen clips on YouTube from the X Factor that they film in the UK (think Susan Boyle) and was really looking forward to it when I heard they were bringing it to American television with Simon Cowell as a judge. Awesome.  I have kind of missed him since he left American Idol.  I wasn't ready to stop seeing that smarty pants on TV just yet.

Simon and Paula Abdul are together again, and I like it.  (Paula's hair is looking A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. this season.) I had heard the name L.A. Reid before, from his reputation in the music industry, but hadn't really seen him and I am loving just about everything about him.  (Mr. Cool, with a capital C.) But Nicole Scherzinger?  Not that much. (Simon was on Late Night being interviewed once and the host asked him who was crazier between Paula and Nicole, and he said "I would have to say Nicole.  Sometimes she is just so weird." )

When they put the groups together on American Idol, it tended to be slightly disastrous, but on the X Factor it has been anything but.  I thought the group part of the audition process was fantastic.  All of the singers are so good in their own right and together they were even better.  There seemed to be a really sweet camaraderie between the contestants ... very supportive of one another.

And of course we were all really excited when the group, The Anser, from Salt Lake made it into the final round.  In fact, I was watching that very episode when Sophie said, "Mom, see that guy in the knit hat?  That is who Haley is on a date with tonight."

WHAT?

"Yeah, Haley is out on a date right now with him.  His name is Gray."  (I had no idea.)

And you KNOW I got a big kick out of that.  (Gray is a doll ... so cute, so friendly, so conversational ... and we got an inside scoop about who made it through too.)

One of the things I really do love about the X Factor is that they don't have the same age restrictions that American Idol has.  One of my very favorite little singers is Rachel Crow and she was only 13 when she auditioned and made the show.  Then there is LeRoy Bell who is 59 and also amazing.  (My girls call him Papa Gray .... we think this is what Gray will look like when he is older .... actually, they look pretty much just alike now.)

When Haley first met Gray, he mentioned that he had worked as an entertainer at Lagoon (our local amusement park) for the last eight years. Well that is a coincidence, because Haley is working at Lagoon right now .....

And speaking of coincidences ...

.... Soccer and The Sing Off.

I think it is just "All American" to play soccer, isn't it?  I would venture to say that most of the families that I know have, have had, or will have a child who plays soccer.

Way back in the day, we did too.  McCall is the girl with that cute little white fanny up above ... she was our first to play soccer and she didn't really like it.  I can't remember now if she played for one season or two, but she was quick to realize that running around after a ball on the field was not something she was interested in.

And then there was Haley.  Haley played soccer too and was absolutely crazy about it.  She was a real natural at it too.  In her very first year of soccer, her coaches started to tell us that she had a "future" in soccer.  I had to think about what a "future" in soccer actually meant .... high school team, college team, possible college scholarship ... I could totally support that idea.  A couple of them even said she looked like she would have a good shot at an Olympic team some day.

We moved to Utah when Haley was just nine years old.  She had been playing for a few years by then.  I was listening to what the coaches were saying and got excited about thinking that she could possibly go to college on a soccer scholarship.

In fact, when we were deciding where to live in Utah, we knew that one of the high schools around Salt Lake had a nationally ranked girls soccer team.  That absolutely played into where we bought a house.  The plan was to get Haley on the Alta High School soccer team.

Elliott had also expressed an interest in soccer, so we signed that little boy up too .  (He is the one with the cute little grin and chicky-bum hair in the photo below.)  It was working out well to have the two of them playing because the games were always on the same field ... different times, but the same field totally works.  The whole family would go, we would grab lunch in between the games - welcome to Soccer Saturdays ... until Haley started to play competitively.

Since we were fairly new to Utah, I hadn't learned how the grid system of streets worked yet.  Haley had games scheduled all over the Salt Lake Valley and I didn't have a clue where any of the places were and I had a heck of a time trying to navigate my way around.  Quite often, I was fit to be tied by the time I finally found the school or field where her game was .... but hey, all in the name of a scholarship and the Olympics, right? (Don't I always say, A girl can dream?)

One of the competitive teams Haley was on was called the Gators.  That little girl loved her coach, loved her team, loved the game, and that season the Gators played undefeated.  And that made them move up to a higher division ... where they didn't do as well.  They were the young team.  Their coach became a different kind of coach to those girls, and Haley didn't like it anymore.  She didn't want to play soccer anymore.

WHAT?  Haley?  How could you not want to play soccer anymore?  You were going to play into your young adulthood!  Are you sure?

She was sure.

I wasn't going to force her to continue playing, but I have to admit, I was bummed .... I wanted to go to the Olympics as a Team USA mom, darn it!  And I thought I wasn't going to have to pay for her education.  Now what?!?!?!

Well.  Now.... Haley decided that she wanted to audition for a "Girl Band" they were forming locally.  "Mom, Alex and I really want to try out!!!!  It would be SOOOOO fun!!! They are putting together a girl group and a boy group!  Mom, PLEEEEEEEEESE?!?!?!?!"

But Haley, you don't sing.

Apparently, she did.  Because she made that "Girl Band" and that became our family's new running all over Salt Lake and the state of Utah activity.  And really, we all loved it.

They performed at fairs all over the state ....

Special events and grand openings ....

Outdoor concerts in the park, mall events ...

They even signed autographs ...

And had posters ...

And even though some of the other girls came and went from the group, Haley was the one original member who stayed with the group all through the next few years ....

One of the longest standing "Boy Band" members was McKay Crockett.  We loved McKay.  He was so nice, so fun, so talented.  And now he is singing in a group at BYU called Vocal Point ....

Maybe you have seen them on a show called "The Sing Off."  We love that show at our house.  And I am loving Sara Bareilles as one of the judges.  I think it was the second week when she said something like, "You guys don't really know me yet, but I hope you're getting to know me ....."

Her personality and adorableness completely rival her level of talent.  LOVE that girl.

Love McKay ... Love The Sing Off.

And speaking of singing reality shows ...