Saturday, August 25th.....

Sometime earlier this week, possibly Wednesday or Thursday, August 22nd or 23rd I mentioned to Lisa how I was wondering if a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat was playing somewhere along the Wasatch Front. After all, it had been more than a year since we'd been to one and I think it's just about an annual tradition for us. Yesterday as Lisa sat waiting for the car to be safety and emissions inspected she opened an Ogden newspaper and happened upon an advertisement for, you guessed it, Joseph. It was playing in Layton at the amphitheater across from Layton HS Friday and Saturday only. Just to be sure it was a major production--we saw one at Cherry Hill that wasn't major--we drove over there to investigate Friday night just as they were singing the introductory song. Satisfied with the quality, we made arrangements to go with Savanna--the only child who is interested--tonight. Early in the afternoon, Lisa also called and invited Grandma Smith who had never seen a live production of Joseph. She will spend the night with us tonight.

Tickets to the show were only $2 so I assumed it must be produced by a local Stake. That turns out to be the case; in fact it was the Layton Holmes Creek Stake. They even had a live orchestra. Some of the unique things that they did included:

They had 4 narrators at once who shared the duties.

They had a fiddle player during the western themed song.

They had a violinist (same as above) for the French themed song.

The hairy Ishmaelites drove a jeep on to the stage.

They played a little football game with cheerleaders for Go Go Go Joseph song.

Overall, it was very well done and we really had fun. On the drive home Lisa and I were trying to recall every production of Joseph we have seen. Here's the list in chronological order (to the best of our memory)

Cherry Hill community theater. This was my first exposure to the music and Lisa's first play.

Oakley Valley Arts Council.

Pages Lane Theater.

Kingsbury Hall with Donnie Osmond playing the lead.

Tuacahn with David Osmond.

Woods Cross High School.

Tuacahn with the entire Knudsen Family.

Terrace Plaza Playhouse, Washington Terrace.

Ed Kenley Amphitheater, Layton.

So, I guess it's an every other year tradition for us since we have seen it only 9 times.

This was Savanna's second time seeing it performed live and Grandma's first.

Sheep Creek Reservoir trip.

I loaded all my equipment on Tuesday evening and added the food Wednesday morning as I planned to leave directly from work around 2:00pm but it turned out that the best I could do was to leave at 4:30pm. I got to the lake at about 8:10pm and immediately inflated my float tube and put on my waders. I was fishing by 8:30. The water was perfectly still and there were fish rising everywhere, but they didn't care for my lure. The only action I got was an occassional bat hitting my line.

The next morning I fished for about 3 hours and caught a couple nice ones. I came in to eat breakfast and set up my tent and the "facility" that I built from scrap lumber and a new toilet seat. I expected John Jewkes or Mark Simpson and their kids to arrive by early afternoon, but it was a little bit later.

I fished about 9 hours on both Thursday and Friday and just about 3 hours on Saturday. Overall, I caught about 12 or 13 fish ranging from 15 inches to 20 inches, all Cutthroats. The water was pretty warm, so I think the fish were sluggish and down rather deep. It was still great fun to be there. I saw a lot of wildlife and took some fabulous pictures. The weather would have been absolutely perfect if not for a fairly strong wind that blew every afternoon and a really short rain shower on Thursday night.

When we weren't fishing or eating, we were playing cards (as is Doug's family's tradition and I have to be retaught each time) or riding on one of the four ATVs that Mark and John brought. Friday, we all rode up to the Ute Mountain Lookout Tower. It was fun. Later that night everyone except Nathan Jewkes, Eric (Nicole's husband whose last name escapes me) and I went to Long Park Res. to fish. They caught quite a few small planters and the 3 of us caught a few nice Cuts. Saturday morning Mark and John and all their boys went back to LP Res while I stayed and fished Sheep Creek.

The broke camp after a late breakfast and were gone by 12:30. I started taking down about when they were leaving and was on the road by 2:00. 3 hours later, I was back in the unbarable heat of Syracuse.