I had a wonderful birthday yesterday..... ok... the day wasn't that fun since I worked on our taxes most of the day, but I did have a lovely, fun lunch with Colleen and Avery.
Troy took me out for a delicious dinner at Bambara, one of our favorite places, and they even made custom menus for us that said "Happy Birthday Jennifer" across the top. So fun! After dinner we headed over to the Ballet (Balenchine's America) with Robert and Mark. I really enjoyed the ballet, and Robert even arranged a back stage tour for us during one of the intermissions. That was so fun!
After the ballet we went back to Bambara for some yummy dessert...... YUMM!
I received so many nice phone calls, texts, cards and FB notes.... it was a wonderful birthday! And of course the celebrations will continue for a few more days at least. :) In fact... I didn't even get a chance to open presents yesterday so we'll be celebrating tonight with presents! And this photo isn't from my bday, obviously, but we didn't take any photos, so it will just have to work. :) Doesn't my husband look handsome?!?
Last week was the final show of Ririe-Woodbury's 45th Season. There was a big dinner to honor the 2 founders of the company - Shirley Ririe and Joan Woodbury. The dinner was hosted by Zion's bank and held at their offices, with beautiful decor by Every Blooming Thing and delicious food from Cuisine Unlimted. A few people gave some short speeches, there was a slide show and then it was time for all the introductions. There were so many important people in attendance - dancers from all 45 years, former and current staff, former and current board members, friends of RW, etc. It was an excellent way to honor the legacy that Joan and Shirley have worked so tirelessly to build.
And of course I came home with flowers, just as I do from every event we attend... haha!Then we had three nights of shows, including a special Alumni piece at the beginning of the Thursday night show. It was so wonderful to see all of the past dancers participate. Troy and I both felt so honored to be a part of all of it!
We also have one dancer who is retiring this year.... we will miss Jo VERY much! He is a great guy, and an amazingly talented dancer. The Saturday show was his last official performance with the company, but hopefully he will still be around a lot!
After the show we also had a Studio D party and we had a great turn out! The party was at Flemings... very yummy food! After the party at Flemings, we headed over to Caine's for a "going away" party for Jo. Caine and his roommate Audry were excellent hosts and we had a wonderful time hanging out with the dancers, their friends and a few of the other board members as well. It was a very fun night!
It's rare lately that we are able to find time during the week to see each other, let alone go out on a dinner date... but this week we did! And it was awesome! We went to Macaroni Grill and did a little shopping, etc.... basically just enjoyed some time together. This semester has been really tough on Troy so it was a much needed night off. :) Gotta love mid-week date nights! :)
Tonight we are off to the symphony to celebrate Halloween... haha! No, we aren't in costumes, but I am at least in a orange top and shoes. :) And tomorrow is the Ballet... looking forward to that too!
Last week was Troy’s fall break from the U, so we decided to have a little mini-vacation. I took a couple days off work and we spent some time goofing off… It was great! We haven’t had a lot of free time during this semester – it’s been a bit brutal – so we tried to forgot about school for a couple days (worked better at some times than others.. haha!) and tried to just enjoy ourselves. We didn’t manage to get to a few of things we had planned – i.e. the zoo, a play, a movie, etc – but we still enjoyed the break!
Here are a few highlights –
- We had a lovely dinner with our friend Kathleen Gardner (formerly of the Utah Symphony/Utah Opera). She has become a dear friend to both Troy and I and while we miss seeing her at the Symphony and Opera, we were happy to find that she seems to be enjoying her new job with Odyssey Dance Theatre. It was wonderful for us to visit with her a bit and we “talked shop” a bit too…. It’s funny how many of our discussion lately revolve around Vivace, Studio D, Ririe-Woodbury, Odyssey, etc etc.
- The next night we attended Odyssey Dance Theatre’s Thriller… it was a fun Halloween themed show. There wasn’t as much focus on dance as Troy and I would have liked, but the show is very entertaining and the audience loved it. Many of them attend the show year after year and cheer very enthusiastically for their favorite numbers. After the show we attended the cast party and met several of the dancers, as well as, the Company’s Founder and Artistic Director, Derryl Yeager. We enjoyed the evening very much.
- Next on the agenda for the stay-cation was for me to do one of my favorite things…. SLEEP IN! It was Heaven!! :)
- Our 3rd Annual Charity Halloween Party is coming right up on the 25th, so a portion of the weekend was spent doing prep work for the party… getting decorations, finding volunteers, picking up food and candy, etc. Everything seems to be coming together quite nicely! And we can’t wait to don our Globetrotter costumes! (Thanks again for the loan Pand!) The party this year is a combination food drive for the Utah Food Bank, and a fundraiser for cancer research/care. We are looking at a couple different options now for the donation to go to, but I think a portion at least will go to the Cancer Wellness House.
- Along with the shopping for the party, and what seemed to be a never-ending quest for a new suit for Troy… haha! (The real challenge was finding a place that could have it done by Saturday! Yikes) We managed to have a delicious dinner at one our new favorite restaurants… Fratelli. It’s a little Italian Restaurant in Sandy that is just yummy! On Friday we met one of the owner’s (his brother and the other owner is the chef) and were introduced to his whole family via the photos on the wall (ancestors who came through Ellis Island, etc). The photos were great! We are excited to head back on November 1st, the night where they are celebrating an annual tradition by donating their proceeds to the Utah Food Bank. I love when I get to see company’s giving back to their communities! I am looking forward to the dinner and to being a part of their event.
- Saturday was the Season Opener for the Utah Opera – Madame Butterfly. Along with the opera we attended a dinner before the show, and a Soiree after the show. What a fun evening! The dinner was especially fun because we were seated with the Peterson Family. Glade Peterson is one of the Founder’s of the Utah Opera and while he has passed away, his lovely wife Mardean (I hope I spelled that right!) was there. Their daughter Michelle is the Company Manager for the Opera and their other daughter Leslie is the Director of Development for the Symphony/Opera. Kelvin, their son, happens to work with Troy at Continental (and so does his wife, Robin) so it was just a fun evening for us! We always enjoy chatting with Robin and Kelvin, but it was great to meet Mardean and Michelle, and to see Leslie again as well. We felt privileged to be a part of their family for the evening!
The Opera was amazing! Troy has seen Madame Butterfly many times, but this was my first time and I very much enjoyed it! I can easily understand why it is the most frequently performed opera in the United States. I just loved it and Troy did too! And the little boy just stole the show - He was great!
The Soiree was great fun as well! It was officially a Vivace Party, but we also had several of the opera donors attend, as well as, a large number of the cast and orchestra. Troy’s sister Tamara also joined us at the party and as always, we loved seeing her. There was great food, all with an Asian theme (dessert sushi, spring rolls, etc). There was a costume showcase featuring new designs from two of the seamstresses from the Opera Costume Shop (one of them being our friend Jennifer – go Jen!). The new USUO CEO (Melia) was even wearing a gown designed and created by someone from the costume shop. She joked about the company starting a new line of business “Gowns for Galas”. Troy and I have met Melia on a few occasions now and also met her husband, Mike that night. Mike was very entertaining and so far we like Melia too. We hope that she does an excellent job with USUO.
I hope to have pictures from the Opera Soiree soon! :)
- And thanks to all the Hickman Clan for a great dinner on Sunday! It was wonderful to see everyone (everyone that's in Utah... we missed those in Idaho)!
Wow... is it Tuesday already? Time is just FLYING right past! We had a fun weekend but it went by way too fast, as usual!
Ririe-Woodbury had its first show of the season this past week and it was phenomenal! Troy and I actually ended up going twice because we enjoyed it so much! Haha! We were able to work with the cutest little bakery to provide cupcakes for the intermission receptions, and everyone seemed to love them - Including us! Thank you So Cupcake!! (http://www.socupcake.com). And there were, of course, gorgeous flowers from Every Blooming Thing as well! Here is the arrangement that we hijacked after the last show... love it!! I just wish we didn't have to return the vase! Spanish classes also started last thursday....Yikes! I NEED to practice! I was sooo very lost last week! I hope it is more smooth this week... I have been working with my vocab flash cards all week.. hopefully it will pay off.
Saturday evening I went to the Women's Conference at the Conference Center with one of my girlfriends... we had a wonderful time and the speakers were all wonderful! They focused alot on performing acts of service and recognizing/maximizing our own talents... both good reminders for me. :)
Other than that, the mountains are all decked out in the beautiful fall colors! My favorite time of year!! Troy and I went up to Park City on Saturday and it was great to see the gorgeous colors all along the mountainsides.... I just can't get enough of it!
Last but not least... October is breast cancer awareness month... go get checked out!! Both of my visting teachers are fighting this disease right now, as have many other people that we all know so... please be vigilant in getting exams, etc! The sooner its diagnosed, the better the chance of survival!
P.S. Happy Birthday Tommy!!! Hope you have a wonderful day!!
I have nothing terribly exciting to say, except for the fact that we had a fun weekend - although they are never long enough!! The time just flies by, and before we know it, its Monday again..
Friday night we went out to dinner with some friends (two other members of the RWDC Board and our new dancer, Andrea), over to the SB Dance "musical", and back to the restaurant for lots of yummy desserts! It was such a fun evening and we were so spoiled! Mark (friend from grad school and fellow RWDC Board member) is friends with the owners of the Metropolitan restaurant. Metropolitan is across the street from the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, where RWDC performs and where the SB Dance show was that night - so, its a great place to go before and after all our shows.
Anyway.... since Mark knows the owners, manager, etc he just calls and says we are coming, they reserve us a table and then make all sorts of yummy dishes for us, many of which are not on the menu. We just simply gave a couple guidelines (i.e. no shellfish for Troy and no seafood for me) and they were off. The only problem is, you kinda have to eat what you are served... a little bit of a challenge for me being as I am a tab bit picky, but I tried everything and kept an open mind. I even ate the tomato pancetta (sp?) - Not my favorite, but it wasn't too bad. We had 4 courses total.... 2 appetizers, and then a main course before the play. And then they brought us 5 desserts to try out and share after the play.... the desserts were by far our favorites! But the pork medallions were YUMMY too!!
It was so fun to just be spoiled and try all the new dishes. The play was fairly entertaining as well! Haha! The best part of the evening, of course, was the company... we loved getting to know Tracy and Andrea better, and we always love hanging out with Mark, so it was a just a blast. It's funny because between the 5 of us, there never seems to be a lull in the conversation and we cover a very wide range of topics... they finally had to kick us out of the restaurant so they could lock the doors and go home. Haha!!
P.S. Thanks for all the fun text messages over the weekend Shell (and Brett - haha!)... I loved it!
And this photo isn't from my bday, obviously, but we didn't take any photos, so it will just have to work. :) Doesn't my husband look handsome?!?
