Aladdin Dance Recital

During the Summer, Colorado Ballet Society offers 1- and 2-week "Intensives" that include 30 hours per week of instruction and in some cases, like this one, also include a showcase performance Friday evening. This class was called "Broadway Dance Workshop - Aladdin." Four levels were offered in each of Musical Theatre Dance, Ballet, Jazz/Contemporary, and Tap. Fina loved it, despite her concurrent efforts with Anne of Green Gables (Elevate Productions) and Charlie Brown (DCC). All the dances were to music from Aladdin. Great way to do a dance recital! All the photos are here.

Our Second Teenager

As of today, the Compound has a new teenager. And what girl wouldn't want her 13th birthday party to have a llama theme! All the pics are here.

Five Firsts

Five members of the Compound attended rehearsals today for Anne of Green Gables, the Musical. It's being produced by Colorado Ballet Society's Elevate Productions, the same company that produced Chitty Chitty Bang Bang a few months ago.

So, what are the firsts?

Jamie has his first lead, as Matthew Cuthbert.
Matt has his first role since high school, as Cecil the farmer.
Fina has her first understudy responsibility, as Diana Barry.
Matteo and AJ have their first parts in community theatre, as schoolboys.

This already breaks our previous record of four Compound Dwellers involved in a given show (Chitty, Annie, and Legally Blonde), and if Lynn and/or Tracy get sucked into sets, as is often the case, we could easily hit six or seven with this one. Update: we hit seven!

The show runs October 5-7, 2018.

Here is an interesting story, including photos, about a trip to Prince Edward Island to visit Green Gables (someone else's story/photos). The image shown here is from that trip on page 3 of 13.

Mulch

A very large pile of mulch. We got it a few days ago and have been working it an hour or so in the mornings (when it's cool).

It protected the plant as desired.

Horseback Riding at Flying Horse Ranch

Who even knew there was a Flying Horse Ranch until the ads came out from the Club for horseback riding. Yes, please. Two hours we spent riding around a portion of the 1400-acre "recreational" ranch complete with a herd of cows, 30-some horses, wedding/event center, and who knows what else. It's all about 20 minutes north of us. Thoroughly enjoyed our horse master, Jasper. All the photos are here. Great experience.

Brown Jug left, Yetti right.

That's the event center in the background.

We did a little cattle rustlin' while we were out.

Roadside weed roping.

Trucks

And this is a small subset of the twins' truck collection that was gathering on the hillside by a gopher hole. Nana thought a run through the truck wash might do some good...

Karma. The next day, walking into the club, a newlywed couple gave
us several bouquets from their wedding the night before.

The 4th at Flying Horse

Nana and Papa had a wonderful little 4th of July while the Regusci clan was in California. We hit the pool first thing in the morning, and got about the last seat there. By the time we left (noon-ish), no seats were left and half the grassy area was covered with blankets and lounge chairs brought from home. We lazied our way through the afternoon till it was time to go back to the club for a 4th of July Buffet Dinner. Best value we've had at the club yet! The entire restaurant (Steakhouse and Tack Room) was taken over by the buffet, which was served outside. Kinda risky given the threatening weather. But it turned out fabulous. The weather continued to threaten. In fact, we had far more lightning show than fireworks show from dusk on, along with at least three rounds of rain. But that did not deter the fireworks (as best we could tell). We could see them in the distance (southern end of Colorado Springs), all the way up to the club's display which they launched from somewhere in the middle of the golf course, about 3,000 feet from our back deck. We went to bed with continued thunder and lightning. A few more photos are here.