what we do as stage hands

i've mentioned many times before that ryan and i have been working in the theatre industry in various capacities for years.  we're both members of the stage hands union (the international alliance of theatrical stage employees) and i find that often many people outside of our industry don't understand what the stage hands union does or why it exists.  our union is celebrating it's 125th anniversary this year, and they put together this video for the anniversary celebration.  i thought i'd share it since it gives a good explanation of our union and a bit of the history behind it.

love, laurie

a little video of ryan's birthday trip to nyc

a few clips from our day in nyc on tuesday celebrating ryan's birthday

(music is "the chicken" by jeffrey camlet, matt o'donnell, and jason bundy)

have a great weekend!
love, laurie

a trip to nyc for ryan's birthday

ryan's birthday was tuesday and we had a hard time deciding how to celebrate his birthday because the weather forecast called for rain all day long after what has felt like 40 days and 40 nights of rain.  originally, we thought about going to an amusement park, but decided to take a rain check and plan an indoor activity instead.

we decided to head to nyc for the day and were thrilled that our parents were able to join us!  we took the bus into the city and spent a majority of the day exploring the museum of natural history.  (it's hard to believe that it has been 6 years since ryan and i were last at the museum.)  we took a break from exploring for lunch at cafe lalo (which was a huge disappointment btw) and then had dinner at jacob's pickles after the museum closed (luckily our dinner experience was much, much better than lunch).  on our way back to the bus station, we popped in levain bakery to pick up cookies to take home for the birthday boy and also made a quick stop at sprinkles to pick up a cupcake for the birthday boy too.

it was a fun way to spend ryan's birthday all together in nyc.  a few pictures from the day . . .

love, laurie

friday night at the wayne county fair

it's become a summer tradition for us to take a trip to the wayne county fair the first week of august.  as far as local county fairs go, it's our favorite because rides are included with the price of admission to the fair.  we love seeing the animals, vendors, entertainment, and of course riding the rides.

we were disappointed that we had to break tradition and miss our trip to the fair last year because we were out of town.  this year, it was looking like we were going to miss our trip to the fair for a second year in a row because we couldn't find any free time in our work schedules to go and because it has been raining for what feels like the past 40 days and 40 nights!

we had a really nice surprise on friday night when ryan got out of work early unexpectedly.  it actually wasn't raining for a little bit, so we made a last minute decision to head up to the fair.  i'm so glad we were able to fit in a trip because it was a lot of fun and a great little date night!

a few snapshots from my phone from our impromptu trip to the fair . . .

love, laurie

previous trips to the wayne county fair: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016

happy birthday, ryan!!!

wishing the happiest birthday today to this sweet love of mine!

love, laurie

screen porch hunting

behold the great orange tiger hunting his prey through the window on his screen porch . . . i swear, this guy never fails to crack me up!

happy monday!
love, laurie

local fireworks

after we finished work in the theatre on saturday night, we took a walk a few blocks down the street from our house to a local park to see our town's annual fireworks display.  i didn't have my camera with me but did snap one picture on my phone.  i love the tradition of seeing the fireworks so close to home put on by our town every year.

have a great weekend!

love, laurie

last (indoor) show of the summer!

last week we had our last indoor show of the summer at the theatre.  the month of august brings corporate trainings on stage at the theatre and a few more outdoor concerts at the pavilion, but as of now we don't have any more shows on stage until the first week of september.  our last summer show was arts alive senior which is the amped up version of the junior show we did a few weeks ago.  students in grades 5-12 study alongside musical theatre professionals and put together a show in just 2 weeks.  this year's theme was hash tags and it was pretty cute.  it was nice to be able to work with ryan for 4 days on this show!

love, laurie

behind the scenes at the jazz festival

this past weekend we worked the scranton jazz festival.  i have seen a lot of spaces transform like kaleidoscopes over the years, but this had to be one of the more impressive transformations as we turned a dingy old parking space into a full fledged stage for the weekend.

we started setting up on thursday morning for the festival which ran friday, saturday, and sunday, then took everything down sunday night.  normally we don't get many pictures when where working like this but ryan snapped a few and the artistic director snapped a few, so here's a little behind the scenes sneak peak from the jazz festival . . .

love, laurie

anniversary dinner

after touring the martin guitar factory on wednesday for our anniversary, we went out to dinner at one of our favorite seafood restaurants which was near the factory.  it has been awhile since we have been there (and we had a coupon!) so it was a nice treat to celebrate our anniversary!

love, laurie