What a weekend...

What a weekend... Both Scott and I have been looking forward to this weekend for quite a while. Friday night, Scott played the lead role of Candide in Leonard Bernstein's production of Candide. He did such an incredible job - as I'm writing this, Scott is reviewing a recording of the performance and it sounds completely beautiful... He is truly talented. Everyone came up to me afterward and was gushing over how wonderful Scott is and how remarkable his performance was. I don't know if there will be a review of it in the paper, but just in case keep your eye out for the name Scott Brunscheen. Lord knows in the years to come, we'll all be seeing his name all over the place. My boy is AMAZING.



I also had the great pleasure of meeting Scott's family. I won't lie... I've been a little intimidated to meet them for the past year or so, but they are some of the sweetest people I have ever met. His family has a special bond like me and my family do... I felt very comfortable around them whenever I was around them... In fact, Scott had to go to the second performance of Candide tonight to support the other cast and his family invited me to hang out with them - surprisingly, it wasn't awkward at all and we seemed to get along very well. That, in itself, it a HUGE relief to me... you have no idea.

The other wonderful thing about this weekend was the 5K for Sadie. This is something that I have been anticipating for over a month. I had a feeling it was going to be a big deal - but I didn't imagine how great the turnout was going to be. The final count for Sadie's team ended up being 95... most of us had made pink shirts sporting 'Team Sadie' on the front, with a large 5 on the back - and the Riverton High School softball team rallied together and made shirts of their own. Seriously, there were people on 'Sadie's Team' ALL OVER the race. It was such a wonderful feeling to look at the crowd and see pink shirts and the number 5 spotted all over. It was also a very humbling experience... for about a mile or so, I walked with my sister, Sadie and Sammy and the whole experience seemed very surreal. There was such a positive energy in the air - it was almost hard to believe that we were all there for a small 5-year-old girl.






When my other sister Heather and I ran the Salt Lake Marathon a few years back, we ran it in memory of our Dad who we lost to cancer. The race benefited the Huntsman Cancer Institute here in Utah, it was held on his birthday and I remember vividly the whole experience being very emotional. I think part of me still had that engraved in my mind as I was beginning the 5K... I almost felt like I was walking for a memory, for pain, for loss and sadness, for the idea of cancer being something that can't be overcome, but painfully tolerated. But today as I walked with my sister and Sadie, I realized that this walk wasn't anything like that at all. It was a walk for life and for hope. It was about community and togetherness - the idea that many people from different aspects of life, who in many cases didn't even know each other, grouping together in support and hope for a 5-year-old girl. It was so humbling and such a moving experience. While it is sad to know the race is over, it's so wonderful to know that the support and love is still very apparent... it doesn't need to be in the form of pink shirts dotted throughout a marathon course - but today it was. And it was amazing. Here are some other highlights: