Summer with the Arts - Theater Program

 

I've had my eye on the summer theater program through our park district for the past few summers but we've never been able to participate because it seemed like we were always going to miss some important part of it - like be on vacation during the final show weekend or during the few tech weeks leading up to the performance.  But, this summer our vacation schedules aligned well enough and I signed the girls up.  I was motivated by the program being a k-12 age range meaning the girls would meet some local kids outside of Riley, specifically for Abby as she's entering into highschool.

The show was called Dare the Dream and it was essentially a Disney music review of sorts.  The kids had their first ever audition back at the end of May and while they were both very nervous they practiced before we went and I have to say they did a really good job auditioning considering they'd never done it before.  They both had to prepare a 30 second solo and a short monologue.  Hazel, who never seems nervous about anything and is the most go with the flow was so nervous she almost froze but with a little coaxing she turned on the charm and was able to land her audition.  Abby, also nervous, really stepped up and just whipped it out!

In the end both girls spent the majority of the time in the ensemble but both had solos!  Abby's was early on in the show, she sang a song from Moana and man...I gotta say, she had me in tears!!  She was SO GOOD!  So many people commented on her solo, it was a real boost of confidence for her.  Hazel had a short, few lines solo and she also nailed it!  

The kids all got to pick the characters they wanted to dress up as - well, they had to rank their top 3, but both girls got their top picks.  Abby was dressed as Princess Jasmine and Hazel was...can you guess it?  Thumper (a bunny, of course!).  The director had the kids do something called Disney Bounding (which is something Disney people know about, but it was new for us).  Essentially it means that they dress in the likeness of the characters, but not as the exact characters.  Each kid was tasked with finding their own outfit and they were told they shouldn't spend a ton of money on it.  No ordering things on Amazon or going to the Halloween stores....they needed to source their costumes from their closets or from their friends or from Goodwill etc.  What do you think?  Didn't they do a great job?

The practices ran three nights a week for 2 hours each night through all of June and most of July and it all ended with three shows at the high school theater.  We sent out the details to the family and SO MANY people showed up!  They came form far and wide to support the girls and to see their first ever musical.  We had about 8-10 people over each of the three nights.  It made for a busy week of hosting but also for a great chance for us to host smaller groups here in Marengo.  

I really wasn't prepared for how proud I felt of these two amazing girls.  For how much I wanted to brag on them and show them off and pump them up.  It has been such a good summer of realizing we're raising really great, cool, fun children and being able to stand beside them as they grow up and try new things and excel at them.  As we watch them find the things they love to do and the talents they have hidden inside of them.  I will never forget these moments.  The moments my heart swells with pride and love for these sweet girls.

We're so lucky to have so many family and friends to show up to cheer the girls on.  It makes them feel special and loved, and me too, honestly!

We had such a good experience with this theater program...I'll be angling for them to try out again next year.  Hopefully the schedules align and we can pull it off again - it sounds like the winter show is going to be Mary Poppins and the next summer show is Madagascar. 

Ritterbusch Family Reunion Part 4 - Red River Gorge (Activites)

I already shared about our hikes and the campground, but this post is dedicated to the activities we did on the family reunion.  Up first, ATVing.  The girls had so much fun doing this when we were in the Black Hills, they say it's one of their favorite vacation memories and Ryan LOVES an opportunity to drive something around in the mud, so we looked into it at Red River.  Originally we thought we could do it wih Liz and Bobby, but the kids were too short for the rental place's rules.  It's a bummer because the boys and Bobby would have loved it.  

Somewhat last minute we were able to convince a big group to go.  It's not an inexpensive activity.  I think we spent around $400 per vehicle, but in contrast we looked at a ziplining activity that was $100 per person for 2 hours and that seemed crazy.  Our group included, Mom and Dad, Joey and Andy, Jeff and the kids, and Uncle Rusty in his own vehicle.  I think Mom and Dad were skeptical but Dad said afterwards it was one of the most fun things he'd ever done.  (I'm glad they were willing to try!).

The tour was guided which originally we weren't as excited about, but in the end it was way better that way.  Ryan said they took us places and had him driving in ways that he'd have never done if someone wasn't leading us there.  Ryan and the girls had the time of their lives.  By the end, I personally was ready for it to be over - lol!  For the first half of the trip Ryan was a reasonable driver.  Sure, we splashed through some mud and got wet and muddy, but when we stopped for the break Joey and Andy challenged him to be more extreme, more water, more mud, more speed....which I knew as it came out of their mouths he'd never be able to resist and I was going to be sad about.  LOL!  I did pretty well having a good attitude for most of the trip, but by the time we were 3 hours in, I was went, muddy and ready to be out of the vehicle.  The kids and Ryan though? I think they would have stayed out for 3 more hours if they had the chance.  

(Blurry because of the mud.....but I think you can tell I was over it at this point).

The second organized big group activity we did was a cave kayak that Dad found in researching things to do in the area.  I have to say, we've kayaked plenty and this was a very unique, interesting, different experience.  

Back 50+ years ago this location was a limestone mine and while they were mining the area they accidently hit an aquafer and flooded the mine site.  As you can imagine, the mine was no longer operational and it was condemned.  Fast forward to about 20 years ago and someone had a vision and they created an activity I've never seen anywhere else.  They bought out the mine site and turned it into a cave kayak tour.  They invested in clear kayaks and added neon light bars into the kayaks so you could have light to see without needing to put electricity in the whole cave system.  

The tour company was amazing to work with.  They originally had time slots with maybe 15 spots available.  We'll our group filled the first time slot up quickly and then we started filling up the slot 2 hours later.  At some point the company realized, "hey, there are a lot of people here with the last name Ritterbusch, I wonder if they are all together" and they called Dad.  We were able to combine the two tours into one and do this event as a large group.  The we were only missing 5 people.  3 didn't feel comfortable kayaking so they went on a boat version of the same trip, and then Jayden stayed back with Haze (the baby) because he was too young to do either option.  

The three guides we had with our group were great too!  They were patient and able to keep our huge floating mass of humans together and organized.  Dad even upgraded the package to include access to the photos they took during the tour which was amazing because they really didn't allow you to take phones in (obvious reason...if you drop it in the water it's gone forever).  They also didn't allow shoes because they could scratch the clear kayaks.  But, maybe the best part of the whole tour that day was that the caves are a consistent 55ish degrees.  You'll remember that I said the heat index was 100+ for the entire week.  Having 2 hours in a 55 degree cave was a real treat!  Had we known, we might have opted for an afternoon time slot to really get out of the heat during the worst part of the day...but hindsight is 20/20 and who would have guessed we'd be in a heat dome?!?

I think the whole group liked this activity and truly I think it's one of a kind.  At one point I thought it was going to be "lit" because of bioluminescence - a tour we've seen before on the ocean - but this was of course not that. 

We booked both of these tours through the same company, or maybe sister companies.  The UTV tour was through Out The Top Adventures and the kayaking was through Red Rive Gorge Underground.  If you are planning a trip, ask about bundle discounts because we were able to save a little money that way.

Oh!  One quick funny story about Kayden on the kayak tour.  A few times during the tour they stop the group, bunch everyone up and tell a story about the caves or the fish etc.  Then when you try to restart paddling we're all bunched up and some people are facing the wrong way and some are at the periphery etc.  At one point like that we started paddling again and Kayden thought she'd swing wide, turn around and rejoin the group.  Well, just about everyone in the group started hollering "Kayden, wrong way...not that way...Kayden, Kayden...Kayden we're going this way".  It was hilarious, but it made her anxious because everyone was looking at her and causing a scene so she started paddling faster (in the wrong direction) which only made more people call out.  Andy was laughing so hard because she was so flustered that she almost tipped her kayak.  That wouldn't have been ideal since the water was so cold.  We'd gotten a whole speech about hypothermia and the importance of staying in your vessel etc.  It was pretty funny though and definitely a story I want to remember for retelling in the future :)

The tour guides told us a few years back they decided to see if they could stock the caves with fish.  They started with a small group of trout just to see how they did and apparently they thrived down there.  With no predators and a never ending food source (the company feeds the fish food) the fish are doing great and they've added more.  If nothing it adds to the visual excitement of the tour and gives you something else to try and spot as you paddle.  

Red River Gorge was the perfect central location for this large family and I'm so glad we had a chance to go back and explore it some more.  I think it's safe to say that we'll return again at some point!  

1 Family x 12 (July)

 

Family Christmas card!?!  Christmas in July....feels fitting!  July's family photo is in the books.

Ritterbusch Family Reunion Part 3 - Red River Gorge (Hikes and Camping)

I'm a sucker for a big group photo and while I have a whole post coming up next dedicated to all of the fun things we did in Red River Gorge, I had to start this post with the largest group photo we have of the trip.  I think we've got almost everyone in this shot - I count 26 of us.  Not bad for a family reunion!  Oh...there are 5 more not captured here, they did a boat tour version of the kayak we did.  So the officially count for the reunion is 31.  

Alright, I said this post would be all about our campground and the hikes we did, so I will move onto that.  First up - our hikes.  We hiked most mornings but we quickly figured out that if we wanted to hike, we needed to be up and out of the campground no later than 8 am and ideally we'd already be at the trail head by 8am.  It made for early mornings but honestly it was so hot that hiking later was no fun.  The heat was oppressive and even just sitting outside was hard to do unless you had your feet in the water to cool down.

Our first hike was called Rock Garden and was a roughly 2.5 mile loop inside the Natural Bridge State Park.  We could have started the hike right from our campsites but it meant a ton of elevation climbing and stairs so we convinced the group to drive up to the lodge and start from there.  In honestly, I don't think the group would have made it if we'd started at the bottom.  There was plenty of elevation change and stairs as it was and I think we pushed the oldies to the edge with this hike.  Uncle Rusty is 81 and Jeff had knee surgery on one knee and really needs to get it on the other.  Even Mom was saying the hike was harder than she'd have liked.  

This one isn't for little kids either.  The whole time we hiked it I was saying "I think it's a good think Liz and Bobby didn't do this hike"....and low and behold we came across them just as we were finishing our hike and they said "We're thinking of doing something called Rock Garden" and we quickly told them to not.  This hike ended at the Natural Bridge (pictures toward the end of this post).  It was a beautiful fun hike - though, no dogs allowed for anyone who is planning a trip.

The next morning we hiked Creation Falls and Rock Bridge Arch.  Creation Falls was a Liz recommendation and boy was it a great one!  These photos are from the Falls area and it was exactly as promised, a perfect hike for kids.  Her boys age 2 and 5 were able to most of it (with some carrying from Bobby).  I think it was roughly 2 miles with some elevation change to keep it interesting, but not nearly as much as the Rock Garden hike.  Liz and Bobby had tried to find this hike the first day - when we met them on the trail at the end of our hike, but she didn't have quite the right map.  We had a 20 minute (or so) drive to get to the trail head.  

Thankfully since we started early (per my decree that no hikes start after 8am) because we had the whole place to ourselves!  We saw very few families on the hike and had no trouble finding parking (though the parking is not extensive here).  By the time we were finishing though you could tell it was filling up, and fast.  I bet we passed 20 cars headed in as we were heading out.  Luckily for them we'd shown up with 4 cars, so us clearing out made room for the next wave.  

If you've got kids and are in this area, make sure to add this hike to your list.  Wear shoes that you can get wet and plan to spend some time at the falls (half way through the hike).  It's cool down there thanks to the rocks, water, and low cavern-ish area.  If it's going to be hot, pack a lunch and hang out in the water before climbing back out.

One afternoon Ryan, the girls and I were out and about and on the hunt for some shops to take the girls for souvenirs and we ended up driving the what I'll call the Red River Gorge loop drive taking you through the Nada Tunnel and around giving you the opportunity to check out many scenic outlooks and trailheads.  We found a hike called the Sky Bridge so we pulled over to see what we'd learn.  It was a short walk out to be on top of the Sky Bridge natural bridge giving you some amazing, wide spanning views.  It was later in the day, maybe noon or 1pm and it was way too hot to be out there exposed at there at the top of this bridge with no shade in sight.  I was personally way overheating and the girls were whining that they'd never survive in the heat but we knew we wanted to see more, so I quickly added this full hike (about 1 mile) to our list for a future day.

(This photo and the two that follow are the Natural Bridge at the state park.  Its beautiful and worth the effort to get there!  If you aren't interested in hiking and want to experience it in a different way they also run a ski lift to the top.  The rest of the family did that the day we left, so I don't have photos of it, but it sounds like that's a fun thing to do too.)

We came back the next morning with a group of anyone who wanted to hike and we hiked the full Sky Bridge hike worth it!  Along with two smaller hikes to outlooks called Chimney Top Rock and Princess Arch.  This three stop adventure is totally doable in a few hours (mostly driving between locations) and easy for little ones and the older family members to hike.  

We camped  at the Natural Bridge State Park - the Middle Fork Campground.  We'd stumbled on this campground and these exact spots back in 2019 when we visited Red River Gorge and we loved it so much that we tossed this area of the world out as a potential location for the family reunion.  We'd been wanting to get back to this area and this was the prefect opportunity for us to do that and to introduce it to new people.  

This is the view of the river from our campsite - site #33 for reference for a future trip!  We had almost every campsite on this side of the river.  A line of 6 sites all family.  We had a random family or two smack dab in the middle of us (when Liz and Bobby left on Wednesday) and then 2 more non-family member sites at the end and they could all tell that they were in the middle of something.  LOL!  We had someone walk past one night and say "are you guys like a family reunion or something".  HAHAH!  

This area of the world is so beautiful and unique - it was well worth the 6 nights we spent just exploring it.  I am pretty sure this is the longest we've ever camped in one single spot.  We are usually driven to see more, explore more and beep bop onto the next thing spending only a few nights in one single spot.  When we visited in 2019 we said we'd come back and take advantage of the trails and backpacking opportunities but it was FAR TOO HOT for that.  So, shucks...I think we'll have to come back again.

It's a big rock climbing/backpacking area and the restaurants and businesses definitely cater to to that audience.  There's a pizza place there called Miguel's and they have a huge grass field for tent campers (I don't even think they charge to stay there) and they have pay showers for people to use.  Another restaurant/beer garden is called Hops (we found it in 2019 when it was called Hop Fork and it's still there) that is made out of shipping containers.  They have a huge beer garden area and tent camping there as well.  I think the business offer free camping (no cost to them to mow the grass and let climbers tent camp) and it drives business to their restaurant.  

When we visited in 2019 the area was a hidden gem.  It's rural and small town and any tourism revenue was from the back packers and climbers (not usually known for having tons of dough to drop) but I think this area is poised for a boom - you could tell there are a handful of developers there putting up big giant beautiful houses and there are shopping developments popping up.  It's not a far drive (3 hours further south) to Pigeon Forge and that area has exploded as a tourist destination in the last 5 or so years.  Its a little too far for us, but if we lived closer, I'd certainly consider plopping down some money for land and developing here.  If you are on the lookout for an investment opportunity, you really should check it out because I bet in 10 years it'll be stocked full of $1M home to rent out.

There was the perfect amount of shopping available too.  Just enough to let the girls find a few things they wanted to buy and not too much that Ryan and I were ready to call it quits.  We got ice cream nearly every single day (100 degree temps make it easy to say yes to ice cream!) and if we had one more day there we would have ended up doing a rock mining thing with the kids at one of the shops.

And I can't end this post without bragging about the river!  Abby fished almost every single day - somehow she's a really lucky fisher-woman.  She is the first one to toss a line in (which of course helps with her luck!) but she is always catching something.  We saw trout and bluegill come out of the river and found out that they stock it once a month with trout.  

We started nearly every morning with a hike and by lunch time we were almost always sitting in the river.  I think Ryan had a chair in the river within 3 hours of having camp set up the first day but we really achieved a new level of redneck (but also campground jealously) when he plopped the pop up tent in the river too.  That being said we all huddled under it move our chairs as close as possible to fit everyone in the shade.  

The water level changed quite a bit during our time there.  You'll remember that I said it rained 6 inches on the first part of our trip and that meant that the river was "up" - and by that I mean it went from ankle deep to maybe mid-shin depth.  Perfect for kids to wade in and to not have to worry too much about the littlest ones drowning.  We had Liam and Mason with us for a few days and then Haze (the newest youngest cousin in the Keen family) who was maybe 18 months to 24 months old.  With water wings on the parents felt fine letting the kids play and explore.  

(Jeff's dog Apollo - and also Clementine's brother.  Jeff had all three dogs with him.  Add in our two, Copper and Penny and we were a sight to see on hikes.  5 dogs is a lot of dogs.  Good thing our group was usually 10+ people making 5 dogs seem less extreme.  LOL!)

I've been asked a handful of times what was my favorite part of the entire trip and it's right there.  That photo, the whole family just sitting around chatting for hours and hours and hours...that was my favorite part.  It was SO FUN to have 6 campsites all in a row and I felt like I got to spend so much time with Susie and Mitch - the bought their first camper earlier this year and this was their first trip with it.  We sat up one night til 10pm with our feet in the river just chatting.  It was dark and finally cooled off (and by that I mean it was only 85 degrees - at TEN PM!)....and those are the memories I hold dear.  

All in all we had 7 campsites, one family in a cabin and a total of 3 houses rented all within 15 miles of each other.  These reunions are always worth it.  And you know what?  It's already time to start talking about the location for 2029.  EK!  Can you believe I just typed that?  Abby will be entering her senior year and Hazel will have just graduated 8th grade.  It feels like a world away, and also so close.  Man, getting older is a strange experience!