And that's a wrap!!

The Oliver national tour is officially over and Colin and I are home for good!!! As excited as we are to be home, we have to admit that we will truly miss all of our tour family. This tour ended up being an amazing experience for both of us. We will have memories and friendships to last a lifetime!

We were all excited to get to our last venue in Akron OH. Steve, Brittany, and Morgan joined us in Akron to watch Colin's final performances.It was wonderful having the whole family back together again. Old friends of Steve's parents, the Perry's came to the show that night too. Steve hadn't seen them in 35 years, so he wasn't exactly sure who to look for. The girls and I stood back and laughed as he approached a couple of women asking them if they were Katie Perry. He got some odd looks, haha! Luckily, after the performance the Perry's came to the stage door and asked for Colin. We really appreciated them coming to the show and enjoyed talking with them.
When we got back to the hotel, everyone got ready and headed to the cast party in the hotel's restaurant/bar. The company provided drinks and snacks for us all. We all had a great time chatting and taking photos. Steve and the girls enjoyed getting to know the cast and crew better. Quentin's mom, Gail, flew out for the last shows and cast party also. It was nice to have everyone together. We just got to see Mike and Maria in Reading too! Gail was so sweet. She gave Sue and I a beautiful pearl necklace and earrings. She thanked us for looking after her boys. Sue told her that Quentin was a piece of cake to look after, but John on the other hand....haha obviously she was just joking! The good thing about not having the cast party after the last show was that it was more of a happy occasion than a sad one. We knew that there were 2 more shows on Saturday, so we didn't feel that it was completely over.

Saturday we got up and met the Perry's for lunch. They brought us to their country club and we had a delicious lunch. We really enjoyed talking with and hearing about their family. They are wonderful people. We all felt like we've known them for years even though the kids and I just met them the night before!

The girls dropped Steve, Colin and I off at the theatre for the afternoon show. They went back to the hotel and Britt took a nap while Morgan went to the pool. She was happy that she had the whole pool to herself :) After the show we got the girls and met up with the Leone's who drove all the way to see the evening show. We had dinner at the hotel with the other kids and parents and a few more cast members. From there we headed to the final show. It was a little sad to see all of the boxes lined up waiting for everything to be packed up for good. We went out to our seats and I just got done telling Morgan that I didn't think I was going to cry, when the lights went down, the music started, and the moment I saw the boys enter the stage I started crying, lol! I kept watching the show and thinking that this was the last time I was going to see it. You would think that after 104 shows I would be happy about this, haha! I calmed down and was doing well until Colin started singing Consider Yourself. I love watching him do that number, I could watch him do it over and over(well I guess I actually did!) Morgan looked over at me and started smiling when she saw me crying all over again. By intermission, my eyes were all red and all of my makeup was cried off-attractive huh?! Act 2 wasn't as difficult for me because Colin isn't in that act as much as the first, so I was able to relax and enjoy watching everyone. Jeff who runs the lights came up to us and handed us a few crazy hats to wear. Mike(Stacie's husband) got a very attractive gold sequined cap, while I got an elf hat, Morgan wore a crazy fuzzy orange cap, and Sue and Britt had caps with weird springy type things all over it. We were hoping that they would draw the casts attention to us during bows, but unfortunately we were too far back for them to see us. We did, however, draw attention from the audience members sitting around us, lol!
After the show, we said our goodbyes. It was so difficult for all of us. As excited as we were to go home, we were so sad to think that all of the people who have been so close to us in the last 6 months would be away from us now. I think the most difficult goodbye by far for the boys was Spencer. They each hugged him and we all cried. We watched Spencer grow so much over the last few months, we're going to miss him so much! For me, the worst was definitely saying goodbye to Sue and John. They have become such wonderful friends over the last six months. I can't imagine what life is going to be without them! Without Sue I'm going to have to plan what and when I am going to eat all by myself and without John I am going to have to find my own way around! Thankfully in this world of technology I am sure that we can all stay in touch. It will be interesting to see what everyone is doing next!
This morning Colin got up and went back to school. He had a wonderful day and seems really excited to be back. He went over to his best friend Ben's house after school and then asked if Ben could come over our house. They have a lot of fun to make up for the time they missed, lol! I was happy to find that Colin is actually ahead in a couple of his subjects in school and right where he should be for the others. I hope Mikey and Quentin had great days back to school also! I took the week off to get everything situated around here and will head back to work next Monday. What a change that will be for me! I'll actually have to go to bed before 2am and wake up at 6am yikes!