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!

Reading PA

After two long days on the bus we were happy to get to Reading. We had a rough ride from Michigan to Ohio on Wednesday. The weather wasn't cooperating at all, it was snowing pretty hard. Clare decided it would be best if we just grabbed our lunch to go instead of taking a full hour lunch. This proved to be a good decision because as it was we got in around 8:30pm. We stayed at the Holiday Inn and Sue was lucky enough to get the woman from the hotel to drive us to Applebees. John and Quentin decided to stay back at the hotel, but Chaz joined us for a late dinner. We're really going to miss Chaz! He's such a great guy and we all really enjoy his company.
This morning we got back on the bus to find Spencer in the driver's seat steering the steering wheel, lol! Clare joked that he was our 7th bus driver. For some reason we seemed to go through a lot of busdrivers in such a short time! We had a very bumpy ride to Reading. The bus was all over the place. (No Spencer didn't really drive). I don't know how the boys managed to do schoolwork!
When we pulled into the hotel, Mike and Maria were waiting anxiously for Sue and Mikey to get off the bus. Maria was so sick during their last visit in Jacksonville, so it was great to see her healthy and full of energy! It's so cute, she has a little crush on Colin. She calls him her "teddy bear"! She came to the show all dressed up in a beautiful red dress. She was giving Nancy a run for her money lol! Actually she loves the song "As long as he Needs Me" so Sue made sure she got a picture of Maria in her red dress with Rhiannon in her red dress :)
I met up with Mark&Lisa, Steve&Mary Kyryk, and Fran Sullivan at the theatre. Colin was so happy to know that there were friends and family in the audience watching him. Uncle Mark won the award for the most shows seen by a relative (Other than Steve&the girls). This was his 3rd time seeing the show and Lisa's 2nd.
After the show we all heading out for a drink (Colin got a shirley temple, lol) While at the restaurant, Kevin (the musical director) and Jeff (drummer) came in. There were people doing karaoke and Kevin came over to show Colin that the book of karoake songs had Oliver songs in it. We tried to get Colin go up and sing Consider Yourself, but no go. Instead we had to listen to this guy who was tone deaf sing song after song! We said our goodbyes and heading back in to the hotel. It's so hard to believe that we are going to our last stop on tour tomorrow! Steve, Brittany, and Morgan will be meeting us in Akron. Tomorrow night after the show will be the cast party. We can't believe the end is here!.

Houghton MI

Tonight the cast celebrated their 100th show!!! We enjoyed time to ourselves this morning and met John, Quentin, Sue, and Mikey later in the day to have an early dinner at Applebees. When it was time for bus call I got a call from Clare asking if I wanted to bring a sleeping baby out to the bus.(I absolutely love cuddling with Spencer when he's sleeping, he's soooo adorable!) I loved having my "baby" time holding Spencer on the bus. Just as we got to the theatre he woke up and wanted Mommy. He's such a sweetheart, we are all going to miss him so much when tour is done! We made Clare promise to post photos of him online, so we can continue to watch him grow.
When we got to the theatre(Rozsa Center)we were all excited to see the banner hanging outside. It actually had photos of our cast on it. The graphic designer did an amazing job,it was so colorful! We asked one of the men in charge if we could possibly get smaller posters like it. He was wonderful enough to have his staff go around and take the posters off the walls, so that each member of the cast could have one. They also had the photo on their programs so we made sure everyone got one to bring home. The people at the theatre were so wonderful and accomodating. We really appreciated their kindness. While we were taking photos in the lobby and theatre a woman from the theatre approached us and asked if we knew Colin Nims. I told her that I was his mother and she said that there was a woman here to see him. She brought me to the woman and I found that is was Chris Klasner's mom! She came 100 miles to come see the show and represent the Klasners! I enjoyed chatting with her and really appreciated that she came all the way to see Colin. Colin was excited to hear that Carson and Selene's grandma was there to see him :)
Tomorrow we are boarding the bus at 7am and heading to Ohio where we sill get to around 9pm. Needless to say, none of us are excited about this trip! Hopefully it'll go by quickly. Last time we played Michelle's music catchphrase game and had a blast, so I'm sure we'll be asking her to pull that out again. On Thursday morning we'll be heading to Reading PA where Mark and Lisa, Steve and Mary(Friends from High School) and Fran (Steve's roomate from the Academy and usher in our wedding) will be coming to the show. We're looking forward to seeing all of them!
I'll write more after Reading :) 4 shows left!!!!

5 shows left!!!

We had a great Golden day yesterday. Colin and I along with Sue and Mikey ventured out in the cold and headed to the mall. Colin and I got much needed haircuts and then really enjoyed taking our time and shopping. Colin got new sneakers for school(so did I!) and treated ourselves to a couple of other things. Colin was thrilled to get a new phone(He was up for an upgrade). After looking over many phones, he decided on the LG Vu and absolutely loves it. After shopping we met up with Sue, Mikey, John, and Q for dinner. We were all freezing by the time we got to the restaurant, but were excited to show off all of our purchases. Even the waitress enjoyed looking at all of the fun princess things that Sue and Mikey got for Maria! After dinner we headed back to the hotel and went into the pool and hot tub again. When the pool closed we all headed up to our rooms. Sue and I bumped into Chaz and Alaggio in the hall and were horrified to hear about their church experience. Chaz thought it would be nice to join his friend and go to a local catholic church. Even though he isn't catholic he wanted to go and enjoy worshipping with his friends and castmates. When it came time to go up for communion, Chaz decided to join everyone because he felt that if he didn't he would offend the church. Well, once Chaz got the host he proceeded back to his pew with it in his hand. They were all shocked and horrified when a woman from the church marched up to Chaz and asked if he was Catholic. When he told her that he wasn't, she snatched the host right out of Chaz's hand!! Needless to say, Chaz felt awful and was afraid that he embarassed the rest of the group. However, the rest of the group felt embarassed at the way the catholic church reacted to how a newcomer was treated! I just wish I could have been a fly on the wall to see all of their faces! After laughing at the story when Chaz and Alaggio told us, the woman from the front desk came up to us and yelled at us for being too loud. Apparently 10pm-7am is "quiet time" in the hotel. Mikey then decided that we should all come into my room and hang out. Colin broke out the wine for Sue, Chaz, and me and we all had a good time just chatting in our pj's :)
Today we slept in and then headed to the theatre for a matinee. Sue, John, and I decided to grab a soda and popcorn before heading into the theatre(gotta love the theatres that you can eat and drink in haha!) We were surprised to find out that they didn't charge us because we had backstage passes on. That was the first time we got free food and we really liked that, lol! When we went into the theatre we found that they didn't sell the front row seats, so we decided to sit there. It was so much fun to watch the cast react to us once they saw us there. It didn't hurt that I was wearing a neon yellow sweater that practically glowed in the dark haha! The best reactions were when Erin and Will offered us the sausages they were selling in Consider Yourself and my favorite was when Chaz blessed himself during the show in honor of his experience with the Catholic Church! We had a blast cheering the whole cast on!
After the show there was a Q and A with some audience members. It was so funny how the 3 boys were not intimidated by the least bit. All three spoke right up when the group was asked questions. These three will have no problem with public speaking in school!
Once back at the hotel we decided to head over to Red Lobster for dinner, the 3 parents, 3 kids, and Chaz and Rhiannon. We had a great dinner which we overstuffed ourselves with!
Tomorrow we head back on the road first thing in the morning and will ride to Houghton Michigan.
I'll write more from there :)

After leaving Lowell, we headed to Springfield MA. Once in Springfield we had the evening off and decided to Colin was really excited about the show that night. He let his understudy, Jenn, have a chance to perform as Dodger. Colin hasn't missed a show yet and thought it was the least he could do seeing as Jenn had to learn his part in case he got sick. He figured with 104 shows, it wouldn't kill him to miss one. Plus, he was really excited to actually watch the show! We found our seats and got ready for the show to start. Colin was so excited when the music started. His head was nodding along with the music and the beat of the orphans walking on stage. After that he had a huge grin the whole time while watching the show. He was so excited when it was time for Jenn to enter as Dodger. We both really enjoyed watching her do her version of Dodger. She was absolutely fantastic! We were both so proud of her. It was so wonderful to see her smile onstage. It was obvious that she was having the time of her life! I was so proud of Colin for giving Jenn this chance. During intermission Colin ran down to the dressing room to give Jenn a big hug and congratulate her. He also told his other castmates how great they were. After Mikey even gave Colin a hug (Mikey's not too fond of Colin's hugs, lol!) we headed back to our seats and enjoyed watching the rest of the show.
The next day we headed to Salisbury MD. We arrived just in time to cleanup and change and head right to the theatre. Actually it was another arena. Luckily this arena was much better soundwise than the others. After watching the show the night before, Colin was ready to hop back in to his role. There's not much more to report from Salisbury because we weren't even there a full day! The next morning we got back on the bus and started the long trip to Merrillville, IN. We stopped in Ohio the first night and continued on to Indiana this morning. Tonight we had a nice dinner at Olive Garden with Sue, Mikey, John, and Quentin. After a chilly walk back to the hotel, we got our bathing suits on and enjoyed a relaxing time in the pool and hot tub. It's been a while since we had a pool to hang out by and to actually have enough time to relax! It really felt good and the boys had a lot of fun together. I think we're all realizing that our time together is getting short. As much as we want to get home to our families and real life, we all realize how much we're going to miss the great friendships we have made on tour. It's just so unbelievable that in a little over a week this will all be over. Hopefully we will all be able to stay in touch and remain friends once we get back to our homes.
Tomorrow we have a golden day and are planning to walk over to the mall. We'll do a little shopping, get much needed haircuts, and have dinner. The next show is on Sunday.