Oh Canada! Oliver is officially an international tour :)

Oliver is now officially an international tour. We headed to Kingston Ontario after Ogdensburg. Colin and I rode on the bus to make things easier and Steve followed behind the bus. Everything went well at the border until the border patrol came on the bus and asked if anyone had any mace or pepper spray. Melissa admitted that she had some pepper spray in her purse and when she pulled it out we all cracked up. It was in a pretty bedazzled bottle, lol! The patrol agent made Melissa come off the bus and come into the building. We were all laughing thinking about what they all thought about her bedazzled pepper spray. After quite a while Melissa was released and came back on the bus. Check out the photo I posted of her coming out, I had to rag on her a bit, lol!
Once we got over the border we headed to Kingston. We were so happy to still have Steve with us! Once we got to theatre we discovered that the show was sold out. I didn't bother ordering tickets because we planned on using our backstage passes as usual and just sit in an empty seat. Well when I went to the house manager to ask for seats she told me that there were none available. OK, so for the first time on tour I turned into a stage mom lol! I said, my son is in the show and my husband came all the way from Rochester to see him. We need to get a seat for at least him!So as luck would have it a woman in the balcony was scarred of heights and took the last house seats, but her seats were available. So Steve and I were able to sit together and watch the show :)
Steve left early the next morning and we boarded the bus and headed for Edmondston New Brunswick for a stopover. I discovered during our lunch break that I really should have paid more attention during French class, lol! It took forever to order our lunch. I discovered that corndogs are known as pogos in Canada. It was so neat to see all the buildings and billboard signs in french. When we finally got to the hotel I grabbed a newspaper and discovered it was no good to me because it was all in french lol! Jenn and John enjoyed that they were finally able to use their french. They both came in handy when we all needed a little translation.
We ordered food from the hotel restaurant and ate in our room. We were now in Atlantic time which is one hour ahead of eastern time. For some reason my phone never switched over so when I set my phone alarm for the next morning I set it for an hour earlier thinking that would workout so I was up at the right time. Well, my stupid phone decided to change over to atlantic time sometime during the night and my alarm went off an hour earlier than we needed it to. Of course I didn't look at any of the clocks and Colin and I dragged ourselves out of bed to make sure we made bus call. When we got downstairs the bus was waiting but there was no one else around. We loaded our luggage and went to the hotel restaurant where I spotted Ashley and Michelle having breakfast. After talking with them I realized that we were an hour ahead of schedule! Colin and I were both awake til 2:30am so we really could have used that extra hour of sleep! I really decided that I didn't like Canada when I tried to get money out of the atm. Canada has two seperate cards for debit and credit. When I put my card into the machine it only recognizes it as a creditcard and therefore will not give me any cash!
After another day on the bus we arrived at our hotel in St John New Brunswick. I had a huge bag of laundry so i decided to stay back from the show and get my laundry done. Of course, laundry was more expensive than usual so I used my last $14 in cash to get $1 canadian coins for the laundry. So here I am in Canada with exactly 7 cents to my name until Monday! Thank God my card works for credit at restaurants!
Even I was amazed by all of the snow here. I'm used to snow, but this place is covered! It's very pretty as long as you're inside :)
Tomorrow Colin and I are looking forward to sleeping in. We don't have to head to the show until 7pm and it's a weekend so no school :) Sunday is a Golden Day which means we have a whole day off and can enjoy the SuperBowl. Colin's rooting for the Steeler's and I myself prefer the commercials!
We hit the one month mark until we go home and have mixed emotions. We're so excited to get home and be with the rest of our family and friends, but at the same time are going to miss our wonderful tour family and this whole experience.

Springfield to Ogdensburg

The last few days have flown by, but not without incidences! After Kalamazoo we headed to Springfield OH. This is Erin's hometown and her parents were wonderful enough to throw a reception for everyone back at the hotel. They had food and drinks for all and even a picture of the whole cast on the cake! That was very generous of them and we all truly appreciated it. Well after that is where things started to fall apart! The crew bus broke down when they were about to leave for Williamsport, so Clare had to arrange last minute flights for all of the crew so they could make it there in time. Then the truck carrying all of the sets and costumes was in an accident and a new truck had to come and get everything. Luckily the truckdriver wasn't hurt! Then Chris(Our Bill Sykes) came down with the stomach bug that a couple other castmembers had a couple of days before. The poor guy had to ride the whole day on the bus feeling incredibly sick :(
When we finally made it to Williamsport, the crew had done a great job getting everything set. Unfortunately they had no sleep what so ever. Chris was too sick to go on as Bill Sykes, so Will went on for him and did an amazing job!! There was rumor that Davy Jones(the original Artful Dodger) was going to come to that show, but as far as we know he was a noshow :( Colin was disappointed because he was looking forward to meeting him.
Today we were on the bus all day and got to Ogdensburg on time. Steve met us at the hotel and we went out to dinner with Sue, Mikey, John, and Quentin. From there we drove to the theatre. We were a little surprised that the theatre was actually located in a school and was extremely small, but it all worked out. We met up with Cici(Steve's sister), Jimmy(our nephew), and Aunt Carol and later Cindy and Emily Tyler made it. Emily has been in a few plays in Rochester with Colin. We really appreciated them coming all the way from Rochester, especially on a school night! It was so wonderful for Colin to have family and friends in the audience!
Tomorrow Steve is following us to Kingston Ontario and will watch the show there. We'll be sad when he has to leave on Thursday, but it will help knowing that we will be heading back home in a month :)

Kalamazoo billboard

Today while riding to the theatre in Kalamazoo Michigan we were so excited to see a billboard with Colin and Quentin's photos on it! So of course I had to ask Larry(our busdriver) to slow down so I could take a photo of it like a true stage mom would! lol!!!

This week has been quite a whirlwind! After St Louis we headed to Columbia MO, then Burlington IA, on to Muncie IN, and finally here we are in Kalamazoo MI. Last night the kids last tutor's(Kevin)parents came to see the show in Muncie. They stayed to meet the boys and we really enjoyed talking with them. They called Kevin from the theatre and each of the boys were excited to speak with him. Kevin is a great tutor and the boys really miss him. Colin was adament about going out to the bus to find the game Rumis that Kevin left behind in California. Unfortunately it was put under the bus and got a little tossed around, but after searching on hands and knees Colin finally found all of the missing pieces. He felt so much better knowing that Kevin would finally get Rumis back :)
I honestly don't know how the cast pulls off all of these shows! After spending the majority of the day on the bus we get to the hotel, grab a bite to eat and head to the show. On top of that, most of the cast has been fighting off colds and a couple had a stomach bug. It's tough not picking up germs when we're all on a bus together for so long. The boys have it even worse because they have to fit school and homework in. I'm so proud of how seriously Colin has been taking his school work. He got all A's on his report card! I know how exhausted I am by the show and all I have to do is sit and watch it. I have to admit though that I have been taking a few nights off here and there. Tonight Sue and I stayed back and did laundry and rested while John went to the theatre with the boys. Tomorrow is John's turn to stay back and relax.
I'm getting excited because Steve is going to meet us Tuesday in Ogdensburg and then travel to Kingson on Wednesday with us :) Colin and I are really looking forward to spending a couple of days with him. Unfortunately Morgan can't come along because she has midterms scheduled on those days :( We are also thrilled that Cici, Jimmy, and Aunt Carole are coming to the show in Ogdensburg. It's so wonderful for Colin to have family in the audience! Steve's old neighbors from Massena are also coming to that show. It will be nice to see them, we haven't seen them in years.
One of the best parts of this tour is the time that Colin and I spend alone in our room. We will just talk for hours about things. We each sympathize with whatever the other is going through and open up about all of our feelings. It's great therapy! I wish I would've had that much time alone with both of my girls without all of the daily activities and things butting in. One thing that I'm dreading about going back home is when he turns into the typical middle schooler! He opens up with me so much now, I truly hope that will continue.

St Louis

After passing the St Louis arch several times on tour, we were finally able to stop there. John, Q, Sue, Mikey, Colin, and I took advantage of the stop and went up in the arch. We got into the tram which looked a lot like a space pod. It was pretty neat watching as we made our way up the arch. Luckily we didn't have to walk up to the top(We'd have to go up over 1,000 steps!) At the top we were able to look out over the Mississippi River on one side and saw the St Louis Cardinals stadium out the other. We were so happy to be able to see another amazing landmark.
We headed to Columbia MO where we enjoyed a night off. We had dinner at the sports bar and just went back to our room and relaxed. We were able to sleep in the next morning, check out some of the presidential inauguration and then went across the street to the mall for some shopping and dinner. The cast performed at the University of Missouri tonight before an amazing audience. The seemed to absolutely love the show.
Tomorrow we head to Burlington IA for another one nighter.