The Lion King

Last night we left the confines of Bumfarkia and headed down into the big city to the theater.

The Lion King was in town, and back in November when I first saw the commercial advertising that it was coming, I think I fell to the floor and wept with excitement, my fingers barely able to dial to get tickets fast enough.

I get a huge kick out of the theater and couldn't wait to expose the oldest four goobers to it too. It was especially cool to see it with Michael, as a thousand years ago when he was just a pint sized terror, it was his favorite movie. He would watch it on an endless loop if you let him and would run around roaring his terrible roar.

I can't say enough how magical the whole experience was for me. Its descriptions and accolades don't do it enough justice. It's amazing. The scenery, the costumes, and the actors are spectacular. I felt like a kid on a roller coaster afterwards. "Can we go again? Can we, hunh, hunh, HUNH?"

I spent most of the time torn between looking at the wonder of it all, and staring at the kids faces in the dark.

Emma, who was the most excited prior to the show, looked at me right after the first act and The Circle of Life finished (which, by the way, will go down in my life as one of the coolest things I've EVAR seen) and said "It's done now? Can we go to McDonald's?" Then she spent the next three hours leaning on me and seeing how far she could dig her elbows into my side before I wept.

Poor Lucas. It was almost totally lost on him. He mostly sat there the whole night looking like he'd rather be getting a root canal. I think I saw his fingers twitch a few times, presumably playing Madden in his head. At intermission he glanced over at Curt and me and asked "Is it halftime?" When I explained intermission, he looked deflated and said "We have to watch it again?"

Brett and Mike, however, literally sat on the edge of their seats almost the whole night. Michael had done nothing but complain about the whole trip since we announced it. This cumulated last night in a raging teenage meltdown at the idea of having to wear an ironed collared shirt and look like a dufus. But, the minute the show started his whole face lit up. For those few hours last night I sat in wonder as in front of my eyes, he turned right back into the sweet little guy that he was at three. I tried to talk him into sitting on my lap, but he declined.

Brett, as usual, took what he could from it and tried to utilize it in his own little Brett world. In the parking garage right after the play told me that the characters in the play were really "profound". Then he wanted to know if he could bonk Lucas on the head like Rafiki bonked Simba the next time he was being a pain. "You know, because you're not supposed to worry about things in the past." I told him he would probably worry more about the grounding he would get in the immediate future if he decided to test that theory. "Drat." he said. "Can we go to McDonald's?"