My Reasons

My Reasons

This Is Where It All Begins

This Is Where It All Begins

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

nutcracker

One of my favorite traditions growing up was going to the Nutcracker with my mom, my grandma, and any other women in the family.  We would eat somewhere fancy, and then go to the Nutcracker.  I loved the magic of it all.  The excitement.  Dressing up and being with "the adults."  It was all so memorable for me.

This year, I decided to continue on the tradition, and also go to a "big" version of the Nutcracker in Salt Lake.

I took Mary to the one here in Heber last year, but I wanted to her experience a professional ballet this year.

I called my mom, my, sister, and my sister-in law, we got the tickets and set the date.  Mary and I have been anxiously waiting for weeks now.

The big day came, and Mary and I got all dressed up.  I could feel the excitement coming from Mary, and could remember feeling the same way at her age.  It was pretty special.

Ben came home, snapped a picture of us, and we were off. 

Mary choose the music, and I willingly sang to Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift, in my loudest voice, along with Mary, as we made our way down the canyon.

We made a stop at the store in Park City to pick up a Christmas present, and then continued on our way.  During our stop, a random blizzard hit, and it was pretty crazy getting down the canyon.

We met up with my mom and sister at a random exit in the canyon (they got a little lost), and then we all navigated our way through Salt Lake.  It was nuts.  We got lost.  But it was all part of the adventure, and we just laughed our way through it. 

We ran out of time to eat dinner first, so we found this crazy ghetto place and grabbed some sandwiches to hold us over.  It was freaky, but it was warm, so we didn't complain.  Heber has been negative 18 this week.  Salt Lake wasn't much warmer that night.

We then made our way to the Capitol Theatre for the Nutcracker.  The city was so beautiful all lit up everywhere with people hustling about.  It was so fun to be in all of it, with the ladies I love.  Mary was soaking it all in.

We made our way to the Capitol Theatre, and stopped just long enough to get a picture and freeze our snot.



We met up with my sister-in law there, who had a story of her own adventure getting there (she was dropped off by a kind police officer) , and we made our way through the gorgeous, ornate building, and up, up, up, up to our seats.

The ballet was amazing!  Everything about it was just plain awesome! The scenery, the costumes, the dancers, it was definitely the best Nutcracker I have ever seen.

And who wouldn't love watching a ballet through these vintage babies!

It was fun to look down the row and see the generations of girls.  Mary always loves the chance to be with Aunt Kelsey.

After the ballet, we made our way over to the Cheesecake factory for dinner...at 11:00pm.  I haven't been awake at that time for months.  Eating that late was crazy, but we were all starving, and not ready for the night to end.

Mary ordered a steak.  Yup, a steak at 11:00pm.  She cracks me up! She was falling asleep by the time our food got to us.  It was the best dinner I have ever eaten at midnight.

By the time we found our car in the parking garage and then found my sister-in-laws car, it was late.  Unfortunately, my sister -in -laws car battery had died.  We tried to jump it, but it was too far gone. 

Long story short, we got in to Heber at 3:00am.  It was a little nuts, but it was such a fun night! It wouldn't be us without an adventure.  It makes for great memories. I would do it all again in a heartbeat, and according to Mary, she wants to do it all again tomorrow.

We hung out with my mom and sister for a while the next day, and then they headed home.

We all agreed to keep this tradition alive.  It is a good one.

I am so thankful that my little girl could experience the same things that I did at her age, and the same joy and excitement of the Nutcracker.  And it is always good to bond and draw closer to family.

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