little mermaid

Grammy and I took the girls out for a road trip this week (more later) and tonight we took them to see the little mermaid, performed at one of the most beautiful venues in the world. This professional, Broadway theatre is an outdoor amphitheater carved out of majestically beautiful red cliffs that opens to a brilliantly blue sky. I love this place.

So tonight, Ladybug got her first Broadway style show (outside of Disney theme parks). Butterfly had her first theater experience at six months old. Instead of sleeping through it like I planned, she stood on my lap and was completely enthralled through the whole thing. However Ladybug, even today at nearly age 2, rarely watches tv and prefers to be more active so we haven't taken her to the theater yet.

But tonight was wonderful. We dressed the girls up in pretty new party dresses and stuffed a bag full of snacks. We arrived at the theater and explored the outdoor plaza. We stalled and played for awhile and then found our seats. As the show began, Butterfly was so captivated that she forgot to eat her popcorn. Ladybug was wiggly and didn't settle down until Grammy realized she couldn't see and pulled her onto her lap (which really was good because she didn't weigh enough to hold the seat down anyway and it kept trying to fold up with her in it). Butterfly kept up a steady commentary of stating the obvious or expressing her excitement. Ladybug especially liked to cheer and applaud after each number, clapping so enthusiastically that her whole body bounced. However, she didn't like seeing the technician walking above us on the catwalk and yelled at him to get down right now.

For the second act, Butterfly continued to be fascinated and Ladybug started to wilt (it was two hours past bedtime) and wanted to lay on my lap with her blanket. We did have to make an early exit as the fire effects at the final scene scared Butterfly and then Ladybug got upset watching me leave without her. So we watched the finale from the back of the theater and then left early during curtain call (rude I know, but didn't want the fireworks to upset Butterfly). Leaving early ended up being especially advantageous because we had stopped to rearrange ourselves and ended up at the front of the line to meet Ariel after the show. The girls were tired but eager to give hugs and Ladybug perked up with an "again?" when asked if she liked the show.

We stayed to talk to a friend of mine from college that had been one of the show's designers and then made our way to the parking lot where valet already had our car waiting. (we either must have been one of the last ones or they are magic), loaded our tired girls (who were asleep before we left the parking lot) and made our way back to the hotel.