School programs, The Nutcracker, and Jazz scrimmage

My little princess had her first school program this week.  She has been so excited every time I pick her up from preschool and she tells me about the songs they sang practicing for the program.  She was also excited to be able to perform on a real stage.  Brodie was subpoenaed for court for the day and didn't have to be there until a little later so he was even able to come.  Tessa was so dang cute!  She knew all of the songs and sang them so loudly that I could even tell her voice apart from the other kids.  They got to wear Santa hats for some songs, angel halos for some songs, and even had some moments with instruments and a glove that had bells.  I loved watching her.

Then Spencer had a program at his school.  Each grade came out and sang two songs.  I had to park forever away and walk all three kids in and we were way back in the cafeteria where we couldn't see anything.  But I was there and zoomed in the video camera so I could see him.  And he also loved the songs he learned and had been singing them for a week so I'm glad I got to go watch him perform.  Spencer also had a Holiday party at school and at his Up With Kids play practice.

Ever since I was a kid and had a friend in the Mountain West production of The Nutcracker I've loved it.  I went quite a few times when I was younger and took my kids for the first time last year.  They loved it, especially since the main character's name is Clara.  I bought both Tessa and Clara different versions of the books and Tessa has loved me reading it to her over the last year.  So we went for our Friday Fun night.  The kids loved the first half but were getting pretty tired through the second half.  Although Tessa was quite excited to see her former ballet teacher's daughter (who also helped teach Tessa's class) as the snow queen.  I really enjoyed the performance.  I think they do such a wonderful job of costumes, scenery, choreography, and absolutely everything!  I do think it's a couple dollars per person overpriced, but I'll keep going because I love it so much!

On Saturday we took the kids downtown to the free Utah Jazz scrimmage.  We were originally planning on parking at the Gateway and taking Trax a little bit to Temple Square to see the lights and then come back to Energy Solutions Center to watch a bit of the scrimmage and then go home.  We were waiting for the train FOREVER (at least it sure seemed that way) and plenty of trains were going the other way but none were coming our way so we played around for a while.

Then Tessa had to pee really bad.  Since we were right outside Energy Solutions we decided to go in early and wait for the scrimmage and then stay for a little bit and then see the lights after.  They had a few sections behind the basket blocked off and the rest of the seats looked pretty full so we headed to the upper bowl.  Quite a few others had the same idea but they had it closed off.  Apparently they weren't expecting such a crowd despite it being a free game and a lot of people being starved for some NBA action after the long lockout.  So just as we got there they opened up a section and we sat down.  We took off all our coats, hats, gloves, and everything else and settled in.  A while later an usher came and told the bunch of us up here they didn't want anyone up here and they were opening the blocked off area down below.  As we looked we saw people flooding in that area.  So by the time we packed up all our stuff and got the family down there we found 5 seats together on the second to the top row.  Then they still ended up having to seat the upper bowl.  And when it finally was time to start they started off by interviewing each player and having some Jr. Jazz kids ask them questions and they they had a good chunk of time warming up.  By the time the actual scrimmage started our kids were ready to go home.  We stayed for one quarter and then left.  Spencer did enjoy watching actual basketball players and seeing the large arena.  I enjoyed actually seeing basketball.  Of course this was before I realized the Jazz really suck as a team this year (I'm hopeful they'll get better really fast).  And it was so late that we just decided to go home and come back down a different night for the lights.  The older kids were very disappointed so we told them if they didn't whine or cry about it we'd stop at McDonald's for holiday pies (like the apple pies but they were room temperature, filled with a pudding, and had colorful sprinkles on them.  They tasted like a birthday cake).  Which we did.

Okay so I know this post is long but as I was posting the pictures from the scrimmage I realized I didn't mention the University of Utah basketball game we went to.  Our neighbors had tickets and couldn't make it so they brought them to us.  This was before the Jazz game so it was the first actual basketball game Spencer got to go to and he loved it.  Tessa loved watching the cheerleaders and was dancing herself anytime they came out.  And unlike the Jazz scrimmage it was empty.  This made it possible for the kids to run all over the place without bothering people.  They went down to the row in front of us, the row behind us, over us, and back again.  I think the University of Utah team was even worse than the Jazz.  But the kids didn't care, they had a blast!