Newsies

The Newsies movie came out my senior year of high school.  I instantly fell in love.  I played the soundtrack over and over, listening to the songs well into my first two years of college.

When the film was made into a Broadway musical, I knew I had to see it.  I finally got my chance when it came through Seattle.  Knowing how much I love it, Jon purchased tickets as soon as I mentioned how badly I wanted to go.

Before the show, we went to a lovely Thai dinner.  The food was delicious and the presentation worthy of a photograph:

I've been to several shows at the Paramount, but never have I been so lucky to sit this close!

I could hardly stay in my seat.  To say I loved it would be a gross understatement.  Everything about it was spectacular!

The next morning while running, I told Camille how great it was.  She mentioned that she would love to see it, but her husband was out of town and she didn't want to go alone.  Well heavens, I couldn't allow Camille to miss it! I just had to go back the very next night so she would have someone to see it with.  I'm a nice friend, aren't I?

It was just as good the second time.

Friends don't let friends miss Newsies.

Pacific Rim Championships

Some have called Simone Biles is the greatest female gymnast in history.  Ali Raisman is an Olympic champion. We knew we couldn't pass up the opportunity to watch them and other up-and-coming superstars compete live.

The Pacific Rim Championships were held in Everett, WA and attending the event made for a really fun day with the girls.

Hershey's is the sponsor of the meet, so we scored some free chocolate bars and autographs from Shannon Miller, who was the "it" girl back when I was just a little older than Alyssa.

Simone was everything she's touted to be and it really was amazing to watch Team USA.  Ali was second place and Laurie Hernandez would've placed third based on score, but a silly rule only allows two from each country to place.  So third place went to a gymnast from Japan, even though her scores were lower than all of the USA gymnasts.  

Such a fun day of gymnastics!

Natalie's 11th Birthday

We first celebrated Natalie with a nice family dinner at Black Angus.  YUM!  She opened her gift from Grandma and Grandpa while there.  Grandma always finds clever ways to give cash.  The chocolate was a little melted, but it was so fun to see all those bills!

For her party, Natalie wanted to go to Trampoline Nation.  She requested pink and orange for colors of the table decorations.  How nice that we were assigned the orange party room, as it coordinated perfectly!

She wanted cake pops instead of cupcakes.  We served red velvet and chocolate.  We gave cotton candy for the party favor, but her lame mother counted wrong so she didn't get one. Sorry, Nat!

Her lame mother also failed to take any good pictures of the party guests and only got one of Nat on the trampolines.

Oh well, it was a fun party for a fun girl.

Happy Birthday, Natalie!