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Grand Forks was the place to be Saturday night. In addition to UND taking on Wisconsin at the Ralph, Elf the Musical was playing at the Chester Fritz. Myself, Trevor D, our ladies and my precious goons decided to hit up the musical after dinner at the Speedway. My girls may have been excited to see the play, but they were even more exited to see their buddy Trevor D. It's all they talked about all week. Trever D this Trevor D that. It was constant. So it was only natural that the second we met up with Trevor and Jess at the Speedway that they would clam up, hide behind me and not say a word to anyone. This is how kids work though so I can't say this surprised me. The shyness however...would not last long.
For dinner the goons had mac and cheese with mini corn dogs from the kids menu. The lady and I had delicious hamburgers, and Trevor and Jess had what I as an anti cheeser could only describe as a big bowl of nightmares. Now don't get me wrong, Queso is probably delicious to people who are into that kind of thing and I have no doubt the Speedway probably does it better than most; But I did briefly consider moving to a different room until my pal was finished with his poison. Having to be strong in front of my spawn however, I decided to man up and remain at the table. As we began to finish our glorious feast, my youngest took it upon herself to begin attacking Trevor. She began her assault by crawling under the table and slapping his knees, sporadically coming up for air and to sneak sips from my highly caffeinated coca cola. Her offensive only became more aggressive from there. Soon she was jumping on his back when he was foolish enough to turn away from her. It was at this point my oldest daughter needed to powder her nose. While on our journey to the restroom I could hear the screams in the distance. Upon returning to the table, I saw the youngest youngin was now licking the remaining queso from Trevor's bowl like an alley raccoon. Needless to say, the kids enjoy nights out with my radio family as much as I do but at this point I decided to interrupt the madness with a trip to wal-mart for markers and paper before our evening at the theater.
After a quick pit stop at Wal-mart we made our way to the Fritz for a night of quality entertainment and shenanigans. The kids were sad to learn that Trevor and Jess's seats were on the opposite side of the building but they were nevertheless still excited to see their very first professional play. As soon as the curtain rose, the girls had "permasmiles" on their faces. The songs were amazing and the acting was superb. Overall the play was a magical experience for the lil ones. Granted they are 4 and 6 so as expected, by the intermission they had turned into proverbial pumpkins. It was almost 9:30 pm by this point after all. I was sorry we had to cut the night short, but parents understand that tired and crabby kids have the potential to ruin the night for everyone else in the theater. And so, we had to check out at half time. But for what it's worth, the kids and I had a GREAT weekend. I would like to think that even though they may be too young to endure a full two act play right now, that I at least planted a seed for them to enjoy the theater in the future. Who knows, maybe one day I'll be able to watch THEM on stage at the Chester Fritz. And if that day comes, I'll be able to say it all started with a Saturday night adventure in Grand Forks.