THE BOYS' FIRST SYMPHONY

I was offered four free tickets to the symphony. I figured it was a perfect time to test whether or not the boys are ready for The Nutcracker.

So, I went home and told Bub (who likes opera and ballet but not necessarily the symphony – I think that she likes having the visual happening with the music). She said “Well, I think that you should ask the boys if they want to go instead of telling them that they have to go.” If you’re married, you know that this is code for “I DO NOT WANT TO GO TO THE SYMPHONY.” Fine, I replied.

So, over dinner, I told the boys that I had tickets for Friday, and Peanut about choked on his food from the excitement.
Bub: “I don’t think it’s what you think it is, buddy.”
Peanut: “Isn’t it where they have all the instruments and the play music on the stage?”
Bub (defeated): “Yeah……”
I can just imagine what was going through her head.

Friday rolled around, and she was sick. Well, that’s the story she gave me. OK – she really was… Anyway, I got home, and three of us got all spiffed up. Then, I presented the dinner options:
"We can go to the top of this hill [Ensign Peak] and have a picnic where we can see the whole city of Salt Lake, or we can go to a restaurant and eat Hungarian food because the guy that wrote the music was raised in Hungary."
Meatball: "Picnic!"
Peanut: "Restaurant! Denny's!"
Bub (who hates Denny's): Oh, yeah. Denny's sounds great!
Me: [evil eye]

So, we left. We got half way to Salt Lake when I realized that I forgot the tickets. *@#^$&@ Bub met us in Stansbury with the tickets and back we go. To Denny's. Denny's.

After Denny's, we found a parking spot and hopped on the train, but not before we talked Heidi W.'s family's ear off. We got to the symphony at the perfect time and found our seats while I reviewed the 100 rules that the boys needed to follow.

Certain that they would get bored, I gave them some ideas: Close your eyes and imagine what might be happening as the music changes, and pretend that you're the conductor. So, we spent a lot of time whispering about fairies in the woods and goblins or witches because that's how the music sounded. Meatball turned to me at one point and said "I think someone is really annoyed at this part of the music." He was right. We also spent a lot of time waving our arms about because we were the best conductors in the world!

We didn't stay for the entire thing. We were just too tired, but while we were there, we were very well behaved. I was very proud of them both.