The Lion King

On Monday afternoon I got a call from Auntie Sue from next door. She told me that the hotel was running a "Cutest Kid in Vegas" contest and that OUR KIDS HAD WON. The prize? Tickets for everyone to see The Lion King on Wednesday night. Uh-huh. After a little bit of drama over the generous gesture that Auntie Sue had made (we are so spoiled!!) we were all excited to see The Lion King together. Given that our kids are afraid of mascots (otherwise known as "people dressed up like animals") we were worried that they would be afraid of the show- given that it is made up entirely as people dressed up like animals!!! So we took them to the Lion King store at Mandalay Bay and let them watch a video preview and look through the books of real pictures from the show. We talked to them about what to expect and how none of it was real, etc... etc...

That night Grandma Mary (also prone to spoiling all of us) took us to Rainforest Cafe for dinner. In keeping with The Lion King theme, this restaurant is full of animated animals- very real looking- and has a thunder storm every 22 minutes. Faith was not so sure about this and insisted on sitting on my lap through most of dinner. This is where the kids picked out their souveniers from Grandma. Faith picked out a stuffed elephant. Tanner got a toy that lights up and spins, and Jake got a t-shirt.

We arrived at the theater a few minutes early and after making sure everyone went to the bathroom one last time, we found our seats. Center aisle. Second section back. Amazing seats. Faith sat on Brian's lap the whole time but was truly fascinated by the show. She was also fascinated by the ushers before the show and asked Brian lots of questions about them: Where do they sleep? Do they live here? Do they have homes? Tanner sat next to me and during scary parts hid under his sweatshirt, and had to be reminded frequently that the animals weren't real and that Scar would not come out into the audience, but he, too, loved the show and declared afterwards that he wanted to go every night. Jake, being a Lion King afficionado (his 3rd b'day was Lion King themed) loved the songs and remembered lots of lines from the movie that were also in the play.

It was a truly great experience and one that we will all remember forever.