Denver!

Lucky me lucky me lucky me, the theater fun was not over after NYC!  Way back in January, tickets for Hamilton in Denver went on sale.  I even considered taking off the day from work to sit in front of the computer and try to buy tickets...but I didn't.  I knew my chances were slim among so many thousands of people trying to get tickets.
But I *might* have taken Kip's ipad to work to act as a hotspot, and my own personal laptop to access the DCPA site, and I *might* have sneaked out of my classroom for a just a few minutes to try and  get tickets, because, well, you never know.
And OH MY GOSH I got through on my first try, bought 4 orchestra tickets and had the deal signed, sealed, and delivered in less than 30 minutes!  Amazing!  I didn't realize how amazing it actually was until I talked to my friend Sara and saw people's reactions online; most people were put in a random queue tens of thousands of people long (over a hundred thousand eventually), then made to wait until their number was called before even getting to choose tickets.  Somehow I skipped all those steps.  Not complaining!
We had tickets for the 16th, a Friday night, which meant a day off of work and school while we drove through the state back to Colorado.  We left Thursday night to give ourselves plenty of time, which ended up being a good idea because once we got to Laramie, we were STUCK there with all roads out of town closed due to winter weather conditions.

It wasn't so bad killing time around town, we visited the baby chicks at Murdoch's and found a great Mexican place for lunch.  But I was starting to get super nervous because we were still almost 3 hours from Denver and our tickets were for 7:30!  Estimated opening time for the roads was 6-8 HOURS.

Lucky me again, the south road opened up after 1 pm and we had time to get on the road and make it to Sara's house, drop off kids, eat real fast, pick up a babysitter, swap her for Debbie, and get downtown before 7:30 - just barely!!

Ah - HAMILTON!  It didn't disappoint.  It was amazing!

I loved seeing it staged after all of the reading and listening I've done over the last year and a half.  So fun!

The next day was Rachel's birthday!  It was fun to be back in Denver to celebrate because we were able to get some Krispy Kreme donuts (yum) and visit friends that we haven't seen in about 8 months.  We met them for ice cream with the birthday girl!  Harper, Rachel, and Parker reunited!

Then they got to play together a little more at the Seemans house while we visited.  Caleb spent time with Carter and Ella was reunited with Chloe but we failed to get pictures of that!

 As per usual, McKinley was perfectly happy tagging along with everyone else!

Sara was nice enough to fulfill Rachel's dream of a chocolate emoji cake after making her a birthday dinner of tacos!  Rachel was a happy girl!  She loved her emoji nightgown and emoji notebook; she loves emojis!

 (And that is McKinley, *not* picking her nose in the background of the birthday singing....)

Rachel is a spunky and smart little 3rd grader reading on a 7th grade level (WHAT?!)  She is currently racing through all 13 of the Series of Unfortunate Events. She is top of her class, even though she is the smallest; her classmates asked if she was a leprechaun since she was born on St. Patrick's Day.   I said, "Maybe..." :)  She loves her dance/tumbling class and singing along with musicals, much to my delight.  Right now she likes Hamilton, The Greatest Showman (which she is waiting on pins and needles to watch when it comes out on video), and Fiddler on the Roof, which she saw part of at Star Valley High School and again on the drive to Denver.  She is cute and witty and a good helper around the house.  Happy Birthday Rachie!