WICKED!

For Christmas my wonderful sister Julie gave my parents, Kelli and Ryan and Me and Paul tickets to WICKED! You have to sing that! WICKED! Scream it a little too! We went this past Friday to the Pantages Theater on Hollywood Blvd. to see it.

It was wonderful, fabulous and fun for the whole family. I can't wait to see it again and again and again. My every wonderful husband gave up his ticket so my brother who was in town could go. I know how much Paul missed going so I know we will go back many times!! (Actually Paul said that if he never went to another Broadway show his life would still be full! - can you believe that! That just means he needs to see them more!)
The weather was horrendous getting down to LA. There were high winds, down-pours of rain, tumbleweeds the size of small cars in the road and accident after accident. We left 7 hours before the show started so natures fury wouldn't have a chance to make us late. There was just one thing we forgot. We were traveling with a fireman.
If you have never traveled with a fireman let me tell you how it goes. Everything is fine and dandy in the car until he looks out the window, sees an accident, asks where is shoes are, we stop the car, he gets out and....an hour later we can go again. But, we wouldn't have it any other way!
The accident we saw. It happened within a minute of us stopping. There weren't any fatalities! Thank goodness!

A mom with four small children was driving the overturned vehicle. She swerved to miss a tumbleweed that the car in front of us hit and then we hit just after she swerved. She took the truck next to her with her off the road and they came to a stop when she flipped onto the railroad tracks. It took about 5 minutes before the first responders arrived. A firetruck did stop but there wasn't any equipment on it. He was a shop-guy taking the fire truck to get fixed. But he did use my GPS (thanks for the Christmas gift Paul!) to tell other emergency crews our exact location! The medics used our car to treat the woman with the children. That meant that me and all the men were outside. The winds were awful and it was sprinkling. I looked like a...dirty, dirty....something by the time we left.

In the other car was a Dad with a teenage daughter and a young son who was probably 10 or 11. They called the mother and when she showed up on the sceen the boy ran probably 50 yards to her. It was a sweet teary moment.
Here is the female Police officer who wasn't loved as a child. She was rude to everyone. John Marshall, Ryan's dad saw us on the side of the road and he stopped to make sure everything was OK. She yelled at him and gave him a "lawful order" to leave. She was even rude to the poor mom who was in the accident.
The emergency crews who showed up.
More that showed up the other way...
Ryan is telling the woman officer that her behavior was unacceptable. Ryan is still in jail....Just kidding! :)

So, we finally got to LA. Mom didn't pass out from her hyperventilation and we all got soaked. Some even more than others. As we were walking to dinner, in the pouring rain, a driver in a car thought it might be funny to splash us all. There was flooding and he drove right through it and sprayed us all. Those poor people who sat near us at the theater!

Dad is singing - or freezing - in the rain! (at Hollywood and Vine no less!)
Over here boys!
One day we'll like this picture.
Eating at "Chicken and Waffles" - that is literally what they serve - chicken and waffles...
Patty-whack couldn't stay out of the puddles...
Ryan is sooooooo excited to see WICKED! (remember to sing and scream it)
He knows the music better than anyone!

Finally! In the theater!
It was a GREAT show!

We didn't get home until 3:00am but we would all do it again! Well, Mom will go in her own car and rent a hotel....but the rest of us wouldn't change a thing!