Dragons Are the Best

I recently won tickets at work for the VSP box seats for “How to Train Your Dragon.”

I was so excited. I couldn’t wait to share the news with Abby. Originally I wanted the whole family to go + one guest, since I got 4 tickets and all. Lee and I talked it over though and decided to let Abby invite one of her friends. We do so little for her in the “friends” area. We almost never have her friends over for a play date. We almost never take her anywhere to hang out with friends. Right now she’s excited about Girl Scouts and there’s almost no way we’ll agree to that. Lee and I just aren’t joiners. So, to help rectify our lack of friend activities, we allowed Abby to pick a friend to join us for the show. We figured that the friend would never be able to go if a parent didn’t come too, so we would have to sacrifice two tickets. So long family time.

Now, we have new neighbors on our court. Yay! Lee spoke to the woman when she was first moving in and she seemed very nice. Yay! And, she has a little boy and a little girl. The girl is Abby’s age. Yay! Abby and the little girl hit it off immediately. Double yay! So Abby invited the little girl and her mom to come along. It was a great opportunity to get to know the neighbors. It was ubber low hassle too, which was perfect for me. First, it cost me nothing and had the added bonus of wowing the neighbor. Hello, box seats. That was NICE! Second, we got special parking right up close to Arco Arena, and we didn’t have to stand in line to get in. Woot! Third, once the show started, we didn’t have to talk to each other. For me, that’s awesome. I don’t mean to be rude, but socializing really is a chore for me, especially when I’m not in the mood.

All in all we had a great time. I was not as impressed with the show as I was hoping to be, but it was cool. There was one awesome effect where the main character hung on a line and walked on walls which simulated a run through the local countryside. Okay, so my description doesn’t quite capture the coolness of the visual. I’ll just end this by saying some of the visuals were cool and a few were stunning. And the dragons looked cool. The flying dragons were a little disappointing but not too bad.

I loved it when the first dragon spit fire and a portion of the set “caught on fire.” Really there was just a jet of fire that shot up from 3 different locations around the stage. When the first one went off, Abby turned to me and asked, rather concerned, if that was supposed to happen. I assured her it was supposed to happen and that if I thought something was not a part of the show then I would let her know. She relaxed after that and lost herself in the show. At the end, Abby and her friend waved to the dragons as they flew by. It was awesome. Overall, I was happy with the show.

Is there anything better than pleasing your kid with something free (plus the cost of the popcorn, drink, pizza, cotton candy, and the Toothless light-up wand souvenir)?