A Live Dragon

Usually, our yearly experience gifts are spread out throughout the year. But this year it seems like all of them have been in April. Nathan’s trip to Texas, Matthew’s band tour to California, and Malia’s parallel trip to Cali have all been this month. And this evening was another of Malia’s experience gifts. 

Malia has been a long-time fan of the movie “How to Train Your Dragon.” She spent several years very focused on Toothless, the main dragon character. She watched the movie over and over and over again. She dressed up as a dragon rider for Halloween one year. She even had a “How to Train Your Dragon” themed birthday party. And she still has framed art from the movie hanging on the wall in her bedroom. So, when I saw that the Utah Symphony had added this particular flick to their films in concert series, I knew we had a winner on our hands.

Malia said this evening’s performance was amazing! The music was wonderful, and the audience was actively engaged in the film, cheering at all the appropriate moments, etc., which makes things so much fun. Some years back I took the boys to see “Singing in the Rain” when the symphony played and we loved it, so I understand her enjoyment of the experience. We’ll keep our eyes on the schedules so we can see what other wonderful live soundtrack movies we can catch!

We All Have Different Talents

As I’ve mentioned in the past, Malia has a knack for drawing. Not only does she enjoy it, but she has a talent. For about the past year, she has been focusing on drawing dragons. Nathan gave her a book about how to draw dragons for Christmas in 2020, and since then, all her practice has paid off and she has become quite skilled. She was working on a new drawing this afternoon and Nathan, by way of complimenting her skills, commented that he can only draw stick figure dragons. Then, smart aleck that he is, he proceeded to do so. Both Malia and I laughed. And then about twenty minutes later, Malia shared her progress on her current drawing. I love that my kids are all so different. It makes things interesting and keeps me on my toes. 

Here There Be Dragons

Several days ago, I got a digital flyer from our school district highlighting a coming attraction. We get those from time to time, but I don’t usually pay much attention as they aren’t generally things my kids are interested in. However, this time the word “dragon” leaped off the page and captured my attention. Upon closer inspection, I discovered that the event was in town one weekend only and the school district had arranged for a free ticket for every student in the district age 17 and under. I checked out the website and Kev and I decided it would be a jolly outing that Malia, our dragon lover, would enjoy. As such, we got our tickets, two of which were completely free, and headed to the expo center this afternoon.

The attraction was called “Dino and Dragon Stroll.” Based on the pictures, we thought it would be big statues of dinosaurs and dragons. We were sort of right, but what we didn’t expect was the fact that all the figures moved. The heads, arms, and wings moved. They opened and closed their mouths. They blinked their eyes. They even looked like they were breathing. It was pretty impressive. And of course, there were roars and other sounds that accompanied the movement.

Most of the kids in attendance were much younger than Matthew and Malia. The bounce house and rides were all geared for younger kids. But that did not detract from the enjoyment. We wouldn’t have wanted to spend an entire afternoon there, but we were all entertained for over an hour. And Malia got up close and personal with a dragon. I call that a successful outing.