Instead of a 9th birthday party (back in June!) Brendan asked if we could go to New York and go to a Broadway show- a first for all four of us. It was a great idea except for the coordinating four schedules part of it! But we finally found a weekend that would work.

Brendan had been to New York a couple of times for auditions. He was offered an audition spot for a Saturday and it seemed like the start were finally aligning that we could make a weekend of it. He thought we were just going for the day. When the kids got home from school Friday- we told them to park their bags we were heading out. And we had a surprise for each of them- tickets to Kinky Boots for all of us, and a planned trip to the Nintendo store/museum for Aidan.

Traveling with kids and technology is glorious. It was a mostly quiet ride in the snow. We stopped at Sonic- a fun favorite- and arrived just in time for bedtime.

On Saturday it was freezing. We walked around Time Square. We visited the M&M store, the Disney Store and saw where Brendan’s friend would be performing in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Then it was time for Bren to get ready for his audition. While he was at the audition, Aidan and Chris went to the Nintendo store/museum and the Lego store. Bren did great and was invited to a call back later in the afternoon. While we waited we had lunch at the Had Rock Cafe.

Bren wasn’t chosen as one of the final two kids, but he still had a lot of fun meeting other kids and rehearsing lines with a British accent. We rested up a bit and then got ready to head out to Kinky Boots.

We had great seats and Bren got a T shirt. At intermission he asked if we could go to the stage door to possibly meet actors. It was the first weekend one of the leads was performing and he recognized another of the actresses from Peter Pan Live. Chris and I agreed and went outside after the show- only to surprise him by getting in the line to go back stage! After seeing my post about going, Wendy (Show Boat’s choreographer), contacted an old friend in the cast to show us around! Again I say, never underestimate how kind people are.

What a time we had! We met several actors (including the one Bren was hoping to see). Bren learned how to do a “proper stage bow” from one of the leading actors, and he compared notes with one of the Angels about his drag performance and Brendan’s Audra costume. Plus we looked around backstage and saw sets and props.  How lucky for this to be our first time at a Broadway show! And what a show it was! It was so good, had a great message and we’ve been listening to the soundtrack since!

We took a family picture in Time Square to remember our quick trip. All of us couldn’t believe how much fun and how exciting the weekend was. We left early Sunday morning to head back home and decided we would make this kind of trip again!