Hakuna Matata

Among the many, many reasons I married Wade Watkins is that he likes to provide people with amazing experiences. For example, we took my brother, Garrett, to Disney World when he was around 9. While in Epcot, Garrett looked at Independence Hall and asked Wade if it was the White House. Wade disappeared to make a phone call I’d later learn was to his parents, and, less than thirty-six hours later, Garrett was taking a specially arranged tour of the White House in Washington D.C. In 1998, we were able to take Mom and Grandma on a similar tour. When my friend Amy did the calligraphy on our wedding invitations, as a thank you Wade cashed in frequent flier miles so she could travel to Germany and visit an exchange student who’d stayed with them previously. Before we moved to Belgium in 2002, he arranged for my mom to join us for ten days in the spring and booked rooms at the Grovesnor House in London for her arrival. I could go on and on, but my point is this: yes, the man can be annoyingly frugal at times, but he pinches pennies at certain times in order to be able to afford wicked awesome experiences at others. On Wednesday, he arranged such an experience for Emma. Following lunch in Covent Garden with our dear friend Jamee Majid, we headed to the Lyceum Theatre to catch a production of The Lion King. Wade had purchased tickets in the sixth row and was sure to get them on the aisle. I wish you all could have seen Emma’s face as the animals passed right by her en route to the stage, but I’m glad you didn’t see me jump nearly wetting myself when the hyenas passed by near the middle of the production and turned to growl at us! The actors who played young Nala and “grown up” Nala were phenomenal; Scar was appropriately disturbing, and Zazu was simply spectacular. It was an afternoon that will be remembered by all of us for quite some time.