Daddy Daughter Date Night

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to take Kenzie on a daddy-daughter date to see the Utah Jazz take on the Sacramento Kings. It seemed to be fitting since Kenzie's other experiences at ESA were to see Disney Princesses. ;) She was pretty excited as she ran between the giant statues of Stockton and Malone out front, although I am not so certain she knew exactly what she was excited about. Either way, it was great to see her so happy about it.

As soon as we got into ESA, we went to the gift shop to see if we could find a D-Will jersey for Kenzie...sadly, they had none in her size. So what better way to burn a hole in your pocket then at the concession stands...away we went, with Kenz leading the way. Much to my surprise to start the game, all she wanted was popcorn and a water (what???). Albeit the popcorn buckets are pretty big and she did a good job plowing through it during the game, I was expecting her to want nothing but candy, candy, candy.

With food and drinks in hand, and Kenzie wanting to be carried down the stairs as well, some how we made it to our seats and only lost a small portion of our food along the way. It must have worked to our advantage though, because it wasn't long until the Bear came sniffing around and causing trouble for nearby Kings fans. After Kenz caught one glimpse of him, and that he was spraying people with silly string, she became obsessed. If he was out of sight for more than a minute, she would ask me where I thought he was....until he came back into sight again. (I wasn't sure she was going to make it through the halftime ceremony for Hot Rod, because for some reason the Bear went into hibernation during that time much to Kenzie's disapproval).

Since Kenzie was doing much better at the game than I had expected, we decided to get some ice cream. This also helped her get over the fact that the ugly little girl sitting next to us caught a parachute with a Geek Squad t-shirt and did a good job showing it off to Kenzie for a few minutes. It was interesting to see how Kenzie handled it (pretty well), but either way the double scoop of mint chocolate and cookie dough ice cream kept her all but occupied for the majority of the 3rd quarter.

After she had her fill, she got back into the game a little bit more, and thankfully clapped and cheered for the right team at the right times. I think she was very aware of the attention she was getting from people sitting all around us, and decided to ham it up a little bit more for show (which scares me to think of how she is going to be when she is older and in the spot light). All in all, we had a great time watching the Jazz win from 12 rows up from the court. And Kenzie's way of thanking me for the daddy-daughter date was priceless...she asked that I carry her...and run...all the way from ESA to where we parked a few blocks down...because she was cold and, well, cold is just no fun. :)