The Hooks Family: April Fun

April was an incredibly busy and fun month.

Lily had the opportunity to take a Spring Break trip with several friends from school. The destinations changed a few times in the planning phases, but they ended up in Berlin, Prague, Krakow, and Budapest.

Pictured here: Nate Grote, Timmy Johnson, Nate Wilkinson, Lily, Avery Hobson, and Raegan Miley. We couldn't have handpicked a better group of friends to travel with.

We received many food pictures during the trip as they got to try specialties from all these different cities.

We loved when we saw pictures with friends too.

Every so often we got a glimpse of some of the scenery, like the peacock under the tree and the beautiful stained glass.

Here's the whole group with the students including the chaperones (Mr. Proffitt, Mrs. Johnson, Mr. & Mrs. Hobson), Avery's younger brother Liam (he's a friend of the group too, and this let the Hobsons take one big family trip since Liam will be a senior next year), and their tour guide.

I'm so glad Lily got to take this trip with her friends; so many wonderful memories were made!

Mia's spring break was not nearly as exciting as she hung back at home with Ryan. She spent a lot of her time working on her big science project (a nuclear reactor model). It turned out really well and had several moving parts to it. I was impressed.

We made it to the end of tax season! I am so thankful for those who worked with me this year. Dad, Sandy Betts, Stacy Fuson, Anna Michelle Hanks, Mary O'Bryant, and Leah Hedrick.

I love that we carry on the tradition of having lunch on deadline day. Meme always provided that for Dad's office, and Mom has provided it for my office for many years now. It's always so delicious. Rosalyn Carter's cheese ring and crackers, chicken salads (croissants or crackers), fruit, chips, and McEntyre's petit fors. We added in some non-alcoholic champagne this year too. I'm incredibly grateful for the support Mom and Dad continue to provide throughout tax season.

Hannah Hanbury had all the senior girls over for brunch one day. She is one of Lily's most favorite teachers (Spanish), and she truly admires her. The Hanburys also have three absolutely adorable girls who Lily loves to babysit. It was so kind of Hannah to host this brunch for them.

We took our friends, Ethan and Amanda Evens, to the Fox to see the musical Parade. It was absolutely incredible. It told the true story of Leo Frank who was a Jewish man who was put on trial and lynched in 1915. This took place in Marietta, so it hit close to home. I'm a little embarrassed to say I didn't know anything about his story before this. The writers/producers did an excellent job with this. I'm glad we were able to see this and learn this story.

We put together a fun post-tax season trip to NYC. It was a quick turnaround; we left ATL early Friday morning (no school because it was Good Friday) and returned late Saturday night. We started thinking about this trip for a couple of reasons. One, we know graduation is coming up, and we wanted to spend a little more time together beforehand. Two, we learned that Jordan Fischer was going to start performing in Moulin Rouge as Christian. We've tried to get Lily to see him perform twice without success; first was last Spring when she and Ryan had an adventurous one-day trip to NYC while the second was when our family had a weekend in the city in December. We realized this would be his first week in the role though, so surely, he'd be there and performing. And really, we love time in NYC!

We made it up with no issues, and dropped our bags at the hotel in the early afternoon. We walked over to Grand Central Station. None of us had visited this before, and we've always heard how beautiful it is. I love the thought of it bustling decades ago. It was a neat place to go.

We ate a delicious Italian (early) dinner at Sicily, and then walked over to get in line for the show. Ryan and I enjoyed the movie version of this, but none of us had seen the show before, so we were all pretty excited about it.

It was so great! The music is fantastic. Jordan did a wonderful job as Christian, and we loved Solea Pfeiffer as Satine. They had such a great chemistry together which made a lot of sense given they've performed together before. Solea was Euridice when Jordan started playing Orpheus in Hadestown. It was so cool too because Boy George was in the role of Harold. Talk about a blast from the past!

At the end of the show, Boy George came out and sang some of his famous Culture Club songs including Karma Chameleon and Do You Really Want to Hurt Me. We weren't expecting it, but it sure was fun!

Most of the cast did not come out afterwards which kind of stinks, but we were thrilled that Boy George and Pepe Munoz (Santiago) did come out. The girls did get an autograph and picture with Pepe. Boy George was swamped so we didn't get any pictures with him, but Ryan snapped this picture of him signing a boxed Boy George doll. It was a really great evening.

The morning we had a Viator walking tour that went through SoHo, Little Italy, and Chinatown. It was a pretty morning, so this was a great way to spend it.

Our tour guide planned a stop at Eileen's Cheesecakes. They make so many little individual cheesecakes, and they were so yummy! I was really glad for this top. We enjoyed walking through both SoHo and Little Italy. Unfortunately we didn't get to finish the tour in the Chinatown area because we needed to get back to Midtown for our next show.

We were all so excited to be back for The Outsiders! Seriously, this is the best show. We couldn't wait to get back.

We learned something fun at our last visit here. The front row end seat in the middle section is not sold for the show. Pony Boy walks down the aisle and starts the show by sitting on top of the seat and talking/singing. We bought the four seats starting with seat two. Ryan was in that lucky seat! When he finished with that part Brody Grant shook Ryan's hand before he jumped up on stage. So, basically, Ryan's been on Broadway (or so he believes). What a cool experience!

We knew the front row is considered the splash zone for the water and blood that is used in the rumble scene. Lily and I (especially Lily) ended up with several splatters of blood on us. We didn't mind one bit. It was kinda funny though to see others reactions. One lady outside the theater asked if she needed an ambulance. The man getting our checked bags out at the hotel also asked her if he was okay as he eyed Ryan and me suspiciously. We needed to get this off of us though before attempting to go through TSA at the airport; we thought they might be a little suspicious. She and I went up to the front desk, explained we had checked out earlier in the day, had a fantastic experience at The Outsiders, and asked if we could possibly get access to the lobby bathrooms which requires a room key. The gentleman's eyes got pretty wide when he saw the blood on Lily's face, arms, and shirt and quickly agreed. Thankfully stage blood comes off really easily. What a fun memory for this fantastic show.

We were taking the last flight out that evening, and it was scheduled for around 8pm, so we went straight from the hotel to the airport. Rain was coming down pretty good by this point. We could see and hear that many flights were being cancelled because of storms. Flights couldn't get in or out. We just kept thinking "surely an Atlanta based Delta crew wants to get home." Our flight kept getting pushed back...and back...and back. We were starting to make arrangements for home: someone to teach Sunday School for Ryan and someone to come feed and let out Decker. Finally just after 11, we were told the flight was boarding. Somehow and I truly have no idea how, all four of us were upgraded to first class. I was in the very first row, so I could hear everything the flight stewards were saying. They were wondering if the second pilot was going to show up (they had already called in two replacement pilots). We were all praying we could safely get home that evening! Eventually the second pilot showed up, they had already gone through almost the whole safety check, so we were off. By the time we landed and got home, it was just after 3am. But we were home safe and sound, so we were happy! A few hours later we were up and at church to celebrate Easter Sunday. It was a beautiful day to celebrate our risen Savior!

It's always fun to put together little baskets of treats. This year the baskets included candles, spring pajamas, candy, and phone holders for both. Mia also received new sunglasses and some shower steamers while Lily received a small lego set and skin care product she loves.

Thankful for our family as we gathered at Judy's house.

A few other fun April events:

My IT company offered me four tickets to the Braves game one evening. I was more than happy to accept them. The girls had rehearsal that night, so we asked Jeff and Ali Pennington to join us. We had a lot of fun enjoying the Delta Club beforehand, and I'm happy to report we got the win!

Lily and I have made Little Rey's our go-to lunch spot. It's so delicious.

Mia's Spanish class was learning some medical terms, and they had to make an art project that they could use to support the language. Mia drew Satine from Moulin Rouge, and she used it to bring TB into the discussion. I was so impressed with her drawing! She did an incredible job.