Concert #2

Saturday morning was rough....we were up too late and might have had a few too many adult beverages....but we powered thru and picked up the girls about 10:30 and headed home. Steve had energy when we got home so he unpacked the car and I head to take a nap!!! I slept from 11- 2 pm and that is completely what I needed! He had taken the girls downstairs so that it was quiet for me upstairs. Then I gave him a chance to take a nap. The girls and I hung out in the basement playing games and such until about 3:30 when we needed to get ready for the night. Brittany came over about 5 pm to watch the girls and Steve and I headed to Gilroy's for dinner.

We headed over to the concert...the seats weren't like Metallica but they were still good!

Overall, I love Tim and Faith and I knew this was going to be a more slow going concert. However, I feel like they missed the mark with this concert. Faith sang way more than Tim did and Tim had SO many songs that we wanted to hear and didn't. It was good, but I wouldn't go again....unless it was just a Tim McGraw concert and not all the lovely-dovey blah blah stuff. :)

Concert #1

Over the last 6 months I have bought tickets to 3 concerts that all fell on the same weekend. So I was prepared to be tired and have fun and not feel too old! :) Metallica was this years concert for The Native Fund, and of course, we have to support the cause. Neither of us are real Metallica fans but I knew they were a VERY popular band and that it would be a good show and a concert that I will never experience again. Since they announced this concert Steve and I started listening to Volbeat (one of the openers) and I really like them!! So many of our friends were going, we had the hotel room booked, the day off work and the tailgating situation ready!

 

We slept in Friday morning, packed up the car and kids and dropped them off at my parents for the night! We ran to Walmart in Altoona for a couple things and then had an early lunch at Spectators, we really like it there, good food and cool atmosphere! Then we headed on the drive to Newton, we got checked into the hotel about 1 and then headed to tailgate when the gates opened at 2. 

 

Slowly but surely our friends started joining us, the weather was hot but the breeze made it not too bad! So many friends that we hadn't seen in so long, it was a good time just socializing and such for a couple hours before the concert started at 6.

Brock had this shirt made for our friend Kyle who helped make this concert happen.

No Steve, your muscles are NOT as big as Brocks!

VOLBEAT! Our clubs seats were nice and we knew so many people sitting around us!

Then we happened to know someone with a box seat and got tickets to join them up there...free beer too! This was during Avenged Seven Fold? (who we don't really know)

Ashton and Dallas spoke on stage for a couple minutes about The Native Fund.

When Metallica started we stumbled upon some VIP front row tickets (it helps to know people!) So Steve and I were literally right in front of Metallica! (Note, this was NOT the general admission area where people were pushing and shoving and crowd surfing!)

It was a great show and everything worked out perfectly for us....except the 45 minute drive around Newton to get back to our hotel. We went to bed way too late but it was worth it!

Busy Bees

So after our girls day last Monday the week remained busy....Tuesday was Presley's first day of summer KTC...the first day is always a struggle for her. She cried and didn't want to go, ugh it's so hard to see her struggle like that.
Steve was able to take them to swim lessons, Piper went under the water and didn't cry this time, so that was good. She negotiated and talked to her teacher the entire time, trying to be the boss of the teacher I'm sure! He was super impressed with Presley's swimming, like I was!

Wednesday they were supposed to have dentist appts but I cancelled those b/c our afternoon was going to be crazy and getting out of work for both Steve and I right now is not easy. Presley went to Pump it Up that day and Piper had water play day at Generation Next. THEN they had swim lessons from 4-4:30 and then they had gymnastics! (we feel like those parents that have really busy kids, but we really don't!) Steve took them to both (so thankful for his flexibility and willingness!) and then I met them at gymnastics when I got off work. Once I got there, he ran to the grocery store b/c we had minimal time before our weekend.
I LOVE watching the girls doing gymnastics! They are always looking around to see if we are watching them and I don't want to miss anything they do! Piper's class is 45 minutes long and Presley just got moved up classes so now hers is 1.5 hours....we haven't told her that yet, maybe she won't realize it! Shhhh......by the time we got home it was after 6:30 and we hadn't had dinner or baths yet. Long afternoon and evening for them!

Thursday Presley was happy that she was able to go to grandma's instead of KTC and then I left work early to take them to swim lessons. I love watching how far they had come even since Monday, Piper was going under (very hesitantly) and Presley was learning to dive. Just amazing! Steve had the opportunity to go to Newton to help with the set up of the Metallica concert! So the girls and I had our night together, got their bags packed for grandmas on Friday and then when they were in bed I worked!

On the work front...the short but sweet version...we are very busy, at least for couple months..... overtime galore and just trying to keep afloat while doing all the other summer time fun stuff we have planned. The busy time is short-lived (along with my future in this position and department unfortunately) so I'm just trying to make some money, do my job and not worry too much about what the future might bring. Thankfully I can do some of this overtime from home after the girls go to bed so I don't miss everything that goes on in the evenings.

 

Girls Day

Presley's first day of summer and there usually isn't any daycare option, so for the last couple years I have been making it a girls day for us! We slept in and slowly made our way out of the house to have brunch on the patio at Mullets. The weather was perfect, the girls were good and they ate a majority of their food! #winning!

After that we headed to the zoo, I thought for sure it would be busy but just like Adventureland, it wasn't! So it was perfect!

Piper has been talking about riding a horse b/c someone in her class takes horseback riding lessons, she has always been scared so I told her that she could ride a camel at the zoo! Both Presley and Piper were totally pumped and psyched themselves up to ride a camel, I bought 2 tickets for them to ride together and they both chickened out! So I knew, I was going to have to ride this damn thing. I convinced Presley to ride with me, she was nervous, she was scared but she overcame that and rode on the camel with me (which literally takes like 60 seconds total). (Photo credit to Piper!)

Once we were done, Piper said she would ride with me! Seriously? I couldn't say no, so I bought two more tickets to ride Holly, the camel! (Photo credit to Presley)

Piper had been talking about getting her face painted since she did it last year when we went to the zoo! Presley again, too cool or too old to do it this year....whatever, saved me $5! :)

I couldn't convince them to feed the giraffes but they did like the 6 month old baby giraffe!

My monkey!

Piper is too short to ride the merry go round by herself, so I had to ride also (I hate rides that go in circles, but I took this merry go round and showed it who was boss!)

We stopped for ice cream on the way home and got home about 2:30...and got reorganized, chilled out for bit and then headed to swim lessons!  We are trying a new private place for lessons that was recommended by our friend Sarah. Both girls have their very own teacher and I was worried about Piper would do b/c they make you go under water and she HATES it and refused to do it!

First of all, on our way there the girls were arguing over who would get a boy teacher b/c neither of them wanted a boy! Well Presley got the boy...and she was fine with it. Presley has been kicking ass in swimming since a year ago she would've drown and didn't know how to swim at all! She is doing SO good and learning so much already! I can say that she can officially swim!

Piper got in the pool but then started crying for me. They put her underwater, mouth wide open, in the middle of crying....and that made her freak out more. They did it again. I was hiding behind another dad there b/c I didn't want to see her and I didn't want her to see me! She was calling for me, telling them she had to tell me something...they didn't buy it of course and warned her that if she didn't stop crying they would go under water again. She stopped. But she complained to her teacher for the next 20 minutes about it! So overall I'm happy with the lessons there!

After swim lessons we met Steve at El Mariachi (two nights in a row for me, don't judge, it was his idea), we got a table outside and just enjoyed the last of girls day!