Okoboji and Garth Brooks!!!

Oh I have so much fun stuff to catch up on!!! I'd love to skip right to the cute puppy pictures, but in an effort to keep things in chronological order, I'm going to start back a little over three weeks ago to our last night in Okoboji and the Garth Brooks concert!

I had been up in Okoboji with my mom and Grandma for a few days and then Dan and "the kids" joined us on Friday night so we could all take off on Saturday morning for the Garth concert. When they got there, my mom and Grandma had food ready for them (of course) and then we played a few games. We played our new dice game, Tenzi, and then wrapped up the night with a game of Dominos. 

The best part of the night was when Dan ran out to the car to get the Garth CD for us to listen to, and we just happened to place all of the doubles right next to him so he would pick them. He fell right into our trap! He realized what happened on about the fifth domino. Alex caught it on camera and you can watch it here:

We all woke up on Saturday morning to a few inches of snow outside, which made our drive north a little more interesting.

Luckily we had a lot of extra time to make our way up to Minneapolis. There was an accident somewhere along the line and we ended up at pretty much a stand still for an hour and a half. That left a lot of extra time for games in the car!

We played Heads Up for a while during the traffic jam. When it was Dani's turn, she was doing the category where she just had to try to get us to guess the words by just making whatever sound that item makes. We were mean to her and we all were just not guessing anything, so she would be making noises and we just sat there staring at her and laughing. By the end, she figured out what we were doing and thought we were pretty annoying I think, but it made for a good laugh!

You can watch the video here:

Eventually we did arrive at our hotel with plenty of time to shower and some of us even had time to nap for a while since we knew it would be a late night! Jared and Kenzie joined us and then all eight of us headed out for a quick bite to eat and then to the concert!!

The birthday girl! It was nice of Garth to come to the area on her birthday! :)

We arrived downtown around 10:00 and got into line outside of the Target Center. I want to say it took about twenty or thirty minutes to get inside. It was cold outside, but thankfully not too bad! It definitely could have been worse!

We got to our seats by about 10:30 (when the concert was supposed to start) and then just waited for the rest of the thousands of people to join us!

Garth came out on stage promptly at 11:30 and played for about two and a half hours non-stop (except for the few songs that Trisha Yearwood sang alone). He was pretty amazing! Our seats weren't the best, and it was still amazing! I can't even imagine what it would have been like had our seats been just like 5 rows down. A.MAZING!

We sang along to every one of his songs along with the 20,000 other people in the building! It is just such a cool thing to experience! Garth is just crazy and all over the place. He sounded great and had  a great energy and he really didn't make it feel like it was 2 in the morning when he was getting towards the end of the show! :)

I have quite a few videos from the night, but not many that I'm willing to share! My voice is overwhelming in most of them and it is NOT pretty!! Here's the few that I am willing to share though! :)

Here's all eight of us that went! It was such a blast from the time we all met up to the time we got home! I love spending time with family and I'm so happy that we can have such fun and make memories together!

.Rumor has it that Garth is coming to Omaha at some point (he'd better not be lying) and I think we're all ready to do it again!!

Sunday morning we went out for breakfast before we headed out of town and my mom got to experience one of the perks of being 55 just one day into her 55th year! The SENIOR DISCOUNT!! A great ending to our time in Minnesota! 

Happy Birthday to my Mom!!

Today is the best mom in the world's birthday!!

I'm so glad that I get to spend her birthday with her again this year. Last year, we were working hard preparing for the big Birthday Bash, but this year there's a lot less work involved as we're headed north to see Garth in concert!!!

I am thankful for all of the fun times we've had over the years and all of the things I have been able to experience with her and because of her. I know that having her as my mom has made me one of the luckiest kids in the world. She works so hard every day and is such a blessing to everyone around her! She has done so much throughout in her life to make mine (and my siblings' lives) easier! 

She really is superwoman and I'm glad she got to spend the past week relaxing on vacation! 

In honor of us going to Garth tonight, this is a new song by Garth called "Mom" that I think is pretty great. Especially because my mom is pretty great! You can listen to it here. It's a pretty good one, and these are my favorite lyrics

And when she's talking to you make sure you listen close
She's gonna teach you everything you'll ever need to know
Like how to mind your manners, to love and laugh and dream
She'll put you on the path that bring you back to me

I love you, Mommy. 

Thank you for all you've done for us and for helping me become the person I am today!

Iowa State Fair!

This year, my fair experience was fabulous! We got to go both Saturday and part of the day on Sunday there, which made it even greater than normal! :)

Saturday, Trent and I and his parents showed up soon after the fair opened and began looking around. We got some breakfast at the Methodist food stand, looked at some animals, walked past the Clydesdale's, and watched the beginning of a clogging performance. Then my mom and Jared and Kenzie arrived and we all took off through the fair together, beginning at the Green Egg tent.

Then we went to see some animals including, of course, the biggest bull and boar.

Then we went around and walked through the Agriculture Building, rode through Ye Old Mill, watched some of the Bill Riley Talent Show and walked through the Varied Industries Building. All essentials when you're at the fair!

Then, after a full day of fun, Trent and his parents headed home and the rest of us (plus Jocelyn who arrived at about that time) stayed so we could go to the Lady Antebellum concert that night. 

We did find time to eat some more food, ride the tram around, go through a few more buildings on the hill and take a ride on the sky glide before going in to the concert, though!

All 5 of us on the Sky Glide

Before we knew it, we were in our seats and ready for the concert. Both Billy Currington and Lady Antebellum were awesome (of course). We "rocked' out and sung our hearts out the whole concert. It was so much fun!! I'm so glad that we all got to go together!

Here's a few of the videos I took during the concert. Please please excuse the horrible singing that you can hear over the good singing! We were into it just a little bit!!

We all stayed in downtown Des Moines overnight then on Sunday morning I went to early church with a new and good friend, Megan, who was in town from Wisconsin and then to a later service to the church that Jocelyn called home when she lived in Des Moines. It was a great morning! 

All of our family that was in Des Moines met up at Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch and then it was time for my mom and I to head back to the fair! We were there early enough to go to the last few places that we had missed the day before like the DNR building and the upstairs part of the Agriculture building, we even had time to sit and watch a cooking demo in the Varied Industries building, and then it was time to head back into the grandstand for the Styx and Foreigner concert. This night we were in row #5!

The concert was tons of fun. I sang along to all the songs that I knew, but, of course, my mom sang along to every.single.one! Seeing everyone rocking out to every song and getting so into it really made me smile and laugh! And seeing my mom rocking out to the songs from her high school/college days was great. And I'll repeat what I said that night about the "old guys" from both groups - I wish I looked as good in skinny jeans as they do! :) You'll see what I mean in the pictures below! 

It was such a good time and great experience with my mom. I'm so happy that I got to go!

Here's my videos from this concert. Sorry that the bass is overbearing in a few of the videos!

She got a Foreigner guitar pick!

The Iowa State Fair was another success this year! I'm looking forward to next year already :)