After a quick stop at their house, we headed to the concert. Thanks to Dave's handy dandy GPS on his new i-phone (we could actually see a dot that was us, moving on the screen towards our destination!) we took a back way to the concert and parked in a lot that was much easier to exit from after the concert. Then Dave fired up the grill, and the boys fixed brats and burgers while we listened to a little Jack on our car stereo and enjoyed the BEAUTIFUL weather. Mid-70s, just a little rain before the show, but clear skies for the entire concert.
Here's a few pics of us during the concert:
It was an awesome concert; he played almost all the songs we wanted him to, and our seats were great! Plus, as I said earlier, we had a sweet parking spot and didn't have to wait an hour and a half in line to leave like we did at a concert in St. Louis last year. So it was a GREAT evening, from beginning to end.
On Saturday, Dave and I went to see my brother Thomas' new apartment right by the Plaza. He is going to UMKC, and just moved to a new place; Dave left me and Thomas to hang out for the afternoon, and he headed back to Garry/Heather's to get ready to go to the Chief's preseason game Saturday night.
It was great to just hang with Thomas for the afternoon. At 22, he's the youngest of my siblings; I was 15 when he was born, so he grew up without really getting to know us older siblings. I definitely feel like as he gets older we're growing a little closer, and it was a great weekend to just catch up and talk about life. We ate lunch at Tomfoolery's on the Plaza, then indulged in some ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery. After that we headed back and watched a movie at his place, and then headed back to north KC to meet Heather and some other friends at a local bar. I was really glad Thomas came with me, I know my friends really enjoyed hanging out and getting to know him. Now he has another group of friends in KC that will be there if he ever needs anything.
After a couple of cocktails and some catching up with friends Brent and Laura, then Thomas, Heather and I headed home to hang out and the kids and wait for Garry and Dave to get home. We enjoyed some yummy appetizers, and the ribs that Garry had smoked earlier in the day for their tailgating at the game. Then I rocked in our impromptu music trivia game; Garry is THE MAN when it comes to music, but I beat him good on a couple of questions. Believe you me, I took the opportunity to capture the moment:
Garry and Heather's son, Christian, is 14 and chose to hang out in his room, as teenagers sometimes prefer to do. But their daughter, Ryleigh, hung out with us while we visited and played music trivia- she takes after her dad, and loves music too.
We slept in Sunday morning, then all went to eat lunch at O'Dowd's at Zona Rosa before heading back to Springfield. We were tired when we got home Sunday night, but the weekend was certainly worth us feeling a little run down at the start of the work week. Looking forward to hopefully seeing Garry and Heather in October for the 2nd annual Eureka Springs houseboat trip.
Now I have to close and post some cuts to my budget for work. I probably should have taken care of that BEFORE blogging, but would much rather talk about the fun stuff in life than have to deal with the downside of budget constraints. But duty calls, so off I go.
