Cheap concert, anyone?

A few months ago,

Live Nation offered $20 tickets to a bunch of shows.

We’re enough of Dierks Bentley fans for that!

And we were really excited to see the new Morton Amphitheater

We were supposed to be here last night,

But the concert was postponed because of weather.

Good thing!

There were tornado warnings up here!

Tonight though,

A gorgeous night

(Even though we had to come without Jackson—

He already had plans)

The opener was an oldie—

Ricky Skaggs.

We actually REALLY enjoyed it—

Lots of banjos and steel guitars,

Overall awesome musicians.

In the break,

We ran for some drinks

And needed this cool selfie

And then Dierks came on

ALSO amazing musicians!

It was a great show!

The encore was a little off-the-rails

When Hot Country Knights,

Their country parody band,

Came out.

But they were pretty entertaining…

Just not what we expected for the finale.

Our review?

2 thumbs up,

5 stars,

Would recommend!

 

10 years in the books

Hard to believe

But Mom has been in her program director position

For 10 years now—

That’s a lot of residents to graduate!

Her crew this year will be hard to beat.

 

The Boys of Summer

Tucker’s got quite the crew of friends these days

They are definitely going to make the most of the summer

 

EVERYBODY is back in the water!

Waves season is here again…

And after a 2 year hiatus,

JACKSON IS SWIMMING AGAIN!

Tonight he set a new PR in 100 Free, 1:04.08.

He added a bit in Back (36.77)

And has embraced a new stroke—Fly!

The first time he’s swam it—38.20.

You should see his method—underwater as long as possible

Therefore taking a few strokes as possible.

It’s impressive.

It’s Tucker’s first year with 50s

His first times:

50 Free 36.60 (5th place)

Breast 52.50 (3rd place)

IM (ok, that’s not new) 1:42.31 (4th place)

Beckett had a great first meet

With PRs in everything he swam:

Back 37.87 (over 3 seconds off), 3rd place

Breast 38.90 (0.76 off), 1st place

IM 1:23.26 (1.13 off), 2nd place

Weston had a great first meet too—

He made fly look good on the Medley relay

And he took on Jack in the 100 Free

Jackson let him lead the entire race…

Until the last 15 yards when he pulled ahead.

Weston’s times:

100 Free 1:05.40 (PR by 5 seconds)

Back 32.01 (PR by 2.86 seconds), 3rd place

Breast 40.01 (PR by 1.31 seconds), 3rd place

Great start to the season, boys!

Summer Welcome to Mizzou!

Whoa.

Mom remembers going to Summer Welcome

And it didn’t feel that long ago.

And today it’s Jackson’s turn!

He and his roommate Frank signed up together

There were a lot of activities and people to talk to

And some not-so-exciting presentations

But it all ended at Shakespears so it’s a win overall!

It’s getting real now!

 

Star of the Seas Day 7: A final squeeze-it-in hurrah

We decided to try something a bit different today—

We showed up for Astronaut Training.

It was a team game

Where we had to solve multiple complex puzzles

Racing against time and other teams.

We noticed there were a bunch of star charts around the room

And a few other pictures that looked important

And sent Jackson to take some pictures.

Apparently, we were getting ahead of ourselves 

And Sargent Hannah (the crew member leading the game)

Told Jack he was cheating and sent him to the naughty corner.

He eventually got out

And we all got to work.

We ROCKED that game!!!

Our team (Space Rangers)—

A pair up with another family—

Won the whole thing!

We were a bit disappointed that we didn’t win anything

But these certificates.

It was really fun though.

We spent the rest of the day pool hopping

Before landing at our table

For our last dinner on the ship.

Jackson wanted to make the last night special for Pappo

And went all the way to the hidden dessert shop

To get Pappo a chocolate milkshake

(Because they STILL aren’t included on the drink package!)

That wasn’t the only special drink of the night—

Yulius was determined we should try every drink

He could think of.

There was a lot of sugar running in our systems.

For a final send-off,

The waitstaff “got” to dance.

Mema made it a bit less painful

But jumping up to join them

Wes is clearly impressed.

We hurried through dinner

And ran to our room to change—

We were supposed to go to 

Crown’s Edge tonight,

The “zip line” off the edge of the ship.

Another pop-up sale!

But we found out that it needed some repairs

And was out of commission for the rest of our cruise.

BOOOO!

We needed to mourn for a minute

But we rebounded with a quick duck hunt

And headed to the top deck to watch the sunset…

And try to get a family picture

It took us a minute to get organized

And find the right arrangement

But we got there!

Just the boys

We headed to the Aquadome to watch the

Pirates and Mermaids water show for Thea and Cooper

But the sunset kept calling us back

It was gorgeous

Even after the show,

We stopped to admire for a while

And for something a bit different tonight,

We decided to go pool hopping

And hot tubbing

We stopped by to hear some 

Dueling pianos and karaoke 

And finished the night with,

You guessed it,

Pizza.

I think we checked allllll the boxes.

Vacation, done.

 

Star of the Seas Day 6: Pop-ups, flow-riders, and show-offs

All over the internet,

They talked about laser tag on the Icon of the Seas…

But we never saw it.

So imagine our DELIGHT

When Jack saw pop-up laser tag on the Star for today!!!

It was on the ice rink

Which was pretty ingenious 

We’re ready!

We’re not sure who the best shot was

But we had an awful lot of fun

Running around “shooting people” as Thea likes to call it.

We stopped by the meet-and-greet to see Sailor,

The Star’s resident dog,

In person

And then stopped by to watch a bit of towel folding

Before settling in at the pool

It was a great day to get wet

Or live your best life

With a nap in the shade

We had a few more things to check off the to-do list—

And the Flow Rider was one of them

Jack did a great job,

Getting to his knees

And even playing Rock-Paper-Scissors with the guard

Tuck struggle a bit—

Maybe he was too light?

He would have rocked it with a few more rounds

But no one felt like waiting that long.

We stopped in for some frozen drinks

Before heading back to the pool

With a little persuading,

Weston agreed to “watch” the kids

So the adults could sneak off to our favorite

Swim-up (adults only) bar

Tonight is formal night #2

Which means round 2 of lobster

(And more tails than we could eat!)

And more dinner shenanigans

And getting all fancied up.

Mom thought we looked so good,

We needed a picture.

Pappo did his best to be the “oblivious passer-by”

But we eventually got it done

Then when Mema wanted a picture too,

We returned the “oblivious” favor

Nice pic!

We headed off to Central Park

To hear the strings and brass play a mini-concert

And Wes insisted on taking a picture

Of Mandy and Mom

(You should have seen the 20+ random shots

He took before this one…)

Then it was off to the ice skating show—

The skating was pretty good

But the trick skaters

Were the best part!

Bravessimo! 

We needed just a bit more mini golf

With some tricks of our own

Before shutting down the night

With pub games

And (of course) pizza.

How are we down to just one more day??