So as mentioned in the
Father's Day post, we spent Saturday afternoon/evening/night at Arrowhead for Kenny Chesney's No Shoes Nation concert tour. Opening acts included Kacey Musgraves (as in Merry Go 'Round), the Eli Young Band, and the amazing Eric Church! We love us some Eric Church, especially after seeing him
last year in Topeka, and were
way more excited to see him than Kenny.
We went with our friends Ben & Lauren and Mark & Hollyn. I had the genius idea of leaving our three babies (11 1/2 months, 11 months, and 7 1/2 months) with two of my high school babysitters. High school girls are cheap...especially when split amongst three couples...and I figured a little baby socialization would be good! However, as the weekend approached, I got more and more nervous about my "genius" idea. "Can they handle
three babies?" was the thought playing in my head. Over and over again. You should have seen the instruction sheet I left them. It may or may not have been two 8.5x11 sheets taped together, color-coded, and broken down by baby (columns) and topics (rows). I also left them a separate sheet that included an overall timeline of the afternoon/evening
not separated by baby. It may have been a bit overkill, but 1) I'm an over-the-top control freak (that's the math teacher in me), 2) I'm super organized when it comes to that kind of stuff, and 3) each baby has their own "rules" and I wanted to make sure the girls could handle all three with no problems. I'm sure the babysitters thought I was crazy...but they did have me in class all year so they know exactly how
organized freakish I am!
Anyway, we got to Arrowhead around 2:30, met some of Ben's co-workers (who were doing the grilling), set up shop (tents, chairs), had some beers, took some pictures, ate some fantastically-good tailgate food (grilled shrimp, the world's best mac&cheese, the world's best potato salad, chicken kabobs, and other super yummy stuff)....and then the storm clouds rolled in.
According to our weather apps, we were under a thunderstorm warning only (haha I say
only). Based on those clouds, I was surprised. I could have sworn a tornado was going to drop down.
Despite the clouds, it had yet to begin raining. Ben lowed his tent so the wind didn't blow it away. Otherwise, things were still going as planned.
And then, slowly at first, it began raining. A few of us (me included) made a mad dash for the car before it poured. A few others stayed to hold down the tent. Then the sprinkles turned into a steady rain which turned into a downright pour. I was so thankful to be in the car at this point.
Meanwhile, at home in Olathe, it was storming. Bad. I got a text from our neighbor (who knew we had high school babysitters) that said "Power just went out." I thought he was kidding. Because he does that often. And he knew I'd be freaked out. But he wasn't. We exchanged texts with the sitters, who said our power was still on, thankfully. I told them it was okay if they went to the basement. :) I'm not sure if they ever did...
Back at Arrowhead, it was still pouring. And lighting. And thundering. Loudly. And very close. After much convincing, Ben abandoned his tent to take shelter in the car. Here are Mark and Craig dressed in ponchos to go convince him to do so.
The storm finally rolled through and rain slowed. We made our way back to the tent. But first, I stood in line (in the rain, with poncho) for 30 minutes for the port-a-potty. Awesome.
Here we are under the tent.
At this point, it was still raining and we had no idea if the concert was still on. We couldn't get much radar on our phones because everyone and their dogs were trying to do the same. We tossed around the idea of jetting and going to Twin Peaks for some yummy bloody marys (with bacon), but there was no way out of the parking lot.
Back to the car we went since it was still raining pretty hard and COLD! According to the radio, the concert was still on as it was "Rain or shine", but delayed an hour (6 instead of 5). We debated about what to do. Over and over and over again. In the end, we decided to brave the rain and head into Arrowhead. If it sucked, we could always leave, but better to give it a chance than eat the money we spent on tickets.
We missed Kacey Musgraves, but caught the last few songs by Eli Young Band. It had
finally stopped raining by the time we got to the stadium.
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| Yay for no rain! |
Ben & Lauren had seats separate from us so we went our separate directions...us to the near top. #theywerestillseventybucksapiece :( Eric Church was awesome (even from 100 rows up!) and we were glad to have stuck it out.
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| "These boots..." |
Within 30 seconds of Eric Church walking off the stage, it started to rain. Again. One benefit of our nose bleed seats? We could run to the top concourse area covered by an overhang. Here I am saving the dry seats while the other three went to get food. By the way, those seats are empty because they were essentially behind the stage. Despite the rain/storms, Arrowhead was pretty full!
The rain stopped. And Kenny came on stage. And then Lauren texted and said there were seats open by them. Down we marched to our newly upgraded seats! And boy were they an upgrade!
We even decided the $130 per ticket
might be worth it.
Might, I said. Until we have to fork over that money next time.
We left a little early to beat the crowd. The babysitters said they got along perfectly and had all three babes in bed by 9. What a fun day/night it was--even with the rain. It may not have been what we expected (or hoped) for a June 15 concert, but it makes for a memorable story nonetheless!
Here are the pictures we took pre-storm-drama!
One last thing - we realized on Sunday just how bad Saturday's storm was when we noticed all the huge tree branches in our neighborhood that came down!! Worst storm/wind I remember in awhile!
