Catch Up: Music and Family

Alright, friends. Things have gotten serious.

I'm so far behind in blogging. Like really. So, it's time to catch up. I'm gonna bust out a bunch of blog posts in the next few days to get up-to-date. I know what your thinking. You're doubting my ability to actually post lots of posts within a few days. Well, I don't blame you. But I'm really going to try my best.

Way back in the day, summer was in full swing and we were totally enjoying it. My dad's band, The Long Run, which has made multiple appearances on my blog, played at Rhythm on the River in Longmont. I love Longmont and rivers and music, so we were SO there.

Yay for Eagles music!

The crowd LOVED them. They even played TWO encores!

I dragged Rachel along because she also likes music and rivers and such. I keep exposing more people to the awesome music of Colorado's Tribute to the Eagles!

A few days later we went continued the music theme and went to see Ben Folds!! Again!! We love him.

Excited!

He played at the Ogden, so it was a pretty intimate venue. And he completely rocked. Seriously.

Plus, he had an awesome tambourine player. He played many other things, too, but when he took center stage for the tambourine solo, it was hilarious.

So dramatic!

Back in July, my family gathered in Arkansas for our big family reunion. Sadly, Matt couldn't come, but at least he let me take the new car! My mom, Jess, four of my nieces, and I caravanned across four states.

On the road. It took lots of stops, jello, and stickers to get the little one through it. But she was pretty good!

It just so happened that our trip coincided with the release of the final Harry Potter film. Now, I am a HUGE fan of HP, as are my sisters and nieces. But Belle (my second eldest niece) is completely obsessed. Freakishly obsessed. Because she just graduated from high school, she's drawn all sorts of parallels between the end of HP and the end of her childhood. In fact, she considered not even going to the reunion in order to make sure she saw the movie at midnight. After we made her feel really bad about that thought, she ended up making the right decision. And I decided she deserved to still get to see the movie.

We bought tickets for the midnight showing in Wichita, KS (we were halfway to Arkansas on the night the movie came out). Jess and I took Belle and Hannah, and in many ways it was a very appropriate end to the series. After all, it was Jess and I who first introduced the books to the girls YEARS ago. We were all very excited to see the end.

Aah! It's a poster! Hooray!

The girls getting SO into the movie! (Ok, not really. I'm obviously not going to take pictures during the movie. They were just pretending.)

I made fun of the girls for getting so excited, but I ended up crying like a crazy baby throughout the whole thing. It was pretty awesome.

The next day, we continued our trip to Arkansas. While we were out there, we stayed in a CRAZY house with lots of weird features.

Empty closet with 20 random spools of thread on nails, a skylight covered with a picture of the sky, and a boarded-up doorway with the writing "Do Not Push" written on it.

But it was a nice big house that fit lots of our extended family. It allowed us lots of visiting time!

Saturday was the big reunion day!

The music that is always a tradition at our reunions. Granny and Aunt May dancing!

We separated into the music group and my generation of cousins, who were more concerned with chatting and catching up.

As usual, it was great to visit with family who we don't get to see very often. And I always love seeing my grandpa play his guitar!

The rest of the week was spent visiting with family... And playing with kitties...

Stray kittens we found outside our rental house. So cute!

Playing at Granny and Grandpa's, visiting with family.

And of course, no trip to Arkansas is complete without a trip (or two) to Ferguson's!

Awesome.

Belle, Hannah, and I had to get home a few days early, so we were off for the long drive home alone. It was fun to chat with Belle about he impending departure for college (more on that in a later post) and talk to Hannah about school. Quality aunt-niece time! But I'm always sad to leave Arkansas and the family who I don't get to see often enough!