On the Road Again

April 20th was a BIG night for the Kempers. It was our first concert!

We told the kiddos on Easter that we had tickets to see Willie Nelson and the count down began. Nick was the most excited. He asked me if he could make a poster that said "Willie Rocks!" As funny as I thought that would be I had to say no, the concert was not at the right venue for signs.

Kevin has always been a Willie fan, I also enjoy his music. I can give a lot of credit to Lyle and Ashleigh for our little Willie fans. They gave us Guitar Hero World Tour which has "On the Road Again" on it. We all know the words to that song by heart because of Guitar Hero, and because they liked to hear that song when we were in the car we've listened to a lot of Willie ever since.

The kids were SO excited when he finally came out. I forgot about the warm up bands that play at concerts, and Nick was really irritated that he had to wait an extra hour. If I had planned better I would have arrived later so we would have missed the waits at the door, and then the wait in our seats. But, the wait was worth it to see the kids' faces when Willie came out on stage.

Preston and I played photogs. These pictures were of us taking pictures of each other at the same time.

This is Nick's tired/mad/sad face during the warm up band. The saddest thing for me about the whole night was that after Nick had been SO excited for so long, he fell asleep after Willie had only been playing like 10 or 15 minutes. He slept on my lap until we got up to leave.

Kaydie was not tired, and had a great time. She's the night owl who can stay up for anything.

He started out he concert wearing a ball cap. After a few songs he threw it into the crowd. Then he put on the signature bandana. He had 6 or 7 of them, he would wear one for a bit then throw it to a fan. He didn't talk a lot in between songs, but he played for 1 1/2 hours.

The boys had fun. It was a late night and after a while Palmer had had enough and wnated to go home because he was tired. At 10:15 we could tell the show was wrapping up, and Palmer was claiming to have a stomach ache so we ended up leaving a little early.

See the bandana.

At the end he was out of bandanas.

There were a lot of people who looked at us with funny expressions on their faces when they saw a young family at a Willie Nelson concert. There were not many kids. A lot of people have thought it was funny that we are even fans at all. It's all good. I'm glad we were able to take our kids to see a music legend. I know Willie Nelson is an old pot head, but he is an awesome musician. He is amazing on that guitar. We had a fun time despite the fact the kids were tired and got a little bored towards the end. It will be great memory for them.

I always laugh that my first concert was New Kids On the Block. Lame-o! I think it will be awesome that our kids can say their first concert was to see a legend who was around for decades, even if it was the pot that kept him going for so long!!

The shirt off his back.....

This is our Palmer B.

He did something friday morning that made our hearts happy.

The kids' school color is purple. Every friday is Purple Pride Day, and it is a big deal. The classes all compete to have the most students in purple. We've made bracelets, colored purple stars on hands, bought ribbons for ponytails, and dug out all of Kaydie's purple jewelry so the kids can go as purple as possible. Back in the fall we also ordered school t-shirts to help. Preston and Nick chose grey shirts with purple writing, Palmer went with purple tie-dye, and Kaydie went with solid purple. They all also have a "back-up" shirt for just in case.

Well friday morning the kids were sitting around the table eating breakfast and all of a sudden I hear Kaydie gasp. I looked over and saw that she had spilled her bowl of cereal down the front of her. She was soaked; shirt, pants, the whole bit. She was so sad, worrried that she would be in trouble, then worried about what she could wear; she has outgrown her "back-up" shirt. Without hestitating Palmer told her she could wear his tie-dye shirt that he already had on, and he would wear his other one. After a quick change-a-roo we were all set for school and everyone still had smiles on their faces.

It made mom and dad so happy to see Palmer's generosity, and to see him accept a thank you hug from Kaydie.

I had warm fuzzies friday morning. It was so good to see a little act of kindness from one of the people who can drive me CRAZY and leave me wondering sometimes. I now have something to look back on and give me hope that Kev and I are doing something right the next time those same people do something that makes me want to pull my hair out!