I love concerts, but with tickets ranging anywhere from $75 to $200 these days (not counting babysitters and parking and everything else that isn’t included), my concerts are limited to few and far between.

Rewind two years:  I heard that Garth Brooks was going to be touring and doing concerts at select venues around the country.  I told Ed that if he ever came near us, he was one person I would pay to see.  One reason, I love his music and grew up slow dancing to “The Dance”, loudly singing “Friends in Low Places”, saying amen to “Unanswered Prayers”, and very poorly keeping up the lyrics of “Ain’t Going Down (Til the Sun Comes Up).”  Second reason, I hate going to concerts and hearing songs I don’t know and can’t sing along with, but I knew that his would be classic, full of really good songs, and well worth the money.  Third reason, he was touring with his wife, Trisha Yearwood, who I also love.

Rewind one year:  Garth was coming to concert in Greensboro, NC, but we had something else scheduled during this same time and there was no way I could back out (uh…I mean reschedule) on it.  So, I passed up free tickets, listened to everyone rave about how good he was, and sulked a little.

Rewind six months:  I heard Garth was coming to Raleigh, NC and tickets were going on sale.  After lots of calls to friends and lots of valuable time spent on Ticketmaster and my husband offering to help pay for our tickets as birthday presents to each other, we scored Garth concert tickets!  Only catch, the concert was the night after we returned from NYC on Spring Break.  No biggie, right?

Well, we returned from Spring Break absolutely exhausted and on the drive to the concert, Ed and I commented to each other that we may have to work hard to make sure the other didn’t fall asleep.  Little did we know, this was no problem at all.  The concert was absolutely AMAZING!!  I have been to quite a few concerts in my life, Kenny Chesney being one of my highest ranked because he is quite an entertainer, but Garth definitely topped even that.

He played for a solid two hours and belted out hit after hit after hit, and even played for 40 minutes after he left the stage the first time.  Trish also didn’t disappoint and I loved seeing them interact with each other.  And when a band has played and toured together for over 20 years like they have, something just fits.  Seriously, who has the stamina to do the moving around that he did for that long?  I. Can’t. Imagine.  He sang songs that people requested in the audience (impromptu, might I add) and even gave a little boy his guitar and pick because the boy asked him to wish his dad a happy birthday (he told the boy that it was a gift because he asked for something for someone else and that was the best thing he could ever do).

And even better than just the concert?  Getting to go with awesome friends.  We are so thankful to have shared this really fun memory with ya’ll…thanks for making it so fun…couldn’t have imagined doing it with anyone else!  Lets do it again soon, okay?