The Chicks (IL State Fair and the Girls First Concert)

Back, I don't even know how many month, Erin sent me an Insta post for advance tickets to see the Chicks at the Illinois State Fair.  She didn't have to twist my arm to figure out how to make it happen.  We got pre-sale tickets for Mom/Dad, Erin and the 4 of us to see the concert and little did we know that that was the beginning of one of my favorite weekends of the summer.

Now, I fully recognize the insanity of booking plans MONTHS in advance, but here's the thing, it works for us and we are able to do exactly the things we want....if you start planning early.  I've said it a million bazillion times.  Being ahead of everyone else is the key to getting exactly what you want.  We scored advance tickets and that meant that we were able to research and submit our applications to camp right in the fair grounds (on the day the applications opened).  That meant we were able to pull our campers right into the fair grounds and walk our little booty butts right from our cool, air conditioned campers into the fair for however long we wanted to be there and then we could walk right back down, let the dogs out, grill/cook whatever we wanted to eat, drink our free drinks and do it all on our timeline.  It was amazing!  
 

We had the best time at the fair.  We saw the butter cow, watched a gnarly car crash on the race track less than 40 feet from us (I was actually worried we were in danger of being hit by debris), we ate funnel cakes, had lemonade shakeup, we rode the ski-tram, pet rabbits and baby piglets (that were less than 3 days old!!!).  We ate ice cream, drank beers, had BBQ and paid $6 for waters.  The kids fished (odd side event) and both won 2/3 raffle prizes!  But, the best part of the whole thing was undoubtedly the concert.  I knew the words to every single song and I was living my best life.  It was the most fun weekend, albeit shorter than we wanted, thanks to color guard and football Friday's, but I'll get used to that.

Truly, this was a 10/10 weekend and I'll be scouting the music lineup for next summer for sure.  I wish the concert would have been on the front end of the fair instead of the back end though.  Most of the animals were already packed up and gone by the time we got there Saturday early afternoon.  The fair had started the weekend before and most of the competitions and shows were already completed.  We didn't get to see the animals or all of the crafts and other entries into the fair but we know enough now to know how to do it better the next time we go!

Figuring out how to navigate the camping reservations was a real special treat but we know more now that we've been.  Mom and Dad got there on Friday and picked to camp in an area called Happy Hollows which put us on a paved area, and the closest camping to the fair grounds (not our normal preferred location...but it was perfect for what we were trying to do).  I'd propose we try to get right in that spot again next year if we could.

The fair was great, but by far, the best part of the weekend was the concert. It was perfect.  We had great seats....lucked out with extra seats around us (enough room for Hazel to fall asleep across 3 spots), the bleachers had backs, we were row that was the first row of the section, meaning nobody in front of us...and we bought seats with 4 in one row and 3 behind so we were stacked and could easily talk etc.  

I knew the words to every single song, sang my heart out....and even had a tear or two when they say Wide Open Spaces (that was unexpected...somehow I was immediately transported back to high school and transported forward in time to seeing Abby leave for college.  I was some how myself as a teenager, my mom saying bye to me...and me saying bye to Abby.  It was a real trip and I'm even a little emotional just typing it!  4 more summers.  That's all we've got before Abby leave for college and things change forever.  Gosh...who knew this summer would be so introspective and transformative for me.  Turns out sending your oldest to highschool is a real milestone.  I didn't expect it!

And, in a real juxtaposition, I've got Abby headed to high school and that childhood flashing before my eyes and then look to my left and I've got sweet Hazel, 11 years old and falling asleep in the bleachers at the concert.  I guess that's why you have 2 or more kids...so you've always got a little one at home!  One who can still be the "baby" of the family.  Haze made it through about 2/3 of the concert but she didn't make it all the way to the end and she 10000% missed Goodbye Earl - the closing song of the night, obvi!

Top 1 night of the summer so far! This one is going to be hard to beat.  I think we've peaked....Summer is turning to Fall and I know there is good ahead, but in this moment, we revel in the best night of the summer.