Country Goes to Town

Mike and I hit the jackpot with a trip to Ft. Worth this weekend for the 50th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards!

It's fun to get a little gussied up and go out without the kids every once in a while.  We rarely have the chance, so we were relishing our "date weekend" [even though it was a work trip for Mike]. 

Excited to be on the bus from our hotel in downtown Ft. Worth to Cowboys Stadium AT&T Stadium JerryWorld in Arlington for the show.  :)

We've been to AT&T Stadium for sporting events, but this was the first concert, and it made the stadium look even more massive.  There were a million people there.... and even though we dressed up, we saw everything from jeans and tennis shoes to cowboy tuxedos to long sequined gowns.  Country goes to town really brings in all sorts of kinds... ;)

We had seats up high and pretty far from the stages, so we watched the jumbotron a lot.  Everyone sounded great singing, but the sound system was really hard to hear when they were talking.  Melissa and I liked listening to all the different country acts -- SO fun!

#ACMawardsselfie

And I FINALLY got to see The King live.  I was pumped!  He was the best performance, next to Alan Jackson's end-of-the-show tribute of "Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?" and Little Big Town's "Girl Crush."

Dr. Pepper bought our group tickets to the after-show All Star Jam!  Robert, Melissa, Mike, and I went and had an even better time than at the show.  We were able to walk around and get closer to the stage.  We saw Rascal Flatts, Hunter Hayes, and Thomas Rhett (my fave)!  It was freezing cold and windy with a cold front blowing in, so we didn't stay for the entire concert.

Saturday night, Dr. Pepper rented out the entirety of Billy Bob's - Texas' largest dance hall.  We had AMAZING front-row VIP seats for Montgomery Gentry and Darius Rucker.  But wait.... there's more: Darius brought on surprise guests Easton Corbin and Clint Black. CLINT BLACK.

He sounded live just like he does on a recording -- so good! 

And Darius, Easton, and Clint all three sang Hank Williams, Jr.'s "Family Tradition" at one point. I die.

The show was actually delayed about two hours when a terrible storm knocked the power out.  Yes, we sat in Billy Bob's in the dark for two hours.  But they had cold beer and we were under a Tornado Warning, so we all stayed and talked.  The power came back on about the time Mike flew in from Minnesota, and the show went on.  And what a GREAT show it was.

We could not have done any of this without last-minute help from our amazing friends and family.  We didn't think the trip was going to work out, but the Leevers saved the day and drove up from Houston to help us out.  I got to hang out with the little Leever nuggets on Friday night, and then JH & Kayla kept all the boys on Saturday night.

Then Brad and Destiny kept the boys for us on Sunday afternoon/night, and got them to school for us on Monday morning.  Truly. Amazing. Friends.  That made six crazy kids ages 8 and under they had to get up and ready and to school before 8:00 am.

Back to reality for the rest of the week with work, school, and volunteer activities, but it was nice to walk to the red carpet for the weekend.