Jack Johnson

Way back at the beginning of October (time is flying SO FAST lately), we did a "one last hurrah" trip with Haley over to George to see our favorite, Jack Johnson, perform at the Gorge amphitheater. Tickets were purchased back in June as an anniversary gift to me. At the time, I thought that October was SO FAR AWAY. I should have known better. I had a 3 month old then. I have a 7 month old now. Did I even blink? Silly me. I have to be honest, in those first several months of "figuring things out" as a new parent to 2, those Jack Johnson tickets really gave me something to look forward to - an "escape," if you will. Any time I was exhausted, sleep-deprived, in-need-of-a-shower (which fairly accurately describes most of my days), those tickets danced around in the back of my mind and made me giddy with anticipation. On several occasions, I even got excited that I might be able to shower before the concert.
Well, it happened. We went, and you'll be happy to know that I was in fact able to shower before the concert. Such a fun group - Jason, Haley, Ember, and I. We partied hard, listening to conference on the drive over from our phones. Have I mentioned that I love technology?

We even stopped on the way there and filled our car with 20 pounds of Honeycrisp (aka Nectar of the Gods) apples for $15 for a friend. Can you believe that price? We laughed, sang, danced, and snacked on hummus and crackers the whole way there. To be honest, we could have headed home once we got there, and the trip would have been completely worth it. It was one of those moments in life where everything just felt happy and perfect - like we were right where we were supposed to be. I was more "high off of life" on that day than I had been in a long time. I can't say that life was the only thing that our fellow concert attendees were high off of, but we had a really wonderful time regardless. You can't beat watching that sunset, over that gorge, with those people, all the while being serenaded by Jack's sweet like honey voice and delicate guitar strummin'. When I think of the elements that make up a perfect summer/verge-of-Fall day, that day had just about all of them...minus having Reagan there, as I did miss her.
Concerts make for prime people watching, which we did a lot of. I love watching people let loose and let the rhythm take over their bodies, or as Jack would say "move like a jellyfish." My reasons for loving this are two-fold. 1) Man, there are some confident people out there. 2) It helps me to let loose also. I love it. One woman came up to us with her son who was about 5 or 6, and commented that her son was Ember's age when they went to his first Jack Johnson concert. She seemed like a very conservative mom-lady. But boy, was that first impression wrong. As soon as the sun went down and the lighters went up, this lady, mom-jeans and all, was up at the front, just singing and dancing like it was nobody's business. Her son was nowhere to be seen (worried? Maybe.) as she moved and grooved to the soulful tunes. Some of her dance moves were totally risque' too, and she was sharing 'em with the world! I was loving it. Haley and I even got up next to her and busted a few moves...nothing too risque', as my daughter was watching. We had so much fun, and our sides hurt from laughing so much and so hard. I had tears in my eyes, some from laughter, but some because it was just such a beautiful day to spend with my sister, my daughter, and the love of my life. There is something about good music that just magnifies the love and beauty all around us. A memory for the record-books.