End of school, a concert and birthday cake!

Yesterday was our official first full day of summer vacation.  I dropped the kids off at swim practice and raced to the grocery store.  After I picked the kids up and put away the groceries it was time to take Peter to the dentist.  Once that was done, the rest of the day was free (we were supposed to have evening swim practice but thunder canceled that.)  I proceeded to use my free afternoon to do absolutely nothing.

I am hoping to be a little more productive this summer but I think I just needed a little break because this old lady had another busy weekend.

On Friday we had our traditional end-of-school dinner at a Japanese style steakhouse.  My brother has been joining us for the last few years and he came with us on Friday as well.

On Saturday afternoon we headed to Charlotte to see Def Leppard and Journey in concert at the Spectrum Center! As usual, traffic getting to Charlotte was horrible. Between road construction and accidents, a trip that should take an hour and 20 minutes typically takes more than 2 so we made sure to leave extra early.

We parked in a parking garage and walked to City Smoke for dinner and then we walked to the Spectrum Center.  Our seats were pricey and still not very good but we (well me anyway) had a good time.  Dan said it was enjoyable and the kids said they had a good time but none of them were thrilled with it like I was.  In hindsight, I would have taken the money I spent on the kids tickets and upgraded to much better seats for Dan and me. Live and learn.

The place as packed.  It was a sold out show.  Def Leppard went on stage at 7:20 and played for at least an hour and a half and then after a 20 minute intermission to switch out the equipement Journey came on and played until 11:00 or so.

My very first concert was Def Leppard in October of 1988.  I was a sophomore in college at UNC Charlotte and went to see them with a bunch of college friends! Y'all, that was THIRTY YEARS AGO!  THIRTY!  I still don't feel like that could have been thirty years but the math does not lie!

That show was at the new Charlotte Coliseum which had just been built.  And the crazy thing is that "new" coliseum has already been torn down and replaced by the Spectrum center.  So, yes, I guess it has definitely been thirty years. The cool thing about the show then was that Def Leppard was in the round.  The stage was in the center of the coliseum so even bad seats were good seats.

I would give anything to see a picture of me and my friends before that show.  But that was before cell phones and rolls of film were still typically used for special events.  I can only imagine how big my hair was for that concert!!

There was a major accident heading home which closed the highway but luckily we heard about it in time for Dan to take a different way home.  Thankfully he still remembers his way around Charlotte.  We got home at 12:45AM.  Some friends that live near us who got stuck on the highway didn't get home until 2:30!

After Mass on Sunday we went out to lunch with my family to celebrate all of the birthdays - Sarah's, my mom's, my dad's and my uncle's.  After lunch we came back to my parent's house for birthday cake and Sarah unwrapped her presents.

It was a great weekend!  And I'm looking forward to this weekend where we have no plans and can hopefully get some sleep!  I'm such an old lady. :)