9/11 in July...

No, I'm not referring to THAT 9/11... I'm referring to my 9/11, my birthday. I told Derek a while back that I really wanted to go to a concert at the Gorge again - I have only been twice and not since college and it is such a beautiful place to see a live performance. (If you have no idea what or where the Gorge is, go here... then be jealous that it's only a hour from my house =]) Anyway, Derek gave me two choices for concerts for my birthday present - Dave Mathews Band or Kings of Leon. Now, had it been between ANY other two choices, I would have picked DMB, no doubt in my mind, but I have been dying to see KOL and this was my chance!! So, he booked tickets as close as we could get - row 17, which was just about perfect.

Saturday morning Derek came in and asked if I wanted to make a day of our outing and go see a movie in Ellensburg and go get Pita Pit (my FAVORITE lunch spot) and of course I said yes... This was the first time I'd be away from Addison overnight (gulp!) but since we didn't expect to be home until after 1am, it was easier for her to go stay with Derek's parents. We dropped her off around 11am, said our goodbye's (mine tearfully), and then headed north. The movie theater wasn't open when we got there so to kill 20 minutes, we wandered around Bi-Mart (oh the joys) and bought some random things for the house (and a polka dotted lunch box for me!). We had decided to see Inception and it was so worth it! I really liked it, even though I was super confused for the first ten minutes or so... but it ended up being a great movie. After the movie we had lunch at the Pit and then headed for the Gorge.

The weather was perfect for a concert - sunny, about 90 degrees, and enough wind to keep you from over-heating.

I think that buying drinks at concerts rivals Las Vegas as far as price is concerned but I did get a very tasty margarita in a fancy schmancy guitar glass... and it was HUGE. Don't worry - I drank the whole thing so it was worth the money ;)

Me and my trusty drink in front of the stage...

The place was packed... and as is the case with any concert we saw all sorts of interesting things... a whole group of guys dressed in neon green and black spandex wrapped in Canadian flags, freaks and geeks of every make and model, the fake boobs on the girl behind us when she pulled them out to let some guys snap a picture, more tattoos than I can count, someone getting dragged out by four security guards, and loads of other fun stuff... See that guy in the plaid shirt in the picture below... he was paying the girls in front of him to flash him... good time. :)

The view from our seats during the first two performances. The opening acts were The Features and Built to Spill. They were alright but they were nothing compared to KOL!

Kings of Leon on stage!!!!

(All of my pics were taken with my phone, so sorry that they aren't the best quality. I recorded a couple of video clips too, but they sound pretty awful with everyone screaming. Here is a video from YouTube of one of my favorite songs of the night...)

I had so much fun last night and I am so thankful that we got to do something special and fun for my birthday this year... last year was a bugger because I was in Labor and Delivery on my birthday and it wasn't a very fun party. I'm not gonna lie though... getting up this morning and getting over to pick Addison up was the highlight - I missed her so much! I even slept with one of her stuffed animals so I could smell her all night. This was the first time that I have gone to sleep without holding her and cuddling her since she was born and it was tough. However, we all survived and it showed me that I can leave her overnight without exploding or having a meltdown. That being said, I rocked her to sleep tonight and breathed in that sweet baby shampoo scent and loved every second of it... going out once in a while is fun - but every thing I want and love is right here at home. =]