Jimmy Buffett and Two little Parakeets

Not sure how many years ago it was, but your Aunt La and I were forced to learn the chorus to "Cheeseburger in Paradise" before our cousin would let us get out of the car...and if it wasn't for that moment, I'm not sure I would know what a parrothead yet alone parakeet is today. Luckily Aunt La is older than me and at the time she was the one with the jobs and liked to spend the money, so naturally I got  enjoy all of her purchases too! She had quite the Buffett collection of tapes, yes cassette tapes and later moved onto CDs. I spent most of my high school days listening to "Coconut Telegraph" and later on "Love and Luck" was my favorite. By the age of 16 I had turned a handful of classmates onto Jimmy Buffett and convinced them they needed to go to a concert. It might have been my 3rd one at that time, but no concert will be as memorable as the one you two went to with Aunt La and Uncle Agustin. 

Lucky for me, your dad, who has good taste in music, supported me with my interest in Buffett. 

He did everything you could do to make it a perfect/memorable experience. Next time we will get him to fasten a shark fin on our van. 

As far as the concert experience. You two were one of the few parakeets and took to the crowd of 30,000 Parrotheads like you are around crowds every day! 

You enjoyed the beach ball experience and quickly traded your tri colored one for a yellow and pink one. You two soon became the beach ball magnets and I believe you saw more beach balls than you could have ever imagined! 

Once the show started you recognized the lyrics to a few songs and sang and danced along. We lasted for an hour and a half before we pushed through the crowded hillside to make it back to the van. 

Pretty impressive! Julia was recognized by many and we scored some treats on the way back. As were were trudging our way through the muddy parking lot we heard our favorite songs plying in the distance..."Yoda" and "Fins". It was a little sad, not seeing you dance to your favorites. However, I will always remember the original dance party we had in the living room to these songs. Such a special time is this...my two little parakeets, who just melt my heart with their reaction to music. 

"This one's for you" couldn't have been a better name to the concert series! This truly was one for you two. He won't be around when you are hoping to check something off of your bucket list. Thanks for one of the best Saturday nights I have ever had in my life:)

 

Jimmy Buffett tailgate

Our adventure to take the kids to see Jimmy Buffett was pretty smooth. Some people at the concert said we were "brave" while others looked at us like we were crazy. However, the majority of the Parrotheads adored our kids and outfitted them with leis, beach balls, tattoos, bottle caps and jello for the parents!

While waiting to meet up with Aunt La and Agustin we bummed some window paint to spice up our van a bit, and added streamers that didn't quite make it to the park. Nonetheless we arrived with no traffic and parked 20 yards from the "potties". The weather wasn't perfect but it wasn't awful. Not too hot, not too wet and thankfully not too cold! 

Our tailgate consisted of the following:

Cheeseburgers and beer brats

Ribs that we enjoyed at home the following nigh

Corn

Beer, wine, rum Mexican soda and juice boxes

Piñata 

Oreos and snacks galore

Streamers

Mildew bags for the bags game

One wild grasshopper

A baron plane along with a jet from the airshow (all the way from Waterloo) 

Tailgating Prep

I didn't want to live my life wishing I would have taken my kids to see Jimmy Buffett, so I did! We arrived to the wonderful state of Wisconsin on Friday night. We embarked our Jimmy Buffett adventure at the Woodman's grocery store, one that goes on forever mind you, and just so happened to have the candy slot machines at the entrance of it. 

So Jacob spent the next hour holding the plastic case that held a copper ring. This ring was dropped 10+ times or was told it would be taken away if he put it in his mouth again. Needless to say his ring was lost at the checkout, and before we left the store he was able to replace it with another piece of jewelry, a $ necklace, that needed to be taped back together too many times. 

We managed to get out of the store with two happy kids and everything you needed for a cheeseburger in paradise lunch. Jacob was most excited about being dad's grill buddy and Julia was just excited about the assortment of snacks. The kids didn't eat their hamburgers...they did however eat the donuts at the hotel that Todd managed to get three containers of. 

"Where's Jimmy Buffett"- Julia

Our time at the pool Summer 2014

You two just love the water. After a weekend of a hotel water park along with a Jimmy Buffett concert and an air show you were glad to cool off in the pool and not afraid to dive down! It's so nice to have two kids that love the water equally the same. Once again, JULIA is just trying to keep up with Jacob and did everything just as he did. Tonight, you amazed us by trying to dive down as far as you could go. Jacob was pushed down to the bottlm by Todd while Julia received a hair/bang flipping lesson because you spent just as much time getting the hair out of your face as you did under the water:) It was cute nonetheless. 

Sometimes the pool tired you both out. Other times it made you as hungry as a horse and gave you a second boost of energy? Either way it was a great summer in the pool. I can't wait to see what next summer is like. 

Thank goodness we found this hotel with a slide both of you could go down. It wasn't fair that Julia wasn't tall or old enough to go down the one at the falls.