The Featherston crew once again rocked the night away – country style.  We attended the Southern Voice Tour concert of Tim McGraw – the 4th time Linda and I have seen him in concert.  This was the first time Anna and Emily got to see him live.

The concert first opened with the group Love and Theft, a standard country rock band with good music.  They played 5 songs for the first 20 minutes in an effort to get the Sprint Center audience in the mood for some awesome music.

Next – a real treat – was Lady Antebellum.  This was our second show with this very talented trio (they opened for Kenny Chesney last year).  They played for almost an hour and really had the crowd rocking and ready to go.

Then…there was an hour delay before the Tim came on stage.  I kept thinking, “Maybe I can go get a drink while we’re waiting”, but you know how it is – as soon as you get up, the concert starts without you.

While waiting, however, there was a film crew on stage that filmed audience scenes for an upcoming movie Tim McGraw has with Gwyneth Paltrow, “Love Don’t Let Me Down”.  So – at least we are now film extras – a small price to pay for an hour delay.

When Tim came on stage – it was almost 2 hours of excellent country music.  We sang, danced, and had an absolute blast!  He sang so many favorites, Linda put it best – “It’s just like driving down the road in my car”.

Here’s hoping the next time we see Tim McGraw, it’ll be with his wife, Faith Hill.  We’ve seen them together twice and that makes for some awesome duets.

Emily asked the other day if I could post another “Blast from the Past”.  So – Emily, this one is for you.

The picture above is taken in August of 2002 at the Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead here in Overland Park. This is a small 12-acre municipal farm/park that has over 200 animals & birds, gardens, fishing pond, playground, one-room school house, and pony rides.  The park is named after the first Overland Park police officer to die in the line of duty.

When the girls were preschool age, Linda would take the girls to Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead a lot – it was free!  The girls would get to pet and feed goats, slide on big slides, see big peacocks, and get to play with the water pump.  They would spend hours at the water pumps if we’d let them.  The device you see above has a circular system in it – as the kid pumped water into the bucket, it emptied down a hole in the bottom of the bucket and circled back up through as it was pumped.  Presto – hours of entertainment for a 4- and 3-year old kid.

Tonight was Emily’s last game for the season.  This little tiny package of dynamite absolutely loves playing softball.  She’s been playing with the same team since Kindergarten – all classmates from the neighborhood.

They’ve done quite well as a team – every year being among the top teams in their division.  Linda and I have had a lot of fun watching them grow over the years.  Spending time with the other parents is also quite fun.

The softball fields are part of a complex of 12 softball diamonds – all meant for girls softball.  It really is a very nice complex.  The only downside – it seems to be the hottest and sunniest place in all of Johnson County.

So proud of you, Emily.

We enjoyed an evening at Starlight Theatre last night watching the musical adaptation of “The Little House on the Prairie”.  The shows stars Melissa Sue Gilbert as Ma – you may remember her playing Laura in the 1970’s TV show.

The girls have been lovers of the books and we’ve been to several of the Little House on the Prairie museums (De Smet, South Dakota; Walnut Grove, Minnesota; and Mansfield, Missouri).

The evening started with meeting friends for dinner at La Roux – a new southern cajun restaurant here in town.  After an awesome dinner of BLTs (made with fried green tomatoes) and sweet potato fries, we headed off to Starlight Theatre. Starlight Theatre is an outdoor amphitheater in Swope Park here in Kansas City.  What a beautiful night (especially for being 85 degrees with sticky humidity).

The musical was engaging, fun, and very entertaining.  Linda and I both commented that we weren’t quite ready for the show to be done.  When you know a lot of the story, you expect to see more of it.  However, one can only fit so much story into 3 hours of musical.

If you get a chance to see it – do so!

Image courtesy of Minnesota Public Radio