The Cowboy Rides Away

By 10 Comments

Hey y’all!

George Strait, one of the greatest men to ever sing country music, announced a couple of years ago that he was going on one last tour before he retired from touring. On June 7th, he played his final show at the Dallas Cowboys stadium. Neely and I were lucky enough to get tickets to the show, and we had such a great night!

I got up SUPER early Saturday morning and started the drive to Dallas.

texas
Only in Texas…

It was so exciting to finally be reunited with Neely! We hadn’t seen each other since February!

shopping
We went to brunch at Number One, where we had the most fabulous blackberry muffin and a beautiful plate of strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries! After brunch, we headed to Northpark for a little shopping. Ally hadn’t made it back to Dallas from London yet, so Flat Ally went shopping with us!

Flat Ally
I think she had a lot of fun :)

After some shopping, we had an early dinner at Mi Cocina, and then headed to Cowboys Stadium!

concert
So excited!

Flat Ally2
Ally came with us too!

IMG_3131
Asleep at the Wheel was the opening act! They’ve been around for over 40 years, so it was neat to get to see them play! They played for around an hour, and then it was time for the main event!

IMG_3166
It’s George! He opened the show with “Check Yes or No”, one of my favorite songs!

Since this was his last show, he had lots of special guests that came out to sing with him. It was pretty incredible to see all of these amazing performers on stage with him! He ended up playing about forty songs, a great mix of songs from the ’80s through today, including “Amarillo By Morning”, “I Can Still Make Cheyenne”, and “I Saw God Today”.

IMG_3158
Vince Gill was the first of the special guests! I was sooooooo excited to see him! I’m a big fan, and even though I saw him at Blake Shelton’s benefit concert last year, the giant screen was blocking my view, so I didn’t get to see him perform. It was nice to finally get to SEE him perform! He’s amazing!

IMG_3170
Jason Aldean

IMG_3180
Eric Church

IMG_3185
Sheryl Crow

IMG_3200
Martina McBride! I’ve been wanting to see her FOREVER! Her voice is just flawless.

IMG_3205
Faith Hill

IMG_3220
Alan Jackson! I’ve never been a huge Alan Jackson fan, so I was surprised at how giddy I got when he came on stage! It was amazing to see them perform together!

IMG_3230
Miranda Lambert! She’s one of my favorites, and even though I’ve seen her a couple of times, I was so excited to see her again. She seemed so in awe of George, and you could tell how much it meant to her to perform with him. Side note-her sparkly boots were amazing!

IMG_3249
Kenny Chesney! This guy puts on one of the best shows I’ve ever seen! He’s a great performer! He said the first tour he ever went on was a George Strait tour, so it meant a lot to him to be a part of George’s last show. They were great together!

IMG_3269
At the end of the night, George brought everyone back out to sing “All My Ex’s Live in Texas” with him! So many awesome people on stage at the same time!

IMG_3288
George ended the show with “The Cowboy Rides Away”. I have to admit I got a little teary as the show was coming to a close. He is such a legend in country music, and I’ve wanted to see him in concert for a very long time. I’m glad he will still be releasing new music, but it’s sad that he won’t be touring anymore.

It was also so great to spend a fun weekend with Neely! We don’t get to spend nearly enough time together, so even though it was a quick trip, it was great to have a little bit of  best friend time!

Have you seen George Strait in concert?

Christmas with Donny & Marie!

By 8 Comments

Hey y’all!
Ok, for reals, I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to blog about this awesome, fun night!
In early December, Momma and Daddy came up to OKC so we could all go see Donny and Marie Osmond’s Christmas concert! If you’ve never seen them in concert, you don’t get to judge me for going and talking about how amazing it was. Because it was amazing.
Growing up, The Osmonds were my mom’s favorite. Specifically Donny. I like to think her love for them was about the same as my love for *NSYNC :) She got to see The Osmonds in concert when she was a teenager, so when I found out Donny and Marie’s Christmas concert was coming to OKC, I really wanted the two of us to go. To our surprise, the boys said they would go with us. 
I know, I’m as shocked as you are.
Anyway, we bought the tickets several months in advance, and before we knew it, the day was here!
We were SO EXCITED!

Family selfie outside the arena!

Momma and I posed with Cardboard Marie

The fam! We were excited for a fun night of Christmas music, and I couldn’t wait to see Momma’s reaction to seeing Donny and Marie!

There they are!

Momma was so excited to see them! It was priceless! She was giddy like nothing I’ve ever seen from her before. It was hard to take pictures because every time I would push the button on my camera, she would elbow me out of excitement!
Before the show started, Marie posted on twitter for people to take a picture with the cardboard cutout and tweet them to her and tell her why she should pick you for front row seats.
I tweeted this one to Marie!
After a couple of the songs, she said it was time to announce the winner of the contest.
“Section 101″.
That was our section.
“Row PP”.
That was our row. I grabbed Momma’s hand and tried not to scream.
“Seats 7 and 8! Is there an Ashley in here?”
THAT WAS ME! I couldn’t believe we won! We were ushered from our seats to our new seats on the front row!

It’s still a little unbelievable that we watched the rest of the show from the front row. I’ve never been front row at a concert before, and this one was great!
It’s Donny! Y’all, he’s beautiful. I know he’s old enough to be my dad, but he looks really good.

Momma and Donny :)

During part of the concert, they sang songs from the Broadway shows they’ve been in, including The Sound of Music, The King and I, Beauty and the Beast, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and Wicked. It was my favorite part of the whole show!

They sang “For Good” from Wicked, and it was beautiful!

Donny was watching me take his pictures. He could’ve smiled a little more for me! Haha!

Marie seriously has one of the most beautiful voices I’ve ever heard. She can sing pretty much any kind of music, including opera. It was incredible!

My goodness, it was such a great concert! I was so excited to be able to go with my mom to see her childhood crush and childhood idol in concert. She’s gone with me to quite a few concerts to see people that I love, so to go with her to someone she loves was really great. Winning front row seats for her was truly amazing, and I’m so glad we got to share such a fun night together!

“Haoooo, Play Somethin’ Country”

By 3 Comments

Finally, here are the pictures from the Brooks & Dunn concert!

concert11

concert12

concert13
Advertising Carrie’s show!!

bathroom
Sprint Center bathroom

concert15

concert16
Opening act Tyler Dickerson-he was highly annoying

concert18
Gary Allan was FANTASTIC! I just love him!

concert4
Brooks & Dunn!

concert5
concert25
concert8
During “Only in America” they had several military servicemen come out on stage! Very moving…I wanted to cry!

concert6
I really hoped that Reba would make a surprise appearance since she sings several songs with them and is great friends with them. Their “Cowgirls Don’t Cry” video was the closest I got to seeing her :(concert24
They did a great show, and I’m really glad that we went to see them!

concert9
Toyota sponsored the tour, and before the concert, they took free pictures and superimposed B&D in them! Kinda fun! It was definitely a great way to end a great trip! Can’t wait for next summer’s adventure!