With My Gals

You know it was a great weekend because it starts out with Jamie's fingers in the air. 

haha

This is the most fun thing: to get to the house, dump all our suitcases, explore around, turn on the heat, and get down to the business of exchanging favorite things. 

The things are fun, but the discussing of the things is the best. 

I gave: glass straws, hair towels, fold-ology puzzles.

Emily gave: lazy susan for the fridge

Jamie: washer machine cleaning tabs

Nettie: sweaters (shown at the end of this post)

Then bed time. Pillow talk.

At this point it's just so much fun to be giggling about everything, and still have so many days ahead of us.

Scout's Cave hike...

I look like Nettie's grandma.

It's so fun to putter around stores with moms. 

I bought a chocolate chip cookie and ate it immediately. 

Next we went to a gem shop and did some silversmithing - making our own jewelry.

It took us three hours and was so fun. 

Does this fireplace look familiar? 

It's the one Jim and I stood against at our wedding reception. That is where the line was. 

It looked way different back then. ha

Then we "grubbed out".

Not pictured is the amount of time we spent in stores looking at stuff 

(especially searching for "berry" colored tennis skirt for Jamie's team. 

Then went home to work on our paint by numbers. 

Just something to keep us busy while we yap. 

Second hike: a loop around lava caves!

The weather was so perfect and beautiful. 

Me and Jamie climbed into the belly of the cave. This right here was the trickiest part - shoulder injury area, toosh push to get back out. 

Hands in the air. 

Remember my foot guy was such a spazz and worked hard at hardly working? He eventually fell so behind, he skipped the MASSAGE PART!? I don't want to talk about it. 

And back to this, back to yapping. 

We had the football game on in the background, go seahawks!

This is what it looks like to take a break from painting by number. 

Ugg then it's time to go home, and that bums me out.

We wore our matching sweaters which is a little bit embarrasing, but not that embarrasing...

except we accidently wore them to a cafe called "Liberty Cafe" (which was DELICIOUS you should eat there) and the whole decor/vibe of the place was USA and flags and Americana! 

haha that was a tiny bit cringe but I don't care. 

Our jewelry

That was so fun. 

I'm so lucky to have sisters. 

Eras Tour!

December 25, 2022: Jim told me he and Andy tried to get us gals Taylor Swift tickets as a Christmas present, but it was pretty impossible for anyone to get tickets. Dang that would have been awesome!

March 15, 2023: Jamie texts me - "Andy said they are releasing more TS tix. Do you want to come? Mar 24 or 25"

"Ahh! how much time do I have to decide?"

"3 seconds"

"Ok get me a ticket"

"A? or 2?"

"Is Andy going? 2 I guess"

"No I was thinking Avery. I guess you still don't know that Jimi and Andy were trying to get us some for Xmas and couldn't. haha. for you and me and the girls."

"Oh yes! Get two."

It happened so fast, I wasn't sure how it was gonna work in one week...Would we all go? Just me and Avery? But it was actually very simple: me and Avery jumped on a plane one week later, non-rev, leaving Jim home with the boys. Easy!

And then when it started sinking in me and Avery were dying of excitement. All week. 

March 24: One week later, Avery ditched school, flew to Vegas and took Reese and Sammy out of class early -

Target selfie!

We went looking for Taylor Swift merch at Target. Duh there was none. 

Back home we had our "sun appreciation hours" while Jamie painted cupboards. 

Before I got out this blanket it was just me laying on the cobblestones - and Jamie's neighbor called to make sure the Kelvingtons were ok. 

"It's just my sister enjoying the sun. We are fine."

Nettie sent us a funny Trey Kennedy video about middle schoolers hitting the gritty at all minutes of the day. haha. 

This is us "watching" it. 

Then we painted our nails, one color for each Era.

It was so fun deciding what color/vibe to use for each album.

Remember earlier in the week when I suggested this activity and both Jamie and Avery shrugged their indifferent shoulders at it? and it was so so fun? haha

Collectively we decided that 1989 was our worst nail representation. 

Yep Taylor was playing in the background during all these activities.

This is when I heard "Enchanted" for the first time - so good. 

Remember Reese flinging the red nail polish around like it was actual paint? 

And Damon dipping his entire finger in the remover to get the red paint off his nails? 

Damon played Fortnite with Andrew. 

The next day:

This was us adding songs to our playlists, discovering songs I've never heard before. 

We had just got back from shopping for our Era look. 

Avery - Lover/Evermore mashup

Sammy - Lover

Jamie - Folklore/Evermore

Kelli - Folklore/Evermore

Also for lunch us adults went out to the middle of nowhere and ate at this cool old saloon. 

Good burgers take time, people! Like, an hour to cook! We sat waiting for an hour. 

I needed a nap. Jamie just laid there and took a picture. 

Getting ready for the concert: Me and Jamie wore our mom outfits because plaid is Evermore, bro!

Jamie french braided my hair.

Pre-concert In n Out.

Ahhh this was so fun, all the anticipation. 

Gosh I loved all of it. I loved fan-girling the day before and all the build up.

The openers were terrible of course and SO LOUD. 

We ended up going out in the hallways to save our ears. 

And then the show started and it was 3.5 hours of non stop entertainment! 

The radio songs were so fun - everyone singing along,

every era had a new costume and set and vibe.

I loved most when she would play acoustically - guitar or piano.

This was a ten minute long "All Too Well". So so good.

I loved the lighted bracelets.

Evermore and Folklore Era are my favorite (non live) eras. 

For a live show, they were time to sit and palette cleanse and enjoy. 

She started singing "Tis The Damn Season" - one of my favorites, and I kept standing (everyone around me sat) with my hand on my heart, holding Avery's hand singing along. haha 

That song reminds me of college days when you have one foot in adulthood and one foot in childhood and two different worlds of friends and personalities and identities and responsibilities. Remember what a trip it is to come home for Christmas? 

Other concert favorites:

Enchanted

Cowboy like me

White Horse

But it was all so good in all the different ways, so it's hard to pick.

I just love the feeling of being in a crowd, collectively watching this amazing art together - everyone feeling the feelings attached to our favorite songs. 

I love the last era - Midnights - but by then I was so exhausted! I wish I could rewatch that era fresh. 

Our "after" pic as we walked back.

When we got home at midnight, we sat around eating - starving!

Jamie showed videos of the concert to the poor kids who didn't get to go. 

Ugg it was so much fun. 

Church the next day! 

#larsingtons

Then I took a fatty nap and Jamie laid awake again. 

Then she went to her own bed to get serious about her fatty nap.