Taylor Swift!

One afternoon in July I stopped by my friend Lila's house to pick up the girls' friends Madelyn and Ella for a play date.  If you know Lila and me, you know that a simple pick up or drop off lasts longer than it normally should because once we start talking, that's all she wrote.  That was the case this particular morning when she asked if I'd thought about taking the girls to see Taylor Swift in Nashville.  I truly didn't even know she was coming to Nashville as I didn't follow her that closely.  {That's past tense because at the time I didn't follow her which is now a completely different story!} Bethany has always loved her and walks around the house belting out her songs all the time, which is probably the only reason I know any of them (aside from hearing the more popular ones on the radio).  And because B loves Taylor Swift, Towns and Cate think they love Taylor Swift as well.  Lila told me she'd tossed around the idea of taking her girls and asked if we'd like to join them.  After I thought about it for a minute, I realized that taking them to that concert would probably make their entire year.  So right then and there we sat down at her computer and ordered our tickets.  I called B immediately to tell her and I thought she would pass out.  I don't think y'all really understand how much of a fan she is.  Even though I might not know many of her songs, it made my year just knowing how excited they were all going to be.  It seemed like September 16th would never get here.  But alas, it did.  And that afternoon we pulled out of town on our way to what would be one of the best memories ever.  

Let me back up.  At first, we didn't purchase tickets for Cate and Ella because we thought they'd be too young for it.  I took Towns to a Hannah Montana concert when she was around their age and she had no clue what was going on and stayed in my lap most of the time.  But last weekend I called Lila and told her that I was feeling guilty for not including them.  They love each other so much and want to spend every waking moment together, so if for nothing else than to let them ride to Nashville and back in the same car, we decided that taking them was a must.  I got online and bought two random tickets just so they'd have a way in, and then we were golden.  I'm so glad we took them because it was so worth it to even see their excitement of simply sitting car seat to car seat.  They made every step hand in hand and even held hands during the concert.  Precious.

I picked Towns up from school Friday afternoon and headed straight to Lila's.  The girls were absolutely beside themselves.  I was armed with goodie bags filled with snacks, glow bracelets and pink light up wands.  J brought Bethany to meet us after her pep rally, and once we were all in the car our husbands sort of shook their heads and gave us a "good luck" before we were Nashville bound.  You couldn't have smacked the smiles off of their faces once we got there and were just blocks away from the best night of their lives...

Bethany wouldn't get in that picture, but I convinced her to get in this one...

When I say she was looking cute, I mean she was looking cute.

We heard two opening acts, the second of which I was pretty excited about because they sing two of my favorite songs.  Here's one, and here's the other. I didn't realize at the time that's who I was watching...until I heard one of those songs.  Hello!  The gap between the opening acts and the main event seemed to last for years.  We took lots of silly pictures to keep the girls from asking a thousand questions about when they were finally going to see her...

Those two little loves were jumping and screaming for joy every time they heard anyone utter the words Taylor Swift.  They were so fun to watch throughout the night.  They stood in their seats and sang their hearts out, loving every minute of it.
This one is blurry, but there's a lot of love...

My friend Ginny, her husband, Mary Bibb and Virginia were directly across from us, and we texted our commentary back and forth the whole time.  All of our girls were fading fast...they resorted to cotton candy and Coke which is exactly what we should have done.  But let me tell you, when the girl finally did take the stage it was no joke.  I've always been a self proclaimed Miley Cyrus fan thanks to taking B to her concerts, but after seeing Taylor I'm asking, "Miley who?" and never looking back.  She's absolutely the cutest thing I've ever laid eyes on.  So genuine and real.  And to see her almost in tears because of her hometown crowd's never ending screams was pretty adorable...

After each song she'd just stand there soaking it up.  Taking every single second in.  She put on a show like I've never seen before.  It was simple, yet exquisite.  And done just right. B and I jumped up and down and sang along to every word.  It was totally surreal to see her standing 100 feet away from us singing all the songs that we've sung many times before in the car while talking about how cool it would be to see her in person.  And there we were.  Amazing!!

She changed clothes a dozen times and sometimes when she and her dancers literally appeared out of thin air I was a bit dumbstruck.  It's like it was magic.  I'm still wondering how they did it.  She gave us our money's worth, that's for sure...

Not only is she a great performer, she's got to be hands down the best song writer out there.  That's pure talent, folks!  She tricked us and made us think it was over.  If it had been over, we would have definitely left feeling satisfied.  But then she came back out and stepped onto this little balcony that carried her all over the arena while she was singing one of my favorites.  And it just so happened it brought her literally feet away from us...

That picture makes it look like she was further away than she really was.  We were in absolute awe!

About that time confetti started falling and once again we thought it was over.  But she came back on with a few famous singers that were a surprise...turns out we should have gone Saturday night because the guest performers were Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw!  She ended the show with Long Live which is one of my favorites.  It was a perfect ending to the perfect show. 

We finally rolled back into town after 2 a.m. which was right about the time our children caught their second wind.  Saturday morning came early, but it was all good because it was birthday party day for Cate.  That's a whole other post in itself, though!