country stampede

so justin played at country stampede in manhattan on saturday night. it was so much fun!!

i flew into KC friday night and stayed with kirk and marisa. we drove to manhattan saturday morning and met up with justin around noon. he had been in wisconsin and they bussed in to kansas over night. they played a couple other country festivals in wisconsin. they're biggest crowd was 70,000 people. justin said there were people to the horizon. we hung out in justin's hotel room for a few minutes before heading to so long saloon for lunch. after lunch we headed over to say hi to justin's mom and josh and kylea before heading back to the hotel. kirk and marisa dropped us off and went over to ben and kristin's (who were out of town-bummer!). my parents met us at the hotel and by then it was time to head over to stampede.

we waited in a line of cars for 45 minutes before we finally got to park. we should have followed justin in the artist shuttle and gotten good parking-oh well! we got our tickets and i had to go to another tent inside to get my back stage pass. when i finally figured out where that was, the lady gave me my envelope and said i had to go back right now! i wasn't sure what the rush was, but i soon figured it out. here's how it went...

lady: ok, hurry, you're the last one in line

me: ummm, ok

lady: it's just pictures with terri

me: what?

lady: it's just pictures at the meet and greet

me: oh, i don't want to meet her

lady: what?

me: what? i'm the guitar player's wife. i'm supposed to have a back stage pass.

lady: oh! you're anna!

it was pretty funny. we were giving each other the exact same look of confusion. so no one who was supposed to, had backstage passes, so she made some up for me and i was able to get my parents backstage too. we were trying to find a place to sit where we could still see when matt thiessen (who we met up with backstage) suggested we sit in the vacant VIP seats. best idea of the night! my parents and i sat about 3 rows back with matt and kirk and marisa. we were able to take some awesome pictures. (these are all courtesy of matt). it was the first time my parents had really gotten to see him play, so it was a really fun experience for them.

after the show we met up with everyone at little apple brewery. we had a full table justin, me, matt, mom and dad, patrick and lindsey, kirk and marisa, josh and kylea, and justin's mom and jeff. it was a great time to sit around and catch up with these awesome people. thanks to everyone who was able to come out and support our rockstar!! :)