Monkeeing Around

Hey, Hey I'm back!  I'm going to let Grant put up a post with the pictures and details of what he and the kids were up to yesterday and this morning, but had to briefly share about the fabulous Monkees adventure I had with my Mom!

The concert at the Hard Rock Rocksino in Northfield Park marks the fourth time my Mom and I have seen the Monkees.  We saw them in 2001 (after my high school graduation!) and in 2011 when it was Davy, Peter and Micky.  Then in 2012 when Mike joined the other two after Davy's death Grant snagged tickets for us for their show in Cleveland.  Hands down (and I'm pretty sure my Mom agrees) this was my favorite of all four concerts.  Which is really truly saying something because Davy has always been my favorite Monkee :)

But Mom and I had a great time yesterday (we got pedis!) and made it to the Hard Rock in plenty of time before the concert because our past experience has been more than a bit of craziness pre-concert before.  Not sure if it was because it was at the casino (which meant 21 and up only) or because Hard Rock is used to staging big concerts, but we got right in, were ushered to our seats without any problem.  Grant did get us closer than we've been before - he jokingly told me when he ordered the tickets that he knows they can't live or continue to tour forever, so if he just keeps moving us a little closer to the stage every time, that should be good enough.  We were even more excited to find out that last night's show was the last one on this tour!  (My dark self turned to my Mom and said "Oh my gosh, if one of them dies before they decide to tour again we can totally say we saw them play live together for the last time ever!")

They played a full two hour set full of my favorites.  My hands down favorite that they played (and this is coming from the girl who has claimed Daydream Believer as her favorite song since she was five without ever swaying from that) was Shades of Grey.  It was originally a Davy song, and Peter took over the lead vocals with an assist from Micky and it was absolutely beautiful.  Made me cry - very touching.  I felt like they had a better grip on how to deal with Davy's passing this time as opposed to in 2012.  Even better, as both Mom and I kept saying they REALLY seemed to be actually enjoying themselves.  Especially Papa Nez.  Mom loved "Auntie Grizelda" and "Last Train to Clarksville"  and we both really liked how they used videos and pictures throughout the show.

I wanna go again.  Like right now.  Grant - can we be front row next time????

I made it back tonight and am in the process of making Cornish Pasties  for dinner to wrap up Montana week.  (Though I found this recipe in NUMEROUS places for Montana, I more readily associate a pastie with Michigan.  So we'll be seeing them in Michigan form again in a few weeks and I'll fill you in about them then.)  I also thought I was going to have a picture for the Montana scrapbook page to show you, but Walgreens decided that the photo machine should break down halfway through printing my order.  After they had emailed me it was ready and I had walked over to get it.  Grrr...

Speaking of grrr...  One more thing tonight just to set the record straight.  My very cool special ingredient STILL has not arrived.  So Grant and the kids did a different project this morning (which I'll let Grant tell you about and post pictures of) but for the record at some point we will be doing this when my citric acid finally does arrive.  Really sad that it didn't happen for Montana, but it's on my list for the summer because the kiddos will love it!

Come back tomorrow for the official kick off of the North Star State, some hotdish and smores.  And a whole bunch more!  But until then...

Montana Fun Fact of the Day: 46 out of Montana's 56 counties are considered "frontier counties" with an average population of 6 or fewer people per square mile.