A Long Hot Day

It's been a long day, and it's only just after 7. We got up early- after me not being able to sleep last night. The last time I looked at the clock, it was almost 4:30am. The alarm was set for 9. I fell asleep shortly after that, so I got some sleep, but not a lot.

We drove to my parent's house to drop off my step-mom's car that I've had for almost 2 weeks now. We borrowed it for the camping trip. It was nice- bigger than our car, but also cheaper to drive than the mini-van, and more reliable than the mini-van.

After that, we went and started taking photos. It was way too bright, and way too hot. We did not get many decent family photos. We got a few, but not a lot (I took over 300, as did my aunt Marci). If we can't get a decent amount of good ones, I think we may just try it again in the fall, later in the day.

We were only there about 2 hours, start to finish, but boy was it blistering hot out. The site was right on the river, so when we finished, I sat with my feet in the water for a while. It felt fantastic!

Now, for some background, the only vehicle running decently right now is the Prizm. That's also the vehicle with a shoddy speedometer. Usually, we only use it on the highways, where we can judge our speed based on the flow of traffic.

Today, after a brief mental debate, I took the back roads. On the last stretch, I got behind someone, and thought "Sweet! I can hang back here, and regulate my speed!"

Too bad he was doing almost 70 when we blew past a cop. We both got pulled over, and me (being broke right now) won us a neat, new traffic  ticket. It's my own fault, and it sucks. We have a house payment out of the next check, leaving scant amounts afterwards, but not enough time before the ticket is due to pay the ticket out of the next check.

I'm cashing out here today, and hubby is as well. That'll give us $75 towards it. Joy.

My aunt Marci gave me something fun today, though- tickets to a country concert for tomorrow! VIP seats, too! The line up is Dierks Bentley, Sarah Buxton, Trent Tomlinson, Love & Theft, Justin Moore, Emerson Drive, and 1 or 2 surprise guests (likely lesser known people).

It's an all day, outdoor concert, but the VIP seats include a shaded covered area. It says there is food and drinks in the VIP area, but we're not sure if they're free, or vendors we pay. I'm hoping for free, because we can't bring food in, and we're going VERY cheaply tomorrow.

I am taking Raegan with me. I can get Chris & Gilly in free (12 & under don't require tickets), but no VIP passes for them, and no pass for Nick. Well, technically, I could say Rae is 12, but still- Nick doesn't like Country music, and Chris & Gilly would be bored after a while.

There are chairs, so we don't have to take those with us (thankfully!). It did say we can bring in an empty water bottle, and fill it, so I plan to do that for both of us. That way, if the food & drinks aren't free, we can go cheap on a meal, and have water to drink.

I'll be taking my camera- I can't do videos according to the tickets, but I can do photos. The performers are supposed to mingle in the VIP section through out the day, so it'd be cool to get a photo or two of me or Rae with one of them.

Raegan is drooling over Dierks Bentley. ;)

Below is 1 photo I took (and edited) of my niece Alex today. My sister wanted a black & white with color. The sunglasses almost look fake, with a thick black outline, but they were really on her adorable lil face. ;) I used layers to do this. I dropped a black & white layer on top of the color layer, then used a feathered cut to cut out the areas I wanted to show up in color.