August

So here we are, halfway through the month of August and it's my first post. August is notoriously our busiest month. We have the majority of our immediate families birthdays in this month but we have the addition of family coming in from out of town, Dallas' sobriety birthday, and the annual campvention. I guess the birthdays don't really need a lot of explaining. But our visitors are Dallas' Grandma Mary and his Aunt Patty, whom I've never met. I am lucky enough to have most of the week off while they are here so we've planned to do some fun outings with them. Friday we went to the Jack Johnson concert with our in laws. We LOVE him. We also really like his opening acts too. G. Love has been a favorite of mine since high school. It was so good to get out on a date. We don't go out very often and I miss it. We definitely need to get out more often. Yesterday we went up to the Valley Camp for the annual Campvention/Fund Raiser. This is where Dallas spent two months getting himself "right". It was fun, they had activities for the kids, music entertainment, and several other things. The best thing by far was Dallas receiving his one year chip. It was the first time our kids were able to see this, because usually the meetings are after bed time. I realize that a 5 year old and a 2 year old probably don't fully understand what all of this means, but I thought it would be good for them to see where dad goes 3-4 nights a week and how important it is for him. He received his chip from his sponsor and he said a few words about how he got where he is now. The importance of that is so that the other members who are there who may not have much time in can see that it can be done and that it's worth it. And when you have your almost five year old there and at the end of his little speech she claps and yells, "yay daddy", it's priceless. In addition to the birthday's my sister-in-law wanted to throw him a surprise party for his accomplishments. That has been a feat in itself. I've never planned a surprise party ever and it's been a little stressful. We'll be going to that tonight so I'll let you know how that goes.

I've also been sewing my little heart out and have the curtains done for our pop-up. I just have to finish the valance and we are good to go in the decor department. We have found a couple of other storage solutions that we'll hopefully implement before our next trip. I also had the cushions reupholstered and I'm so thrilled with the result. I can't wait to pop of the trailer and put everything back in there and start enjoying the fruits of my labor.

Here are some recent photos.

We Love Jack!!

As some of you may or may not know, Dallas and I are huge fans of Jack Johnson. So it's now surprise that we went to his concert Monday night. This is the third time we've seen him and he puts on such a great show every time. Of course we don't have any pictures because since I was leaving straight from work I didn't put much thought into preparation like bringing a camera or decent shoes. None the less we had a fabulous time. His music takes me back to great memories. The last time we saw him I was 8 months prego with Punkin and our song for the moment was Banana Pancakes. Punkin is also a huge fan, more so of his Curious George soundtrack. If you haven't heard his music please give it a chance. It's music that always has a good message that is G rated. We never have to worry about what Punkin may pick up from his lyrics. We originally discovered him through my other all time favorite band since high school, G. Love and Special Sauce. Jack is a genius on the guitar and makes every strum of the string effortless. He's also a huge supporter of "green thinking", his studio is completely solar powered, and his home in Hawaii is built of recycled and renewable resources. We really admire him for that. Here is a short Biography I found online.

Biography by MacKenzie Wilson
Before Jack Johnson perfected his rock star ways, he was a champion surfer on the professional route. The sport was second nature to the young Hawaiian native, who began chasing waves as a toddler and, by the age of 17, had become an outstanding athlete on the Pipeline. However, Johnson was also testing other creative outlets — specifically film and music — and a serious surfing accident convinced him to devote more time to those landlocked hobbies.
It was during his college years in America that Johnson began writing the relaxed, acoustic-based songs that would later turn him into a chart-topping star. While studying film at the University of California at Santa Barbara, he also paired up with old friends Chris Malloy and Emmett Malloy to produced a surf cinema documentary entitled Thicker Than Water, which spotlighted Johnson as a talented cinematographer as well as a burgeoning singer/songwriter. His peers from the surf circuit praised his work, and Thicker Than Water received props in Surfer magazine for Video of the Year during 2000. The follow-up surf flick The September Sessions also earned the Adobe Highlight Award at the ESPN Film Festival that same year.
Still, Johnson steered away from a blossoming pro sports career and stuck with music, a move that would soon earn him additional honors. G. Love & Special Sauce quickly took notice of Johnson's lazy blues stylings, which also molded folk and hip-hop for a modern rock twist. One of Johnson's songs, "Rodeo Clowns", found its way onto G. Love's Philadelphonic in 1999, with Johnson contributing vocals and guitar licks to the track. Johnson's four-track demo then caught the ears of Ben Harper's right-hand man, J.P. Plunier, who opted to lend his production skills to Johnson's sultry studio debut. Brushfire Fairytales appeared in early 2001 and featured a cameo by Ben Harper, thus sparking a friendship between the two musicians.
Two co-headlining tours followed throughout the spring and summer of 2002, and Johnson's sophomore effort, On and On, appeared in May 2003. Stateside dates with Ben Harper helped Johnson expand his audience, and On and On eventually climbed to number three on the Billboard charts. A third album, In Between Dreams, arrived in March 2005 and charted even higher, eventually going on to sell over two million copies. Johnson earned two Brit Awards for the album: International Male Solo Artist and International Breakthrough Act. In February, he issued the soundtrack Curious George. Nielsen SoundScan sales topped at 163,000 copies in its first week of release, earning Johnson his first-ever number one album on Billboard's Top 200 and Rock Albums charts. His sixth album, Sleep Through the Static, was released in February 2008.