Hi y’all!  Hope everyone has been having a great week.  Our link-up party is going very well.  Thank you to all who have linked up!  If you haven’t linked up yet, please come link up!  It is a great way to meet new friends and read new blogs.  I love co-hosting with Iveth.  She is an awesome friend!  Check our her blog too!  The link-up party information can be found at https://pootsnotes.wordpress.com/2015/08/19/a-little-bit-of-everything-link-up-3/.

The walking is still going well.  This week has been kind of strange as far as walking goes.  I know we walked around 2 miles or so at the Illinois State Fair yesterday.  I worked Tuesday and I know I walked a bunch then.  Of course I can’t get my minutes and time because Facebook has decided to puke but rest assured I am still walking and doing everything that I need to.  Monday I did do right at 4 miles after all the errands were run and with the walking later in the day.  Tuesday I worked and walked constantly all day and yesterday was the Illinois State Fair.  Today I am beat and am just taking it easy.  Wednesday for whatever reason I decided it was time to have some doughnuts.  So I did.  I didn’t feel any better.  In fact I could tell I had too much sugar.  I took it easy yesterday and cut a lot of calories out.  Today I am very tired since we got home at 430 in the morning.  It was a long day.  But it was awesome!

We just saw The Fray last month in Indy and met them there.  And we wanted to see them again.  They were going to be at the Illinois State Fair.  We started out really early heading to Springfield because I hadn’t been there on my own and I wasn’t sure how the fair parking and all worked.  Once we got into Illinois I noticed a few things.  There was a cemetery that had a few stones but mostly all flower bouquets sticking up out of the ground.  The stones could haven been flat on the ground but it was just odd.  Another thing-all the roads to Springfield from here were two lane and at one time I was backroading it.  Well nothing new that doesn’t happen here since we live on the back roads.  I believe that the town/city signs in Illinois mention the population underneath the name.  I kept trying to figure out why we didn’t see any big buildings in Springfield.  The population was in the 117,000s.  I had Annie look up the population of Indy.  It was over 800,000.  That could explain it or we just didn’t get into that part of town.  Even Indy has a few huge buildings.  Illinois though was way easy to navigate.  It takes some time to get there and it looks like I never left Indiana, but it was an easy drive.

Once we got to Springfield I pulled over and called the fair people to find out what we needed to do.  We needed to go in gate 6 and park in lot 18 for the show.  Ok.  That was the easy part.  Next, what about these VIPIT things we have here?  They will be giving out bands prior to the show.  Ok.  So we get parked and head on in and run into a security guard to ask what the deal was and to find out when and where this will be.  He said 5 PM, and The Fray had just pulled up.  Awesome!  He was a really nice guy and we chatted with him a while (yes it is true, I never know a stranger).  On the way in we came by a helicopter ride place.  Nope, not for me.  I was going to go up in one in Branson Missouri with my uncle but I was so car sick from the ride there that I passed.  Now I don’t think I could deal with it either.  But Annie wanted to.  She went up and had a great time!  She showed me the video she took and all.  The guy there told me that he got car sick too but there is nothing like that in a chopper.  Nah.  Just still not for me.  Don’t think The Fray would fancy my lunch on my shirt should I get into close proximity to them.  Here are a few pics, and I have a video that I will eventually post.  She is in the back in the gray shirt.

We go back in and start trying to find someone to ask about the passes and such.  There is a line already forming and after we ask someone we decide to jump in there.  Glad we did.  They were all waiting for The Fray too all with VIP passes like us.  So we sat and waited.  About an hour after we had been there someone said they were over by where we were sitting at.  Annie and I debated whether to go or not but the people we were with held our place for us.  We walked on over and saw a couple of the other guys but no Isaac.  We rounded the corner and oh my!  There he was!  He was chatting with some of the other people from the line.  He was done talking to them and started talking to us.  At this point I think we both were about to have a spasm.  I told him that we had just met them last month in Indy and showed him the pic on my phone.  He said he was glad he was wearing a different shirt and asked if I would like another pic with him! Well yeah!  So I turn my camera on, hands shaking like crazy and I swear I am brain-dead.  I cannot figure out why the selfie function was not functioning.  He reached over and flipped it to the right setting.  I took 3 pics, in case one of them didn’t take right–shaky hands you know.  I thanked him and Annie got one with him too.  That was just awesome! We got one with one of the other guys too and by that time their security had caught up to them.  They weren’t running people off but they were just moving on down the line of the food places in front of the grandstand.  I am just still in shock!  I am just absolutely thrilled to death to get to meet them again!  And Isaac Slade again!  How awesome is that????  He is a really nice guy.  :)

We go back to our line and the security people were making sure that only the people who were there first didn’t get cut in front of.  At around 5 they got our bands for us and we still had to wait longer.  Around 630 they let us start going in and told everyone not to run.  Well that didn’t work well since it was general admission for the pit.  We got in good and on the right side of the stage, first in line at the fence.  Yeah!  It was pretty awesome.  Here is one of our views.

Andy Grammer opened for The Fray.  He was pretty awesome too.  I got a few good pics.

Then The Fray came out.  Oh.  My.  They are just as awesome as they were in Indy.  About three or four songs in he goes out in the crowd.  He is climbing up the grandstand and seeing the people up in the top.  He climbed back down and came back on the side of the fence where we were standing.  At the end of the song he hops up on the fence, right over Annie!  Now I am standing beside her, and fumbling with the phone to get the pics.  I got them!  So not only did we get to meet him but we got to see him hop up right there at us!  In the first one of him close up you can see Annie’s hand reaching out to touch his arm.  :)  I was too bumfuzzled to reach out….I was trying to take pics.

I took all sorts of great pics here.  I will post several.  We had such a good time!  The Fray will never disappoint.  I also have a video of them singing “Just a Closer Walk With Thee.”  I will try to get it out there and posted.  If any of you guys happen to read this, thank you.  You have made our year, twice in a row.  :)

This has been an awesome week!  Keep linking up and have a great weekend!

–S