babybloomr

And by “fall hopelessly in love” I mean “met her backstage and had this picture taken.”

OK seriously, how cute is that?!

(She absolutely hates this photo by the way, in that illogical, teenage-girl-white-hot-hatred-of-a-thousand-suns-’because-I-think-I-look-awful’ kind of way. Screw it, she looks darling, I’M POSTING IT!) 

So here’s the scoop: We have a old friend from Hot Springs days named Bob Mason. (He’s the father of Christian, Char’s gamer buddy. Remember those pictures I posted one time of the two of them playing video games? No? Well dang, read the archives, people! I’m sure they’re in there somewhere… or was that the Tennessean blog? Whatever.) Anyway, Bobby lives in Dallas and has a gorgeous talented daughter named Daniella who attends Belmont College here in Nashville which is great because now Bobby comes up here to see her and he brings Christian and we all get to visit on a regular basis and isn’t this just the longest run-on sentence EVER?

So here’s the six degrees of separation part: Bobby is a long-time friend of the Jonas family and Kevin, the dad, is a long-time fan of Russ’. So Bobby introduces Kevin to Russ about a year ago, and he mentions that his sons grew up listening to him and that now they have this group and they travel and sing and write their own music and play their own instruments and are really doing pretty well. (Don’t know if he told him  the part about being on Broadway, having their own television show and upcoming movie, selling out Madison Square Garden and currently being the hottest media darlings/musical group in the country!) Russ was clueless, bless his sweet, “I don’t watch the Disney Channel or listen to pop radio” heart! He just thought Kevin was a great guy and wished his sons well.

So here’s the part where it all comes together in a perfect storm of Nashville-ness: Russ calls Bobby to wish him Merry Christmas and Bobby tells him oh by the way he might be in town on the 4th to see the Jonas Brothers at the Ryman and Kevin had said he would love to see Russ again and would he like to come and maybe have time to hang out for a while? Russ, again clueless, had not heard anything about it and didn’t know that it was a big hairy deal and the hottest ticket in town. He thought that sounded like fun, told Bobby he’d talk to him later about it and then casually mentioned it to me about a day later. I said, “Um, I bet Madi might want to go!” and filled him in on the teenage monumental-ness of an invitation to hang out backstage at a JoBro concert. Madi played it cool when we told her, and said that she wasn’t actually a huge fan or all that familiar with their music (she’s more a Fleet Foxes/MIA/Patty Griffin/fill-in-name-of-obscure-indie-artist-or-obscure-vintage-group-here kind of gal), BUT she would definitely be interested in going... bragging rights, don’tcha know! So last night, after carefully choosing her outfit, she and Russ and Bobby headed off for the Ryman, while Charlotte, Christian and I held down the fort. Poor Russ was sick as a dog, he was in about Day 3 of a nasty virus he caught over the holidays and felt just awful– but hey, he’s a dad, whaddya gonna do. I got several text messages from Madi during the evening and a couple of calls where she just wordlessly held the phone up so I could hear loud, jumbled snatches of music interspersed with deafening high-pitched girl screams– not hers of course, remember she’s way too cool for that. I didn’t get the full report until it was all over (poor Russ finally had to bail mid-concert, so Bobby and Daniella brought her home). Her laid-back facade cracked wide open– she had a ball!!! The backstage hang was pretty epic; besides the Jonas Brothers she got to meet Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Michael W. Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman. She got to see Amy Grant and Vince Gill again, and also spotted Martina McBride, Brad Paisley, and Jordin Sparks. Everyone was incredibly gracious and sweet to her, and she was absolutely floored when one of the Jonas Brothers leaned over and told her that it was such a big honor for him to finally meet her dad– it’s hard for her to wrap her head around the fact that hello! I TOLD her we used to be were cool parents to have!

All in all a great night for Sharkbite Girl, and I am eternally grateful to Bobby and the Jonas guys and all of the truly cool people who gave her such a memorable experience.

Here are a few more shots from the evening:

**Russ and Vince

** Amy is laughing because Russ caught her in the act of standing up on a table to get a better photo angle– probably when HER kids were posing with the Jonas Brothers!

**Old Friends (Grizzled Veterans edition): Dan Raines, Steven Curtis Chapman, Michael W. Smith, Russ, John Huie.

**Concert shot of Brad Paisley and Joe Jonas, with somebody’s big ol’ head in the foreground.

**Jordin Sparks was another surprise guest.

**Finale. (OMG, does Martina McBride has seriously skinny legs or what?!!!) The End.

…in the land of No Wifi.

We are driving home tomorrow, and I can’t wait to catch up with you guys! My New Year’s Resolution is to post more often–( yours is to comment more often, right???!!!) Hope you have all had a blessed, memorable holiday season and we’ll “talk” more soon!

I’ll leave you with a quick look of what we have been doing a lot of:

We made a WHOLE BUNCH of pizzas on New Year’s Eve– this one is kind of the ‘kitchen sink’ variety, with lots of everything. Daniel the Computer Genius made the sauce and it was rockin’.

And then of course, after eating your weight in pizza, you have to do a whole lot of this:

And there you have it. Bye for now!