A big surprise for Em and T

Jay bought tickets to the American Idol summer tour. He even kept the info from me. I am not that interested in Idol but Jay and the girls used to watch it faithfully whenever it was on. Also, it is Emily's passion to watch You Tube videos of all the idol contestants. She also looks up their bios and can tell you many details of all the contestants' lives.

So we took them down to Columbus yesterday. We told them it was to see Easton mall. We walked around and then we told them that there was a bigger surprise in store for them. (Incidentally, we mulled over calling you Columbus dwellers, but we figured you guys wouldn't like a visit with no notice.)

We drove to the Ohio State coliseum to check it out when right outside was a big truck with AMERICAN IDOL printed on it. We quickly tried to get the girls' attention away but they saw it. But they didn't know what it meant. We then drove to a Starbucks and video taped them getting the news. I want to show their reaction. Maybe I'll post it to You Tube or something. Emily started to jump up and down and practically lost her breath. It was like someone just told her she won the lottery. Tara? Well, Tara was tired and hot and just stoically stood there and stared at the camera. I guess she isn't as in to Idol as Em. But at the concert she perked up.

When we got to the 10,000 seat arena, we were in the true nosebleed seats. We were so high that when we got up to our seats, we all felt a bit of vertigo. Emily held on to me for about ten minutes totally convinced she was going to fall to the bottom of the arena. Every five minutes, Emily jabbed me in the side to ask how many more minutes were left. 30, 25, 20, 15, 10, 5, any minute now.... Then the Idol singers came out one at a time and sang a few songs. Emily knew who would come out before it was announced. She was telling us their hometown, what they'd probably sing, who they were dating... I was truly impressed.

The show was great but dang was it LOUD. It was so loud that we couldn't even hear the words after a while. It was so loud that the mother in me wanted to cover their ears. I suppose a little exposure to that won't make them go deaf. I hope not anyway.

Then we left and got the girls photos of their two favorites after standing in a really long line. It was then off to try and find our car in a sea of cars. We sat and waited for close to an hour in the parking lot waiting for it to clear enough to leave. It was a long drive home and the girls were wonky, to say the least.

I don't think Em and T's first concert will ever be forgotten. I loved seeing Em's excitement the most. She screamed and pointed at the tiny singers (remember nosebleed seats). She was like "They're here! That's really them!"