Man, I Feel Like a Woman!

 

On Friday, I heard on the Radio that Shania Twain was going to be in town the following night performing at Hersheypark Stadium (two hours away).  She doesn't tour or perform much anymore, so even though I didn't want to do a four hour round trip drive to see her, I brought it up to Dave as a possibility.  We decided to sleep on it and then check tickets and weather the next day.  Well, yesterday just hours before the concert, the weather looked good and we were able to find 9th row tickets for $78.20/ticket including all taxes and fees, so we decided to do it!  We jumped I the car and headed 2 hours north to Hershey, PA!

Andy Grammar was her opening act.  He was great!

We felt so lucky we got the tickets that we did.  As we were waiting for Shania to take the stage, I looked at all the thousands of people behind us....

And then only a few rows of people in between us and the stage.

Shania!!

So fun to see her up close and personal!  I saw her once before when I lived in California (it was either in 2003 or 2004) so it's been over 20 years since I've seen her and Dave has never seen her in concert, so we decided to take advantage of the (relatively close) proximity and reasonably priced tickets, especially since we chose a Shania Twain song as our Wedding Song  (You've Got a Way) and was our first dance as a married couple 20 years ago. 

Such a fun night!

She sang:

Rock This Country!

Don't Be Stupid

You Win My Love

Waking Up Dreaming

Up!

I'm Gonna Getcha Good!

You're Still the One

No One Needs to Know

Come on Over

Any Man of Mine

Giddy Up!

I Ain't No Quitter

Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?

Honey, I'm Home

From This Moment On

That Don't Impress Me Much

Party for Two

(If You're Not in it for Love) I'm Outta Here!

Man! I Feel Like a Woman!

For the Strength of Youth (FSY)

 

Riley and Tanner just got home from spending a week at University of Maryland, College Park for FSY (For the Strength of Youth).

Riley with her friends Kylie and Audrey ready for the week to start!

Tanner and his friend and roommate for the week, Evan Crockett.

Riley getting settled in the dorms with her roommate Kylie and making new friends.

Lunch time!

Elevator antics

Tanner and the boys

They both had a great week!

Summer Tennis - Shelton, Tiafoe, Venus, Fritz..... and Lacey and Ella!

 

It's been a jam-packed week full of tennis!

Lacey and Ella have had a lot of fun this summer playing on Shipley's Tennis team.  Their team went undefeated and they both loved playing on the same team together.

On Monday, I took both of my tennis-loving girls to the DC Mubadala Citi Open, the 5th largest professional tennis tournament in the country and the only combined ATP and WTA 500 tournament in the world.  This was Lacey's third year in a row going, but the first time we brought Ella.

Showing Ella where to hang out by the practice courts to score some pics and autographs.

Ella's ready with her ball!

Lacey with Daniil Medvedev (former World #1 and 2021 US Open champion).

Ella with Medvedev.

Lacey with Holger Rune (currently ranked 9th in the world). 

We had fun being up close and personal with Venus Williams (former World #1 player and winner of 7 majors including five Wimbledon titles and 2 US Open titles).  Unfortunately, unlike every other player there, she doesn't give fans any attention - she doesn't sign any autographs or pose for any pics or really even acknowledge any of her fans.  So, while we loved seeing the legendary Venus Williams, she's not our favorite!

I am not entirely sure who this is.... but he's cute! 😉

Watching Venus Williams and her doubles partner Hailey Baptiste.

Lacey with Taylor Fritz!  He is currently the #1 American player in men's singles and #4 in the world.

Ella and Fritz!

Even Mickey loves tennis!

Fun with my girls!

We stayed at the tournament for 10 hours (from about noon -10pm) and finished up the day by watching a night match on center court with Ben Shelton (currently ranked #8 in the world - he just made it to the quarter finals at Wimbledon, and made it to the 4th round in the French Open earlier this year and the Semifinals at the Australian Open earlier this year - so he's on fire in 2025!) and Frances Tiafoe (who made it to the Quarterfinals in both the Australian Open and French Open earlier this year) playing doubles.

After the match was over, Ella rushed over to try to get Ben Shelton's autograph.

And she got it!

What a great day!!

The following day (Tuesday), we celebrated Lacey's 1/2 birthday, because, why not?  Happy "Lacey Day!"

And then on Wednesday, Lacey and Ella had their final practice with their summer tennis team, which ended with games and awards.

Lacey was presented with the MVP award by her Coach, Coach Brendan.

MVP of the season - way to go, Lacey!!

Then on Thursday and Friday, Ella and Lacey played in the Patapsco tournament to wrap up the season.

Here are Ella and Blake (teammates) watching their older sisters (Lacey and Bailey) play each other. 

Lacey won her division!  Here she is posing with her first place award with her teammate Bailey who won second place.

Way to go, Lacey!

And that's a wrap for Tennis!

So glad my girls have something they love doing with each other and I hope Lacey keeps playing for fun at college!