So, my mom was listening to the radio one day and heard. "Win tickets to see Brad Paisley at AquaPalooza!" She texted in the 'key word' and 30 minutes later she got a phone call saying she won! Her entire winnings included round trip tickets to Austin, TX, 2 nights in a hotel, and VIP access to AquaPalooza. Since my mom lives in Austin, she could fly one person out. She chose meeee :)
So, on Friday, July 9th, to Austin I went!!
(Is that not beautiful? Our God was so creative in creating our Earth!)
I was so happy to land in Austin and see my mom waiting for me at the airport! We went straight to the hotel and checked in. I saw pictures on the internet of our hotel, but they didn't do it justice. It was amazing!! I felt like I should have changed into something nicer before I went in...LOL! (But no worries, we weren't the only ones in vaccay wear.) I was so excited to spend our down time there!
This is me in the elevator of the hotel. We were on the 10th floor (out of about 22)!
Rooftop pool with an amazing view of Downtown Austin!
Some other family that lives in Austin came to our room and I was so happy to spend time with them. My grandma was even visiting from FL! That was such a great bonus to be able to see more family! It was my brother's birthday so we had a cake for him.
Friday night we had a show to go to within walking distance of our hotel. We met our group in the lobby, received our VIP lanyards, and went to the Parish to see the show. We saw Joanna Smith and Jerrod Niemann. Both put on great performances. We got to meet Jerrod afterwards!
He was super cool.
My sister met us up there afterwards and gave us a tour of 6th Street for the rest of the night.
The next day, we had to meet our group in the lobby at 11:30 and then we traveled to AquaPalooza. We were shown our VIP tent which was stocked with drinks and floats for the float zone.
This was our the view from our tent. (Stage to the left, float zone, and the boat zone)
Mom and I enjoyed listening to Joanna Smith again from the float zone and then got back out to walk around and get some goodies from the vendors (coozies, hats, shirts). We bought Matt an AquaPalooza shirt, too.
Then it was time to eat. We had a VIP BBQ in our tent. It was amazing. For real. YUM. Jerrod Niemann came in the tent to say hi before he went on stage, as well.
We went back to the water so we could watch Jerrod and then Brad!
This is a picture of the floatzone once Brad came on. See the pink noodles in the air? That's us!!
Brad put on an amazing show!
After Brad's performance, we headed back to our tent and then to the bus. When we got back to the hotel, it was night time....we went up to take advantage of that rooftop pool and hot tub! It was very pretty at night. After the pool, we went to the room to take showers and settle down for the night.
The next morning, my mom and I enjoyed the breakfast buffet at the hotel's restaurant. It was the best breakfast I have ever had! We had omlets made just the way we wanted and some other unique yummy things.
After breakfast, it was time to head out...but not before saying hey to Jerrod Niemann in the lobby and getting him to sign my CD. He signed it 'Stephanie, thanks for being here sweetie! Jerrod Niemann.'
I was sad for this weekend to be ending but excited to see my boys! I missed them so! I think they missed me too!
