What's His Name? How Should I Know?

He's an imaginary rhino.

On Sunday, the whole family went out to Morton Arboretum for the Justin Roberts concert. Unlike our attempt to see the same tour at Ravinia earlier in the summer, we made it to the Arb in just over 30 minutes and were a bit early for the 3 p.m. show. It was a fantastic concert! Although it was hot and a bit muggy (lots of mosquitos after all the rain last week), the venue was perfect -- a large grassy field with lots of room for bouncing around and playing -- and it was not too crowded or fussy. We sat near the back of the field, and because we got there too late to score any of the tree-shaded spots, pitched our beach umbrella in the grass to give ourselves some shade. We ate lunch at home, but I brought a snack of fresh blueberries and yoghurt pretzels and water. The Arb had a few food/drink tents set up, so I bought a strawberry smoothie to share with The Boy and The Girl, and The Dad had a beer.

The concert was the final one in a series of family concerts put on my the Arboretum. The marketing guy who introduced Justin Roberts referred to him/the group as The Real Thing -- a professional band that was of the early pioneers of kid-rock that appeals to the parents, too, and
a group of people who really bring passion to their work. I wholeheartedly agree. Everyone in our family had a great time at the concert -- The Girl, The Boy, The Dad, me, even The Baby enjoyed himself! We all danced and ran around and enthusiastically sang along with the band (as a consolation prize for missing all but the last 2 songs and the encore last month at Ravinia, we bought the new Justin Roberts CD, Meltdown, and memorized all the words within a week). We bought The Boy an overpriced concert tee ($15, but The Dad pointed out: "What concert tee isn't overpriced?") and he has worn it every other day since then. It's an almost-neon green; at least he's easy to spot in a crowd.