Regardless, this little guy is moving to Blogspot (sorry WordPress!), it doesn’t look much different – but there will be some fun New Year’s goals posted tomorrow that detail a bit more where I want to take my blogging in the next year.  And let’s be honest, why would I want to taint this blog with the year the world ends?!

For all you lovely family and friends who actually follow this thing – I love you!  Find me tomorrow at mydearwatsonadventures.blogspot.com.

Here’s a glimpse at the 2 Friends tour via Instagram.  Onto Michael’s Christmas tour!

Thanks V for being such an awesome and encouraging subject!

I’m sitting in a Dallas hotel room, waiting to meet the rest of the crew for lunch in the lobby around 1.  This weekend is nice.  Amy’s playing with the Dallas Symphony for three days, starting yesterday – so we do one setup and one tear down, which also means we have a lot more spare time during show days.  So far I’ve opted to take advantage of this comfortable hotel bed and edit some photos from some off time we had near Aspen a couple weeks ago for this week’s SaTOURday contribution.

Anyways, between two five day runs we had the option of flying home to Nashville or having a day in Salt Lake City and two at a beautiful ranch near Aspen.  As much as I miss Ian when I’m gone, I opted to stay out.  It certainly would have been a better experience had he been there, but I was so happy with the decision I made.  Words and pictures cannot even describe our time at the ranch.  All eight of us who stayed out contributed to a tour family dinner which was incredible.  We did some horseback riding, four-wheeled up to an 11,500 ft. summit, and really just enjoyed each other’s company.

Welcome to Peace Ranch.

Some different views from the ranch.

I’m a totally natural cowgirl.

Allow me to introduce you to Gene and Clay.  Two of my favorite folks with whom I’ve toured.

Coming down from the mountain, Clay and I got a bit turned around on the ATV, but we got lost into this amazingly beautiful field right at sunset.

Best days off ever.

I’m still working on my boldness in photographing, so it took me a bit warm up to a group largely made up of people I didn’t know.  They were so sweet, and all the kids were really cooperative.  Hooray!

Want a peek?  Ok.  Awesome, because you’re getting one!

Of course I’d end with the Bradstreet babes.

Want to see a few more?  Head on over to the My Dear Watson Photography site.

A couple weekends ago, we were in the Pacific Northwest.  One of the perks of my job is getting paid to visit places I wouldn’t normally go.  Most times we are just so busy I don’t get to do much exploring.  Thankfully, we had a day off in Portland, which also happens to be the new hometown to two friends from Nashville.  After spending the morning gallivanting around on Portland’s public transit system and making my way to the International Rose Test Garden (best smelling place on earth)…

…Matt and Nate took me around their version of Portland which included some delicious deli, Powell’s Bookstore, Voodoo donuts and some more public transit.

Nashville sure misses this face.

Done and done.

In actual tour news, I finally got a really great stage photo of Amy.  I am still learning photo techniques of live shows, and this one makes me happy.

That was taken the night a proposal happened.  I would be so mortified if Ian ever proposed to me in a public arena, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love watching a good proposal happen.

Dawwwww….

Tune in next Saturday for the most amazing adventures on the most amazing ranch in Basalt, CO.

Also, maybe I’ll start a new series on my blog, where I post about adventures of touring life on Saturdays.  Sound good to you?  Because it sounds good to me.

I just wanted to drop a short note about things I’m thankful for today:

Warren and Nancy.  Two of Michael’s fans who came to our show in Phoenix in the spring, to Michael’s weekend in Nashville in June and now tonight’s show in Tucson.  They came up to the table to find me specifically and say hello.  Sweet folks, and let’s be honest – as the merch person, it’s rewarding to know that I’ve left a good impression on someone.

Kris and her brother, David.  Kris has volunteered at some shows I’ve done out this way before and we randomly ran into each in Nashville last year.  I sent her a text a few weeks ago to see if she wanted to volunteer at tonight’s show.  And she did.  I can’t tell you how comforting it is to have someone you’ve worked with before and trust on your team for a night.

Compassion International.  It’s part of my job on tour to handle our tour sponsor.  I do get paid, and it’s been a huge financial blessing.  But everyone at Compassion is always to encouraging.  And, as cheesy as it sounds, I am thankful to be a part of something that is changing the lives of children around the world.

Bottled water.  At every show, we are never short on bottled water.  I need to drink more water.  I think I got slightly dehydrated earlier today.  Not awesome, but how wonderful that I can walk to catering and get clean water.  I don’t have to work for it, walk for it, boil it.  It’s there for the taking.

Snickers.  I made some comment in the production office yesterday about chocolate.  I love, love, love sweets.  Later, our tour manager sent me a text and said there was chocolate in his work box for me.  I didn’t get it until after the show was over, but I found it this morning.  Simple acts of kindness.

Blessed.  There is simply no other way to describe how I feel about touring.  Some days I could think of lots of not so favorable words; but today, I feel blessed.  And it’s nice to document these moments so I can remind myself just how fortunate I am.

Hooray for cell phone tour family photos!

We weren’t the only Yankee fans in Anaheim.

This man was the best peanut seller I’ve ever seen.  He even beat out the man Lizzy and I constantly impersonated for years yelling “BEER HERE…”  Every time someone would buy peanuts from this guy, he’d gain the attention of the section and shout in his deep voice, “This lovely lady (or man) just bought herself (or himself) a big bag of salted nuts!”  Everyone would cheer really loudly, and it really captured the reasons I love live sporting events.

Thanks to our fantastic tour manager for this fun picture of the game.  We laughed, we drank, we cheered and then we headed to out bus.

Without further adieu, here are some of my favorite photos from the day:

The end.