Yeah, same with me...I took a few piano lessons as a kid, and all I wanted to do was play songs. We did some theory fundamentals, but I didn't really get a grip on the basics until I took some theory classes in college.

Another advantage from early piano lessons is that you get a good visual understanding of how the notes are laid out on the keyboard...this really helps when you're trying to understand how intervals, triads, etc work on the guitar.