Concerts

I had the opportunity to go to two concerts recently. On August 26th, I took Garrett and went to see the Josh Groban "Straight to You" Concert. It was fabulous! I actually paid a little bit extra on tickets and we got to have a nice buffet dinner in one of the dining rooms in the Rose Garden before the concert started. Then, we got really good seats to the side of the stage, so we could see him really well.

The opening act was a guy that I have never heard of before, called ELEW (formerly Eric Lewis). He is an AMAZING piano player with a style all his own. This first picture is of him. I found it very odd that he never sat down on a piano bench, but stood in these really awkward looking positions. He played modern pop songs like the Killers and U2 and then also took songs and morphed them into other songs. For example, he started playing the theme from the Young and the Restless, which I thought was hilarious, and then morphed it into Coldplay's "Clocks". He was really entertaining. You can see more of him playing on youtube--we were very impressed.

Josh was amazing as well. Fabulous singer, beautiful songs and hilarious commentary. He played a lot from his new album, which I don't know as well as his previous ones, but did play some of my favorites like "February Song", "Alejate" and "Remember When it Rained"

He played the drums again, like at his last concert. So fun to hear him play! Garrett was such a sweetheart to go with me (again). Especially since he doesn't love concerts and his style is more Billy Joel, Foreigner and ACDC. :)

For the second concert, I "chaperoned" Maggie and her friend Kayla Brown to the Taylor Swift Concert. Maggie earned all the money to pay for her ticket (which was quite spendy) and a t-shirt. I was so proud of her for working hard and saving her money. She really enjoyed the concert. It was her first concert and it was fun to be with her and Kayla and watch the excitement of it all. The concert was on September 6th which was the first day of school. So as we were riding home on the MAX, they were very tired and wishing that school was somehow miraculously cancelled the next day. They both did fine though.

Kayla and Maggie waiting for Taylor Swift to start rockin'
This was our view from our nosebleed seats. Luckily, she had a lot of big screens, so we could see everything fairly well. I must say that Taylor Swift puts on a good show with lots of things going on in the background. It was pretty entertaining.

I think this is when she was singing "Mean", which is one of my favorite songs of hers. I should have Maggie writing about this. I'm sure she could give more details about each picture.

I love this picture of her...even though she doesn't like it.

"Back to December"

"Speak Now"

Can't remember the song...

I took a picture of her on the big screen. Hey, it works...

"Enchanted"

"Haunted"

Maggie really liked how she was smacking the bell with a sledgehammer.

LOVE THIS!! They are so cute!

Her last song was "Love Story" and she actually got in this balcony and "floated" over the crowds, singing. They loved it!

The End

2nd Half of Logan Trip

On Saturday the 6th, we drove down to Kaysville to go to a family fun center called Boondocks. It had mini golf, laser tag, bumper boats, go carts, arcades, etc. We had originally thought that we would take the kids to Lagoon, but my two sisters had gone before we got there (they didn't know we wanted to go), plus, the price was outrageous. We all had a good time at Boondocks, though. My mom kept Noah and watched him all day and then we took my two nieces, Emily and Rachel, with us.
Before we left, this is Bella outside playing with Lulu. Lulu is my aunt and uncles dog. They are staying with my parents while their house is being built. Bella and Noah loved Lulu, although Bella didn't like Lulu getting too close.

Noah watching Lulu through the glass
Paige happened to lose her tooth while we were at Boondocks

Getting lots of tickets!

Outside playing mini golf...it was soo hot!

Lydia, Emily, Rachel, Maggie and Paige

This was the very last hole. If you got a hole in one, you were rewarded with a spray of water. If you missed, the volcano shot out a bunch of fire.

Bella did NOT like getting sprayed on the bumper boats. This picture was taken before we started. In all the other pictures, she is hiding her face.

Maggie and Emily

Bella and I against Rachel against Maggie and Emily. It was all out war. But somehow, Rachel ended up being the dryest.

Emily and Maggie racing.

Taking turns bowling

Lydia about to take off

Bella was bored, so we took her inside to crawl through the tunnels

Paige soon joined her
August 7th

This was the next day, after church.

Garrett and Noah playing blocks. Unfortunately, Garrett wasn't feeling very good this day, which ended up being a week long bout of sickness for almost all of us.

Noah standing on his own
We watched a Yellowstone home video; had pork, funeral potatoes and corn for dinner.

Rachel, Paige, Emily, Maggie, Bella and Lydia.
Charee got back from Elko today.

This was the last night before my sister Charee and her two girls went home

Silly faces

Garrett was so funny! He was trying to carry all 6 girls at once. I don't think he had all of them on at once, but he sure tried.
August 8th

One of the reasons that I like going to Utah is that so my mom and I can hang out and sew. She also has fun projects for the kids to help her with.

This year, they made Halloween pillows. My family is very big into Halloween!

Girls doing a painting project one day.
We cleaned the house while mom went grocery shopping; made tacos for dinner and watched the movie, "State of Play."
August 9th--Finish cutting out material and assembling cars for Noah's quilt.  chicken salad for dinner; start "Catching Fire--Hunger Games #3); Noah pukes like 3X in the night.
August 10th--wash sheets, work on quilt, Noah has a little diarrhea, Eat at Costa Vida; walk around Logan Temple, work on quilt, read.

My mom really wanted to take the girls to see the Logan Temple. My parents were married there and so was my little sister Megan and her husband, Steve. It is such a beautiful temple!

Rolling down the hill...

My mom and I

Noah started throwing up on Tuesday night and was pretty much sick with stomach issues the rest of the trip. Him lying on the floor like that is not normal. Poor baby.
August 11--Noah still has diarrhea, go to Wal-mart for pedialite; lunch at Rumbi's, work on quilt; rodeo, Noah and Paige throw up in night.

Thursday night, we went to the Cache County Rodeo which was a lot of fun.

Still not feeling 100%

Paige threw up that night a couple hours after she went to sleep. So, we cancelled any plans we had made for the next day.

Noah was feeling a little better...at least he was playing again.

Grandpa and Noah

August 12-- clean up, laundry; cancel Gardner village, make taquitos for dinner, sew a little, help mom with her music and read a little bit.
Saturday was the day we were leaving, sometime after getting packed. But that morning, Maggie started puking and I got sick also. We did leave that day, but only drove to Nampa again. It wasn't a very fun day. Whatever bug we had, was a pretty bad one...my parents ended up getting sick that night and my aunt got sick after them. It wasn't a fun way to end the vacation, but it was still a good time.