Summer Concerts

There are so many great concerts coming to SLC this summer.  It seems like a new concert is announced every week and I keep buying tickets!  It looks like 2015 might be the Summer of Concerts and I am so excited!  It all started with Taylor Swift.  By the way, I read somewhere that life is too short to pretend that you don't like Taylor Swift so I will admit right now that I am a huge fan!  I debated and debated about getting a ticket but I decided to go for it (I had to use an alternate ticketing source because the SLC show sold out in minutes) because I really regret not seeing the Red tour.  Then I bought tickets to Rush!  I actually bought these tickets as soon as they went on sale which was in the middle of one of my classes.  I am the consummate professional!  I also have tickets to Ed Sheeran, Imagine Dragons, Sam Smith, and Shania Twain!  Then last week U2 announced that they were adding a show in Denver to their schedule!  Squeal!  I have loved U2 since I was in eighth grade and I have seen them in concert every time they've come to SLC (SLC is currently not on their schedule).  I was toying with the idea of getting a ticket to one of the Chicago shows but it will be so much easier for me to get to Denver!  I was able to get a ticket and I am beyond excited!  The show is on the first day of summer vacation and I can't wait!

Here are some of my favorite summer concerts from years past.

U2 at Rice-Eccles Stadium - May 2011

The Eagles at Rio Tinto Stadium - May 2009

Paul McCartney at Rio Tinto Stadium - July 2010

Crosby, Stills & Nash at Red Butte Garden - August 2012

2014: Year In Review

Snowshoeing at Tibble Fork Reservoir - January 2014

Snowshoeing at Sundance Resort - February 2014

Colorado Avalanche Road Trip - March 2014

Spring Break Road Trip - April 2014

Lava Hot Springs - May 2014

Yellowstone National Park - June 2014

Russia - July 2014

Utah Shakespeare Festival - August 2014

Mt. Rushmore - September 2014

Frightmares at Lagoon with Sean & Tashena - October 2014

Utah Jazz Game - November 2014

Christmas - December 2014

2014 has been a year full of adventures, challenges, and opportunities! I can't wait to see what 2015 has in store! Happy New Year!

Don't forget to enter the giveaway for a $50 Megaplex Theatres gift card.

Jordanelle Then & Now

When I mentioned that my family likes to camp at Jordanelle in the fall, I wasn't kidding!  I found some pictures of Tashena from September of 2009 in many of the same poses as Sean from our most recent trip!

I sure have had a lot of fun with these kiddos over the years (even if one of them did lose a shoe in the mud).

The Eagles at Energy Solutions Arena

Some of my very favorite childhood memories involve my Dad's light blue Dodge Ramcharger and the music of the Eagles.  We went on many road trips and my Dad's favorite traveling music was the Eagles' Greatest Hits (1971-1975).  As we drove down the road my sisters and I would sing at the top of our lungs: "I'm standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona and such a fine sight to see.  It's a girl, my Lord, in a flat-bed Ford slowin' down to take a look at me."  Last night my family got to relive those memories at the ESA during the Eagles concert and it was pretty amazing (it turns out that we can still sing "Take It Easy" at the top of our lungs).  This tour celebrated the history of the band and they played their hits in chronological order.  When they took the stage, they sat on their amplifiers and reminisced about starting the band.  They played "What Ever Happened to Saturday Night" and "Train Leaves Here This Morning" which are some of the first songs they wrote.  Then they played "Peaceful Easy Feeling" and a bluesy version of "Witchy Woman" (which I really liked) from their first album.  They told the crowd that the inspiration for their second album was a book about gunfighters that belonged to Jackson Browne and then, to my delight, they played "Doolin-Dalton."  It is one of my favorite songs by the band and I've never heard it live before!  They also played "Tequila Sunrise" and then "Doolin-Dalton/ Desperado (Reprise)" which gave me goosebumps!  Then they moved onto the album On The Border and played "Already Gone" and "Best of My Love."  Next came One of These Nights and they played the title song, "Lyin' Eyes," and "Take it to the Limit" before the intermission.  When the band came back, they only played one song from Hotel California (saving it for the encore?), which was "Pretty Maids in a Row," and moved on to The Long Run.  Timothy B. Schmit gave a lovely rendition of "I Can't Tell You Why," and then they sang "New Kid In Town," "Those Shoes," and an acoustic version of "Heartache Tonight."  Then they let Joe Walsh off his chain and they performed "In The City," which is one of my Dad's favorites.  Joe Walsh continued by jamming to his solo hits "Life's Been Good To Me So Far" and "Funk #49."  I don't know how many brain cells Joe Walsh has left but he can certainly play that guitar!  He had the ESA rocking!  They continued with "The Long Run" and finished their set with "Life in the Fast Lane."  For the first encore they played "Hotel California" (as predicted) with everyone in the arena singing along!  They came back for a final encore and played "Take It Easy," "Rocky Mountain Way," and "Desperado."  They played for close to three hours and I didn't want it to end!  I am glad that my family was able to make another wonderful memory involving the music of the Eagles!

Note:  When the Eagles came to Salt Lake in 1995 for the Hell Freezes Over tour, I didn't go because I thought $75.00 was too much to pay for a concert!  I find that highly amusing now, especially in light of what I recently paid to see Paul McCartney!

Independence Day 2014

Friday was absolutely wonderful!  I spent the holiday with my family and we had so much fun together.  We had a fabulous dinner of dutch oven chicken cordon bleu, corn on the cob, fruit salad, and rolls.  I think everything tastes so much better outside.

I made my traditional flag cake, which I have made every year since I was in high school.  It is so simple:  bake a white cake, spread a tub of whipped cream on top, and place blueberries and sliced strawberries in a flag pattern.  It is a really light and refreshing dessert which tastes a lot like strawberry shortcake.

I also made flag cupcakes at Sean's request.  He kept asking me if he could have one.  I think he eventually had four of them before the night was over!

While Sean went swimming, the rest of us played the board game Life.  This is actually one of our favorite games to play when we were kids (we also had epic Monopoly games that would last for days during every school holiday when were young).  It was so much fun to continue the tradition with Tashena.  We have a tendency to get really silly while playing cards or board games!

Sean had a hard time waiting for it to get dark to start the fireworks so we had the kiddos play with poppers and sparklers.  I think Sean would have been completely happy with just the poppers!  But we take fireworks very seriously in my family!  When we were kids we used to spend the 4th of July at my Grandma's house in Moroni.  My Dad used to provide a fireworks show for all of the grandchildren.  This usually necessitated a trip to Wyoming to get the good (illegal) stuff.  One year the sheriff pulled up in front of my grandma's house and we were afraid that my Dad would be in trouble.  Turns out, the sheriff just wanted to watch the show!  Now aerial fireworks are legal in Utah so Marilyn and I spent the equivalent of the GNP of a small country on fireworks this year but it was so worth it!

We had an epic show (although the expensive one I bought for the finale was kind of a dud).  One of our aerials malfunctioned and sent showers which exploded towards us!  One exploded right next to Marilyn and actually burned her leg a little bit.  She is such a pyromaniac that when we rushed to see if she was hurt, she yelled out, "That was awesome!"  After the fireworks display (we were competing with the people one street over and I think we won), we went inside for cake.  Then the kids wanted to go in the backyard and play another board game.  We ended up playing Clue (at midnight) and laughing so hard!  Another very memorable 4th of July!

I hope you had a wonderful holiday with your family and friends!

Lunch at Little America

Yesterday the principal of HHS took the student body officers and me to lunch at Little America, a gorgeous hotel in downtown Salt Lake City.  It was so much fun to be able to leave school in the middle of the day and have lunch in such a beautiful place.  It was also really great for me to hear them reminisce about how much fun they had this year.  Our principal had each of them share one of their favorite memories.  I think my favorite memory is when we made a giant black and yellow pinata in the shape of a "C" (we played Cottonwood High School for Homecoming). It was enormous and it took us several days after school to make it out of papier-mache.  Then it took an epic feat of engineering to hang it in the gym for the football players to smash during the assembly.  We all prayed that it would stay up long enough and it actually did!  We are all still very proud of it!  Our principal told the students that they could order anything they wanted from the menu without worrying about the price.  They all ordered steak!  He also told them they could order dessert and I had the most delicious cheesecake ever!  I am so proud of these students and I am really glad I had the opportunity to work with them.  It has been a lot of work but it has also been so much fun.  I will miss them!

Note:  When I got back to school that afternoon, the new student body officers designed and ordered their sweaters for next year.  Everything starts all over again...

I Love Being an Aunt

I love being an aunt!  Both Tashena and Sean were adopted when they were five and four, respectively.  When I met both of them for the first time, my heart just melted.  I had no idea that I could love two children so much.  They have both been through a lot in their young lives and I am incredibly proud of them!  Being an aunt is the greatest thing ever; you get to have fun with them and, when they get tired or cranky, you get to take them home!  I remember the first time Marilyn and I got to take Tashena on an outing.  We took her to the circus and she came home with her face painted, a hat, a cup in the shape of an elephant, cotton candy, and sword that lit up.  My brother-in-law said, "What part of no spoiling don't you two understand?"  We couldn't help it.  Spoiling is in the Aunt By-laws!  Here are some random pictures of all the fun I have had with these two kiddos!

I am so lucky to be their aunt!