Beach Geezers...I Mean Boys!

June 30 - Every summer, there is a car show near our home and as part of it, they do a concert. It is always an oldies band. The first year we moved here, it was 3 Dog Night and last year it was America. This year, it was the BEACH BOYS! I was so excited! However, as it got closer, it looked like we probably wouldn't be able to go. Logan had tball and we had some other things going on. We bought my dad some tickets for his birthday because he is one of the biggest Beach Boy fans of all time, and Darren's parents bought tickets, too. They ended up with an extra pair, so at the last minute, we went to the concert and it was SO GREAT! We had to go a little late and I was so bummed when we were trying to get in that they were singing "Surfing Safari" and we missed it! The Beach Boys have SO many good songs and I have so many good memories of the Beach Boys growing up. The only thing I really remember listening to when I was little is the Beach Boys and Elvis! And...for being so OLD (the 2 original Beach Boy members that still tour are 69 and 70 years old!!!) they were great! We had so much fun!!!
Darren and IThe parents - We all went together and had lots of fun! There was some Beach Boys mega fan that was sitting close to us. She was about 18 and dancing the entire time and SO excited about the show. Darren's dad went down and danced with her and I think it freaked her out! After the concert, she asked for a picture with him and the people in front of us were asking each other who he was because I think they thought he must be famous. It was pretty funny!
The Beach Boys
My favorite part of the whole concert was watching my dad! He was SO happy and having so much fun. I tried to get a good picture of him, but this was the best I did. I loved seeing him so excited about something! It was a great night!!!

Disney on ICe

March 10 - For Christmas, Darren and I gave Logan and Rylee each a special Date night. Logan's was tickets to a Jazz game and Rylee's was tickets to Disney on Ice. They were so excited and had a hard time waiting for their big nights to come! Rylee had to wait longer than Logan and she couldn't wait for Disney on Ice! Some of our good friends also ended up going the same night, so we were able to drive down together and it was so much fun! We met them in Layton and made a quick dinner stop at In-N-Out!
Rylee LOVES In-N-Out! She can eat a whole burger there with NO problem! I love her!!!

Going to dinner took MUCH longer than we planned and we were a little frantic to get to the show on time. We seriously parked and RAN to the ESA in less than 5 minutes and sat down in our seats just as the lights went down for the show to start. Close call!
Rylee was SO excited!!!
Waving as all the Princesses came out for the ball. She was a little bothered that Rapunzel from Tangled wasn't there...
I loved watching all of her funny faces throughout the show. This was when they were doing the Princess Ball and Ariel came out. She was in heaven!!!
Me and Rylee at intermission. The show was celebrations and in the first act they did an Unbirthday party with the Alice in Wonderland characters, a Halloween part with all the Disney villains and a really cool part with the brooms from Fantasia. They also did a Valentine's Ball with all the Princesses and Rylee was LOVING that!!!
During Intermission, Rylee had to change into her dress since we were running late and didn't have time to do it before the show started. I tried to talk her out of it since the show was already half over, but she wanted to be in her Belle dress! She also got a Tinkerbell snow cone and it kept her busy for the rest of the night! It was HUGE and so hard for her to eat and made a giant mess. But, she loved it! Waving at the end of the show! She had a great time! The second half had a real Hawaiian luau with Lilo and Stitch and even a fire dancer and a Christmas part with all the Toy Story characters.
All of the characters at the finale.

Mommy and Rylee just before we went home. We had such a fun night! I love doing these one on one dates with the kids and seeing them on their own. It is so fun for them and for me! Rylee LOVED her night with the Disney Princesses and I loved MY Princess!
Rylee and her cute friends - Gracie, Whitney and Brooke
Rylee and her Tinkerbell cup! She couldn't wait to tell Daddy all about it!

USA Soccer game

On September 5th, Darren and I went to the USA World Cup Qualifying match against El Salvador with a few friends. Apparently, this is a "once in a lifetime opportunity" that we just couldn't miss to watch the USA team. However, we did go to one of these games about 4 years ago when I was prego with Logan, so I guess it is NOT really once in a lifetime. So far, both Logan and Baby #3 have experienced a game while in the womb. Poor Rylee got left out! Logan REALLY wanted to come to this game and would have loved it, but the tickets were too expensive to justify it. Maybe when he is a little older!

When we got there, it was SO loud in the stadium even before the game started. We couldn't believe how many El Salvador fans there were. Most of them were carrying El Salvador flags and wearing USA headbands - Kind of funny! Our seats were awesome! Thanks for hooking us up with such good ones Jesse and Christina!

Here is a picture of Landon Donovan - He is one of the few US players I know. I am getting better though. It was pretty exciting when Kyle Beckerman got to play in the 2nd half since he is a Real Salt Lake player.

We LOVE soccer!

Our group of friends: On the back row: Diane (and Berg) and Jon, Scott and Kathy (and Tyler) Front row: Christina and Jesse and Darren and me. The other people look like the might be part of our group, but they just wish we were! We sat by the grouchiest old man though who kept yelling at everyone in front of him to sit down. It IS a soccer game - People do stand up and cheer!

Me and my big belly by the field - Had to have proof that the little one had the "once in a lifetime experience" right?

Me and Darren - The US played great and ended up coming from behind and winning 2-1. They did score another goal, but they called it back because of offsides. It was a pretty exciting game!

Afterwards, we went with Jesse and Christina to the Mayan. I hadn't been there in FOREVER but it was really fun and the food was actually pretty good, too! Thanks again guys! Such a fun night and I even made it without any pregnancy complications!

The BIG 3-0!!!

Darren turned the BIG 3-0 this year and since it is a pretty big milestone birthday, I wanted to go all out and celebrate how OLD he is! A trip was kind of out of the question since we are so close to having the baby, so I thought about having a big party, but Darren hinted several times that he did NOT want a party, so I decided to just do what I could to surprise him and plan a fun weekend. I ended up putting several different little ideas together and I think it was successful! We had a great weekend and he had lots of fun surprises!

I told Darren to take Friday off and we went up on Thursday night and visited our good friend's, the White's, at a cabin we were staying at near Sundance in Provo Canyon. The surprise was supposed to be going up on Thursday night, but if you read the previous post, we snuck up there earlier in the week, so going on Thursday wasn't a surprise but still fun. We were also able to go and play with them all day on Friday!

Here are Darren and Sandy! We had a great time with them Sunday night and Monday and then Thursday night and all day Friday. Darren has really missed Sandy and we love their family so it was a great surprise! They were like family to us while we were in Vegas so we always love to see them. We spent many nights at their home watching games, scrapbooking and eating lots of treats. They always made us feel so welcome!

We went to Bridal Veil Falls with the White's and a few other fun things down in Provo, but I already posted them, so onto the rest of the weekend...

I arranged for my mom to take the kids on Friday night, so we took them there after we said good-bye to the White's. They always love staying at Grandma's and have lots of entertainment with their aunts and uncles and Grandma and Grandpa there. I didn't tell Darren, but I got us a hotel and we were able to go out for a yummy dinner with no kids at Tepanyaki! SO YUMMY!!!

Darren even got a special birthday dessert! After dinner, we headed to a movie. Darren chose GI Joe, which I wouldn't normally see, except it was his birthday, so I suffered through it. I was actually expecting much worse (though I don't recommend it), but Darren was pretty disappointed. I guess it is all about your expectations.

Saturday was Darren's actual birthday! We got to sleep in (such a great present!) and then went to Mimi's for some really good stuffed french toast!

We went to my mom's for a little bit next since I figured the kids would want to see Dad on his birthday! My mom gave Darren these new lounge chairs that he always likes to use at her house. He was pretty excited about them. We ran a quick errand and test drove a few cars. Always a fun experience! Then we took the kids to meet Darren's parents for lunch at Chili's. We had a late breakfast and early dinner plans, so we didn't really eat, but it was fun to go out.
Then we took the kids back to my mom's and were off for our next BIG surprise!

I got tickets to the Real Game! Darren was VERY excited! He had hinted for these a few times, but I kept telling hinting about other plans, so I think he thought I already had something planned for us to do. I had him pretty tricked because I told him that we were going back to Logan and my mom was keeping the kids again overnight. Once we got to the freeway ramp, I had to tell him to go south instead of north, so he knew we were doing something else, but still wasn't sure. The plan was to meet a few friends at the Cheesecake factory for dinner and then head to the game, but it didn't quite work out. We got there and it was REALLY crowded and everyone was running late. Darren still had no clue about the game - He just thought we were going to dinner until Jesse and Christina showed up in their Real jerseys and then he figured it out - He was SO happy! We ended up taking our Cheesecake to go and eating at the Crown Burger near the stadium so we could make it to the game on time. A few friends were able to join us - Jesse and Christina Winn and Robb and Carlie Lifferth and Darren's brother, Cory, and his girlfriend, Katie. It was really fun! Darren enjoying his cheesecake! It was a bummer we couldn't eat there, but the cheesecake is the best part anyway. Jesse and Christina bought Darren a Real jersey, which he was SO excited about and Cory went to "Meet the Players" day and got Darren a ball autographed by the whole team! I am pretty sure that Darren thinks he needs a whole man cave now just to display his prize ball! I told him he wasn't supposed to get such cool gifts and show me up like that!

Darren was pretty excited to get into the game! We were actually on time and had good seats! We usually just sit in the cheap ones, but it was fun to be closer!

The boys outside the Real stadium! Jesse, Cory, Robb and Darren

Me and Darren ready to go into the game!

Darren and Robb at the game! Robb and Carlie had never been to a MLS game before and I think we converted them - They loved it, or at least said they did! Cory and Katie and Jesse and Christina had other tickets, so we didn't get to sit by them at the game, although there were some extra seats by us so Cory and Katie moved over by us at halftime. It was a really fun game! I think it was more fun than usual for me because we had great seats and the kids weren't there, so I was able to actually WATCH the game and pay attention!

Me and Darren cheering for Real! They played the Houston Dynamo and tied 0-0. Not the most exciting game since no one scored, but still fun.

Darren and Cory after the game

We got home really late on Saturday night and then had church super early on Sunday (8:30). After church, we celebrated with the kids. I felt kind of bad that they had been left out of so much of our celebrating. They were SO excited to give Daddy their presents!

They were especially excited to give Daddy this funny card that sings! They got him one for Father's Day, too, and they think they are hilarious!
Rylee picked out Daddy's favorite treat to get him - Reese's Big Cups!

Logan asked to buy Daddy a basketball hoop about a million times, but we couldn't really do that without any yard or anything yet. His next request was to get Darren a bike, but I didn't really think that was in the budget either. He finally settled on Silly String! Talk about from one extreme to another!!!

Logan HAD to go and test out the Silly String right away! They had a lot of fun spraying it and it was gone pretty quickly!

Darren and his presents. I didn't get him much since most of his present was all the stuff we did over the weekend and the Real tickets. I did get him some new clothes and a new Kenny Chesney CD and I ordered him a cable package of soccer games that he is very excited about! It was a pretty big sacrifice for me - I think he watched 6 soccer games the first week I ordered it!

The kids also picked out this yummy ice cream oreo cake at the store and the candles! They were so excited to sing to Daddy and have him blow them out!

Can you believe this guy is 30? He is really getting up there! Darren is the BEST husband and father and is always helping with things around the house or making dinner and other stuff! He is so great to me, especially lately when I haven't felt up to doing as much. He is so great with the kids and they love playing with them and he is always willing to go along with whatever they want to do. They are so lucky to have that kind of dad and to be able to spend so much time with him! Darren always puts us first and I really love that about him! Happy 30th Babe! I hope it was a good one - You deserve it!

KENNY!!!

Sorry for the flood of a million posts, but I am REALLY trying to catch up before our baby arrives! Not that anyone wants to read about all our summer activities, but I don't want to leave stuff out for my own "family journal" purposes.

On July 23, Darren and I went to the Kenny Chesney concert! I was really excited about it! I got the tickets WAY back in April for my birthday and Darren bought them in February, so it was a long wait for the big night! We aren't really concert goers, but this one was so fun! Just before we left to go down there, I found out that Sugarland wasn't going to be playing and I was SO bummed! I was almost as excited to see them as I was to see Kenny. It was a LONG concert! It started at 5:00 and went to 11:30. We got there about a 1/2 hour late and it was SO hot! I didn't know if I was going to survive. I must have looked miserable sitting in the heat and being 7 months prego because the guy just down from us handed me a fan and said, "you look like you could use this." The first act was Lady Antebellum and they were really good. I only recognized a few of their songs, but I really liked them.
Me and Darren dying in the sun! Once we had shade, it was great, but the first hour or two was kinda rough! Next act was Miranda Lambert and I wasn't a real big fan of hers. She was Ok though and I knew some of her songs, too.

Then it was time for the big show - KENNY!!!

We had pretty good seats - We were not on the floor, but on the 3rd row of the stadium up close to the stage. We were right on the aisle where people could get down to the floor though and that was quite entertaining! The things people wear to concerts! SERIOUSLY! And all the alcohol they drink - It was a little crazy! I saw some 60 year old-ish woman whose shirt was held closed by one little hook and eye. GROSS! I think I also saw some people doing the nasty in their clothes... It was an interesting crowd!

Here is Kenny! He is an awesome entertainer and put on quite a good show! He sings SO many good songs! We had a great time.

Here we are enjoying Kenny!

When Kenny came back out for his encore, he wore a Utes hat. I guess I can forgive him for that. His encore was REALLY long since he did an extended set since SugarLand didn't play and it was a lot of fun songs, including my all time favorite song "Without You" by U2.

Yep...all these pictures look the same, but they are the only ones I got of us! Here we are ready to head home after about 6 hours of concert! It was such a fun night! Gotta love date nights when you can get them! Thanks babe for the fun bday present, even if I did have to wait a couple months to enjoy it! It was worth it!