Sunday, October 30, 2011

fighting the foo

earlier this month, richard's cousin john invited us to go to the foo fighters
concert with him and his wife jen.  we don't only own one foo fighters
album between the two of us, but we love john and jen (and a free concert),
so of course we said yes.

we met at their house, with just enough time to rile up their kids
before the babysitter came over, and then headed to the show.
the husbands aren't allowed to be the only planners anymore because
apparently we were supposed to all have dinner together, but i never got
that memo and ended up making dinner before we left.  jen and i will
be checking in with the masterminds for any future plans.


the tickets we had were for one of the luxury suites, but we started the
night down on the floor.  the opening act was ok - nothing to write home
about.  although, dave grohl did play drums for them!




we eventually made our way up to the box seats.
jen is really this tall.



we ended up knowing a lot more songs than we thought we would, just
like with U2 and kenny loggins.  we had a rockin' good time.



dave grohl is amazing.  they played about a million songs,
just like he promised they would, and he did a lot of screaming,
but you really couldn't hear it in his voice until the last song.
also note, he dances like a muppet.



they fought the foo until almost midnight, which means they played for
nearly 3 hours!  it was a great show, but i think its safe to say that we
were all about ready when it ended.



the ericksons know how to have a good time, and we are so glad they
took us along for the ride!

Sunday, October 23, 2011

bienvenido, hermana smith. adios, harry potter.

richard's youngest sister, heidi, has been serving an lds mission in uruguay
for the last 18 months, but she is safely home in st. george once again.

we went down to see her arrive at the new st. george airport with the rest of
the family.  we were so busy getting the house, welcome home banner, her
requested dinner, etc. ready that we missed her landing!  her flight landed a
little early, and we got there right on time so she had to sit and watch the elder
she flew home with be greeted by his family while she waited for us.  luckily it
was just a few minutes.  we all felt so bad!  but it was still a very sweet reunion.


here is heidi reintroducing herself to little araya.



heidi and megan's reunion was fun to watch - they are so close!



all of the siblings, minus austin who is still on his mission.
so, not all of the siblings, but a large majority.



the family.  blood family, that is.  scott and i married in, so we stayed
behind the cameras to catch all the action.



we had so much fun with the family (even though the little ones were
puking up their guts every five minutes).  we loved hearing heidi talk
about her experiences, and having her pray in spanish.  i'm sure there
is going to be plenty more to come that i don't understand between her
and richard.  and austin when he gets home, too!

we went back down south the following weekend to hear heidi's
homecoming talk in church.  it was wonderful!  but you won't be seeing
anymore family pictures, because even though everyone believed that
was the main event taking place, tyson and i knew better.  we both read
the harry potter book series (and i watched the movies) for the first time
this summer.  tyson patiently waited for me to finish the last book, and then
he took me on a little date to see the final movie.  i have to admit that there
were a great deal of tears shed during the last 2 books, and the last
movie...even though i was extremely disappointed in most of the movies.
all i have to say is that i've been a little lost since i finished the books.  i'm
sure i'll recover. what a fun summer adventure i had, courtesy of ms. jk rowling!

Monday, October 10, 2011

god bless the u.s.a....and roosevelt, ut

i was at phillip vaughn's house, waiting for him to give my friend
marissa and i a ride to school when i saw the plane hit the second
tower.  and then we heard bits and peices of updates that day at school.
but the thing i remember most about those weeks and months after the
attacks is watching the news in tears with my parents as families posted
signs with pictures of their missing loved ones, or waited
 for them to be found in the rubble.  heartbreaking.

this year, on the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks,
my family took a trip down to sandy to visit the "healing fields."
it was a touching experience, and i was glad that we could pay our respects
and honor those who lost their lives, loved ones, livelihood, or sense of safety
on that day, which will also live in infamy.






hard to believe today that we also found and/or gained some things on 9/11...
a renewed sense of american pride
patriotism (regardless of your political party)
god
a love for our public defenders/employees
hard to believe because in only ten years we've forgotten that although we
got into a war that we didn't all agree on, we were able to get over
ourselves for half a second to work toward the greater good of our country.

i digress...

this was a good day.  even though we were remembering something
horrible.  hopefully we'll be able to learn more than violence from
our past.  because i tend to think that if we continue to live in a world
where the villains with money face no consequences and our politicians continue
to win with campaigns promising that they'll vote "no" no matter the issue just
because the guy who proposed it is represented by dumbo rather than an ass
that history will probably be repeating itself somewhere down the road.

i have hope that things will change, because for awhile there they did.

 


a few weeks after our trip to the healing fields, i took a little trip
to roosevelt, ut.  not because its the number one tourist attraction
in the beehive state, but because i needed to spend a little quality time
with this lovely lady:


mrs. kaycee blake anderson, my dear best girlfriend from the good old
days of high school and club volleyball, where we wreaked for days and
sang our conversations to the point where we nearly lost all of our other
friends.

its funny (and sad, sometimes) how things can change between friends
after high school.  but i have to say that this is one friendship that has only
gotten stronger.  not because its been easy...we haven't lived within 3 hours
of each other in over five years, but that's what the phone is for!
we're still in pretty different life phases of life, too, but that's how you know
its true love!

i went out to roosevelt to spend the weekend with her, her husband and little
boy, and the other little guy who is due to arrive the day after my birthday.
it was great - watched a bunch of youtube videos that made us laugh until
we cried, we spent money our husbands will never know is missing on antiques,
 she made some delicious food for us to devour, and we watched
the U wipe their behinds with the byu football team.  what more could a girl ask for?
well, i thought nothing until i saw that the leaves were starting to change color
on my drive home (yep, i risked my life to take this picture out of my car window
rather than pull over.  smart.).
the real start to my favorite season reared its beautiful head,
and then my perfect weekend was complete.