Carrie Underwood

Back in May for Christy's birthday, Brandon surprised her with tickets to go see Carrie Underwood when she came to concert in November. He asked us if we wanted to go with them and I wasn't going to turn down the opportunity. So we purchased our tickets and played the waiting game. 

Finally November 28th came and it was time for the concert.

We dropped off our kids at Mom and Dad's and then picked up Christy and Brandon at his mom's place. We carpooled in our van and headed for Salt lake. With the weather as it was, I was a little concerned about making it there on time and safely. Ben volunteered to drive and I was okay with that. 

We made it safely to Salt Lake and decided to stop at Arby's for dinner. When we were done eating we headed to the Maverick Center. We waited in line in the Van to get into the parking lot and then we waited again in line at the building to get in. 

When we finally got inside, we first stopped at the souvenir table and decided to grab a little something, a sweatshirt and CD. Once we were done at the table was headed to find our seats. We were in our seats with enough time to actually go for a small walk to the concession stand so Christy and Brandon could get a drink. We were so stuffed from dinner that we didn't get one. After they got their drinks we headed back to our seats and waited for the show to begin.

When the concert finally started the first opening act was The Swon Brothers. Neither Ben nor I have ever heard of these guys before. Because of that I wasn't able to sing along to any of their songs : ( , but they did a great job.

The next act was Easton Corbin. A little bit bigger then The Swon Brother, I assume, but again another artist neither of us had heard of. Again I couldn't sing along, which is the fun part of a concert, but his line up was good too. The only song that I did recognized was his take on a Justin Bieber song, Love Yourself. I liked his version better the Bieber's.

Then after a 20 or so plus minutes of an intermission it was finally time to the main event, Carrie Underwood.

Her staging, graphics, and lights were awesome. Her dresses were beautiful, although I can hear Gabbi in my ear telling me that they weren't modest. The sound was perfect. I couldn't have been happier. I was surprised that I knew more songs then I thought I would. It was a blast being able to sing along with the rest of the crowd. An experience that will be hard to forget. To top it off Ben was enjoying himself as well and that made it all worth it. I was afraid that he may not like it being a "girl concert".

Line up:

Rebegade Runaway

Last Name/Somthin' Bad

Undo It

Good Girl

Church Bells

Cowboy Casanova

Heartbeat

Jesus, Take the Wheel

Wasted

Blown Away

Two Black Cadilacs

Dirty Laundry

Choctaw County Affair

I Will Always Love You (Dolly Parton)

What I Never Knew I Always Wanted

Fishin' in the Dark (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band cover w/Easton Corbin and The Swon Brothers)

Mountain Music (Alabama cover w/Easton Corbin and The Swon Brothers)

Clock Don't Stop

All-American Girl

Little Toy Guns

Before He Cheats

Smoke Break

Something in the Water

After all was "sang" and done we headed back to the Van. Once we got to the Van we started it in hopes that it would warm up quickly. Luckily it did, but sadly we were getting hot and we hadn't even left the parking lot. We sat stationary for over 20 minutes. No one around us was moving at all. Ben decided to turn around and go the opposite direction in hopes that we would finally get moving. I'm glad he did, because we were finally moving. After a grand total of 40 minutes trying to get out of the parking lot we were finally on the road. After passing the Maverick center fro the freeway, we could see that the group of cars we were originally behind still hadn't moved yet.

With finally clear roads, it was a straight shot home. We dropped Brandon and Christy off, picked up the kids, and then finally headed home and hopped into bed.

Party

We seem to be having busy weekends lately and this one was no different. Sunday brought another party. It of course started with a cake. Christy, Shantelle, and I decorated the cake Saturday afternoon in preparation for the party. She wanted a butterfly cake, Christy showed her a few options and she picked on. A pretty easy one, which was nice. Sadly Christy wasn't able to find the butterflies she was looking for to put on the top, she ended up having to do flowers and crown. She seemed find with the result because the birthday girl was happily wearing the topper on her head after we cut the cake.

After opening her gifts and cutting the cake, it was time to do the pinata. I was a little worried about doing it inside the living room, but with it being as cold as it was, we couldn't go outside.

We did the best we could to keep the kids back when it wasn't there turn. Each of them got to take two turns by the time it was done for.

Once it did break it was a free for all chaotic grab fest. Sadly Gabbi's arm got stepped on. Luckily she was the only casualty out of the whole mess. Otherwise they each of our kids got a glow stick and a few treats.

When the crowd of kids cleared out, it was still a school night and time to clean up and head home.

Thanksgiving with Annie

The next day was Saturday and time to celebrate Thanksgiving with Annie. I love that she had moved her celebrating so that everyone could come and we don't have to compete with other family functions. It has worked out beautifully for 10 years now and I imagine will continue for a long time.

This time round we all gathered at Greg's house. Because of work schedules we got together a lot later then we normally do. Normally we gather and eat around 2 and then head to the Christmas parade in Ogden at 5. This year we met at 5 and didn't even talk about going to the parade. No one wanted to go to the parade last year, so it didn't even come up this year.

When we were all there we talked and caught up with everyone while we waited for things to get finished up with the food. Once everything was ready to go, we gathered for a prayer and then let the kids lose to fill their plates. None of them got very much, they all seemed to want to play over eating. Which non of us parents really cared about. It's always better to not fight the eating game when your surrounded by family. So after eating the bare minimum, they all ran off to play.

While the kids played we of course visited and while we visited we made plans for Christmas seeing how our party to celebrate Christmas was only two weeks away. We made the food assignments and then let the kids draw names. Once all the planning was done, it was time to clean up.

Setting up the tree

The next morning it was time to pull out the Christmas decorations. We bought a new tree to go upstairs in the front room for the kids. They are getting so many ornaments; homemade and given, that they needed a bigger tree to put them on. 

We actually bought a few different trees last year and returned them till we had to just settle with one. Every tree we looked at was so thin. I wasn't happy with any of them. Every where we went all the trees were so thin you could see straight through them. Some of them were so bad they reminded me of the Charlie Brown tree. The tree we ended up with wasn't to bad, but I still wish it was more full. 

After we set up the tree the kids and I did our best to fluff the branches. I still wasn't happy with it, but it was going to have to do. While setting up the tree we had to keep to tradition and we put in a Christmas movie while we decorated. This year the kids picked out The Santa Claus.

The kids did a great job decorating. They probably watched more of the movie then decorating, but they had fun doing both. When we were finally done with the upstairs, the kids went downstairs to play while I cleaned up.

After I was done cleaning up the front room, I headed downstairs to decorate in the TV room. I put in my favorite movie, White Christmas, and got started. I pulled out and set up the tree and got it ready for ornaments. Gabbi even helped me fluff some of the branches, but didn't last long when the glitter on the tips started to itch her arms. I'm not a fan of that either which might be why I didn't do as much this year as I have done in the past. I just wasn't feeling it and I was ready to be done. 

I did my big ornament sand the clusters that had the bows tied on them, that was pretty much it. It's a good thing the family tree is so full and already has glitter and pine cones on the branches it would look fine even without ornaments.

When we were done we cleaned up and relaxed till it was time for dinner.

When we were done with dinner, the kids wanted to finish their tree. They grabbed their bag of ornaments and started to hang them on the tree. Ben helped Owen and William hang some their ornaments higher on the tree so they weren't all at the bottom. Gabbi had the idea to get the step stool. She didn't want to have to be picked up. The only bad part about that was William wanted to use it to. He leaned to far forward, he almost fell into the tree. Luckily he caught himself and went to the side of the tree instead of in it.   

Once they were done with their ornaments we pulled out the extras to cover some of the dead space. Each of them got a handful and continued to decorate the tree till they were happy with the result.

I have to admit it wasn't too bad. I sadly have to stop myself from wanting to move some of them around. It is their tree and I promised them that I wouldn't touch it.

Thanksgiving with Nelson and Deann

To make things easier, we have kept our plans the same every year for Thanksgiving with Nelson and Deann. We do snack foods, treats, and or desserts with games.

When we first got there we sat and visited for a little bit while the children ran off to play.

When some time had passed, everyone was ready to play a game. This year Grandma brought the game, well we did for Grandma. She asked us to pick it up. It's a good thing she did, no one else brought one. It was a pretty fun game to; Say Anything. We played three rounds of it and in between the rounds we of course snacked on the munchies and desserts.  

The game was like a guessing trivia game, as in guessing what the judge would say. Everyone got a card to write on and two tokens. The person who's turn it was became the judge and they would read a comment beginning with "In my opinion..." Then they read one of the option statements on the card. For example, "In my opinion the best part about being a man is", or "In my opinion the best celebrity couple is." Once the statement was read everyone would write down what they thought the judge would say. It became more of just writing anything that came to mind. Then the judge would pick the best answer that they thought was closest to their actual opinion. They everyone would vote with their tokens on which answer they thought the judge would vote for. Some of the answers were pretty funny and some where as you would say "dirty". It doesn't surprise me at all when your playing with Ben, Brian, and their Dad. It was a blast. We had so much fun.

Sadly Ben had to work in the morning and after three rounds of the game, it was time to go. We got the kids to clean up and we headed home.

Jingle Bells

On the way up to Nelson and Deann, I couldn't help but record William. He has been singing to the radio a lot recently. It's so cute, almost like a parrot. This moment was him singing Jingle Bells. It was so cute.

Thanksgiving with Mom and Dad

Our first stop was to Jenny's to have Thanksgiving dinner with my family. This year my Aunt Cindy joined us.  We were all glad that she was able to join us, we wanted to make sure that she wasn't alone for the holiday.

When we were all gathered and the food was ready we all sat down to eat. Everything was so yummy and perfect. The only thing missing was Dad. He had to work.

When we were snapping the few pictures that were taken, William was being a stinker. He wanted nothing to do with the pictures, as you can tell.

When we were all done eating everyone pitched in to clean up and then we sat down and visited. We were also able to see some of the pictures that Jeff and Tiffany took on their vacation to Hawaii. It looked like they had a great time. I'm jealous. They even got to swim with the sharks.

The time was slowly ticking by and it was time to get ready to go to the next party.

Thanksgiving Morning

Our Thanksgiving morning was very quiet and nice. We were able to get ready and relax till it was time to leave. We decided to sit down and watch a movie. I was surprised that the kids wanted to join us instead of playing.

When it was time to go, the kids gathered for a quick picture and  then we headed out the door.

Book report

Gabbi had her second book report of the year.

Her first one was an oral report and she choose to read The Magic Tree house Mummies in the Morning. Along with giving an oral report they had to dress like a character from the book. She got a great grade. The only bad notes on her report was that she didn't do enough to dress like a character. Which surprised me when I dressed her exactly like the character on the front cover of the book.

The second report was to read a biography and make a poster about them. We went to the library and it was slim pickings. We had to find a book that had more then 60 pages and all the biographies we found either had less then 30 or more then 100. We finally just decided on Neil Armstrong. 

It took us just over a week to read the entire book. Ben and I took turns sitting with her while she read to make sure she remembered all the important parts. As soon as she was done with the book she was really excited about putting her poster together. She started it and didn't stop till she was done. I was surprised how quickly she completed it. She did a great job too. We made her que cards and she was ready. 

I have no idea what score she got, her teacher never sent one home. I hope it was better then the last one.

Chillin'

At family dinner, I went upstairs and found the sweetest thing. Kayden was watching a show and William found his way up there and sat with him so they could enjoy the show together. It was all too sweet. I love how Kayden tends to him even though he's the oldest and Williams the youngest of the grand kids. 

10 year anniversary

His class was the shortest one he attended, after only a week he was headed home and it perfect timing too. He got home on our Anniversary.

Mom and Dad took the kids so we could have some fun for our Anniversary. We made reservations and planned to stay in Salt lake.

After picking Ben up from the airport we headed to the Anniversary Inn to check in. We took our bags to our room, The Hayloft, and then headed out for dinner. It was a nice room, but I would have preferred something more out of the norm. Sadly that's what you get when you wait to the last minute to make reservations. In my defense it wasn't the plan to stay in Salt Lake, that really was last minute.

He headed for the City Creek Center were we had reservations for dinner. We got there with plenty of time, so we decided to walk around. In the process, we came across the Fire Fountain. I assume they called it that because it was a fire and water fountain. They had programmed the fountain and the fire to dance to Christmas music. It was pretty cool, we stay and watched for a while before heading to dinner.

Our reservations were for the Texas de Brazil. I was told that it was supposed to be a lot like the Rodizio Grill.

When we got there we were quickly moved to our table and then we waited for our waiter. When he came he was quite the actor when telling us how the place worked and what to expect.

So it was a salad bar with waiters who walked around with different flavored and cuts of meat. You were given a card one side green and one side red. If your card was green side up you welcomed the waiters to come offer you meat, if it was red side up, that meant you needed a break from the different kinds of meat. 

It was quite the experience. The items in the salad bar weren't the best, but each meal came with garlic mashed potatoes that were to die for and cheese bread. The meats were amazing as well. A lot of it, but all of it tasted fantastic. It was definitely a lot of meat to eat in one meal, but it was totally worth it. Very yummy. The cost wasn't ideal, but for what we got it seemed pretty fair.

After we were done eating we walked around the mall and did some shopping. We got stuffed animals for the kids from the Disney store. Olaf for Gabbi, Destiny from Finding Dory for Owen, and Sully from Monsters Inc. for William. We couldn't wait to give them to them.

We also bought a pair of sound reducing headphones from Bose and some bracelets at Alex and Oni.

When we got back to the hotel room, Ben showed me some of the things he bought for the kids, seashells and shark tooth necklaces. We both knew the kids would be really excited. He then pulled out a black box.

I gave him the look of "your in trouble". We agreed not to get each other anything for our Anniversary because we were paying a lot for dinner and the room. He then convinced me that it wasn't for our Anniversary, it was just a souvenir.

The box said Fireworks Celebrating Art in Life. When I opened it up I found a beautiful necklace and a pair of earrings. The story of their Jewelry is that they take actual pieces of nature or what not and turn them into works of art or in this case jewelry. This particular piece was from the trees at ground zero on 9/11. I don't know exactly how they did it, but they turned the leaves from the damaged trees into a beautiful piece of jewelry.

In the morning we ate our complimentary breakfast, which was surprisingly good, and then headed out. We headed back to Ogden and decided to stop and watch a movie before picking up the kids. We saw Arrival. It was definitely different and left me with a lot of questions that Ben had to answer after the movie was over.

Once we were done we sadly went to go pick up the kids. Neither of us wanted the weekend to end, but all good things must come to an end.

It's been a great 10 years and I can't wait to see what the future brings.