A Fire Inside. (beware it's long, but has some great stories)

When A.F.I came out with their new c.d., we knew they would go on tour and come to S.L.C., so we had to get tickets...

We had a whole plan for the day (only having one car makes it tricky sometimes) And despite our best efforts our plans were falling apart. Leaving us three options. I would have to miss the concert, we would both miss the concert or arrive really late and hope to catch some of it. None of those options sounded fun to me....

I was talking to my friend Lexi about it and she came to our rescue! With out her we would have had to make one of those decisions. So thanks to Lexi we were able to both go on time and see the whole show.

We went with Rich (Lexi's husband), grabbed some food first and headed over. The line was insanely long, but luckily Rich's brother was already in line more than halfway up! Still by the time we got in there was no where to stand. You couldn't even get up to the bar area, it was packed everywhere. We ended up finding a place on top of a stand so we could see above the crowd, only there was a big pillar obstructing our view of half the stage :( I went to the merch booth and got some cute pins for my "Concert purse" and a cute patch and stickers...and then we waited. It was fun to meet Rich's brother and his cute girly friend. I really liked her and it was fun to have another girl there so I wasn't the only one. The opening band was annoying more than anything. Dave thought they were TERRIBLE and Rich liked some of the songs....It was pretty funny to look around at the crowd and then at us. We definitely didn't "belong". It was FULL of people dressed in all black, with mohawks, crazy hair, crazy clothes, and dirty nasty mouths. If I didn't love A.F.I so much I would have left at this point.

After the opening band finished it felt like FOREVER for them to set up and be ready. Dave and Rich tried a couple of time to get up in the crowd towards the front with no success, while his brother, friend, and I saved our places. Finally A.F.I. came on stage. Davey was wearing this weird silver suit and looked all clean cut. We couldn't hear the vocals at all, but the music was good, and we could tell what songs they were, so we were singing along. We still couldn't hear him when he was just talking to the crowd so the crew decided to try and find another spot. I stayed to hold our's in case they didn't luck out.

Dave came back to get me and we pushed our way through and got to a better spot. Yea, we could actually hear Davey singing now. And he is AMAZING. A little dramatic, but amazing. Amanda (I think that is her name) had found a good spot standing on these tall "cages"...so I went to join her, but these scary looking girls who were already up there gave me the "don't even think about it" stare while shaking their heads "no". I didn't really want to test them, so I went back and stood with Dave. By this point Rich had disappeared to the front of the crowd, hopefully having a good time.

We weren't elevated anymore, but there was a break in the crowd and we had a good shot of the stage. I was a little disappointed by the set list. It was mostly new stuff. Which I still love their new songs. But I only remember them playing 1 old song, and that is not near enough. At least what they played was amazing.

Dave and I were rolling our eyes a couple of times at Davey because he is a drama queen. But it was entertaining. It was pretty funny after a couple of songs he ran off stage and disappeared for a few minuets. Jade had to stall, which he did well, and then Davey came back in different clothes. He said that he had a wardrobe malfunction and that it was cold enough without having that. (meaning he tore his pants? Thats what I took from it) I can see how that would happen though, they go CRAZY on stage. It's very fun to watch. All in all it was a good show, but not my favorite.

My favorite A.F.I. show is still when I went with Nicole (Dave's sister) who was friends with Davey, so I got to meet him before the show. And then during the show he walked on the crowd to the table we were sitting at, stood on the table and sang to us for about half a song. Now that was incredible, and since this was over 8 years ago all their songs were the "old stuff" so I definitely loved that set list.

Anyway. We had a blast and I'm saving the best story for last...when the show ended we couldn't seem to communicate well and lost Rich. We were waiting for him outside when this crazy fight broke out in front of us. A lady was attacking a girl, they we full on fighting. Pulling hair, biting, sliding on the snow and ice and of course hitting. There wasn't any security there so Dave went and broke it up. He was trying to pull the younger girl off the crazy lady, but the crazy lady had her leg firmly in her mouth, biting down. After a few attempts and really foul language Dave had pulled this girl out of crazy lady's clutches. We stayed for a second to make sure she was all right when crazy lady started attacking the other girls friend. Same fight with a different person. It was all so weird. I've never been to a fight this close where I was actually scared of getting involved, for all I knew she was going to attack me next!!!

Well Dave intervened again with the help of this girl's husband. But crazy lady was relentless. It took a little longer to pull them apart and more biting, hitting, and pulling was going on. Dave and the wife got free but the husband was still going at it. I've never seen a man hit a woman. And I'm not sure how I felt about it even though the woman was attacking his wife and obviously crazy. He pulled her by her hair and threw her up against a car screaming to get the *bleep* off his wife. Good protector, but was his force necessary? I'm not sure, but probably. By this point a security guy came over and was pulling the husband off crazy lady and luckily it all died down. Crazy lady and her daughter (by the looks of it) went off in one direction and the rest of us in another.

The girls that were attacked we kind of freaking out, so Dave went to see if they were ok. I think they were kind of in shock. After asking the "wife" if she was ok she said, "No, I'm not okay, she *bleeping* bit me" and continued to pull her pants all the way off and tried to show us her inner thigh. We figured we could leave. After all the fight was done, and she did have her husband. We didn't particularly want to see all that we saw of her, so we left. Crazy. Weird. Night.

We finally got a hold of Rich, met up with him, and left. Sharing stories in the car.

2002 Flashback

For my Christmas present this year, my friend Chelsea treated me to the Dashboard concert. We got home from St. George Thursday night, and the concert was Friday night, so I had all day to try and catch up before the fun. Chels said it was a selfish present because she didn't want to go alone, and I'll take as many selfish gifts as she wants :)

We have a fun history with Dashboard. First of Chelsea and I are childhood friends from California and later college roommates. We got into Dashboard and decided to go to their concert when they came in 2002. We loved them so much we came back to their show the following night with our other two roommates and the next summer also. We stayed late and had to meet them with lots of pictures. Since then it's a fun bond all four of us share. I can't listen to them with out thinking back to that time in my life and remembering the days of roommates, work and school.

It was so fun to have a night off. Usually when I have a girls night I wait until Sophie is asleep catch a late movie and come home. Which I love doing, but this was all night. We left at 5:00 p.m., grabbed some dinner at Chipotle (delicious) and headed over. I haven't been back to this particular venue in a while and it is so different. But the memories still came flooding back. This is us Friday night.

And us in 2002...what do think? Have we aged well? I look like a baby! Weird.
This time we were actually over 21 so we were able to go up to the bar area to have a bird's eye view. You obviously can't get as close but the view and sound are awesome. New Found Glory opened and it was an acoustic set so needless to say they struggled. But they were still fun. They played "Brick" by Ben Folds Five and got more cheers for that song than any of their own. Sad.

This was our view. It looks a lot farther away then actually being there. It was a fun spot because we were right behind the sound guy and we could see the set list, so we knew what was coming up. We used this to our advantage and shouted out the song he was about to sing during a lull in the crowd...he then played a totally different song and after said to the crowd that they were only following the set list loosely. He was on to us...

We were right under a spotlight and during the second or third song (Chels?) Chris looked up right at us and smiled...It was pretty cool. Over all he did amazing. He also did an acoustic set, and the set list was amazing. He played 3-4 songs from the early albums and 2 song from all the rest. It was a good mix, but I love that he played more old school. During one song (that wasn't on his set list) he forgot the words and played around on the guitar and was saying to give him a minuet to find it again. It reminded me of my Dad. If he hasn't practiced a certain song, he forgets too, and I have always though that is funny...

He played "bitter pill" which is one of our all time favorites and he NEVER plays it live. We felt pretty special :) During the whole concert we were trying to get buddy buddy with a security guard and waitress to find an "in" but it didn't happen :( Although we caught a peek at the security guard's phone and he had taken a picture of Chelsea. Weird. Kinda creepy.
This was our view in 2002! We were front and center. I have to say that I do enjoy both places for different reasons, and being up in the bar was perfect for this show.
We didn't stay to try to meet them. We've done enough of that in the past. And it's a little different now being married with kids, I'm not the star stuck fan I once was. Just an admirer of amazing music. So this is from one of the previous shows. They all run together for me.
We were a bit obsessed back then and had to get the number 1 ticket. I mad sure I had the morning off work and got the number 1 ticket for both nights (and the #2, 3, 4, etc I bought a lot for a bunch of friends and roommates.) So Chels and I both ended up with a #1 and #2 ticket. Of course we had to get them signed....
A cool thing that Chelsea does at every show is write down the set list (and version of each song) and then goes home a burns a c.d. so she has a copy of every show she's been too. Luckily I benefit from this also. This was from one of the many shows. My memory is horrible but Chels probably knows.
After the show we went out to Spoon Me. My first experience and it was SO good. I crave it. (But not more than Froyo) I had such a fun time. And loved getting back into that part of my life that gets lost in the day to day stresses. Thanks Chels. Best present ever.

St. George Getaway

Dave was able to take some time off work and we decided to head south to warmer weather...(unfortunately it was still cold there). We didn't take a lot of pictures, but we had lots and lots of fun. We headed out Friday. Got ready, packed and planned it so we would leave around 2:00, the girls nap time, so they would sleep a lot of time. It would be nice if that worked. Aubree didn't sleep a wink and got so TIRED of being in the car that long. The last hour of the trip was pretty painful for both, but Aubree was excited to go to St. George.

It was pretty funny the day after and still now any time we try to put Soph in her car seat she arches her back and puts up a fight because she absolutely does not want to be in a car that long again. And when she realizes were not going far she is all smiles.

We started unpacking and I realized I hadn't packed any shirts for me! They were all wet from being washed the day before and I forgot to lay them out in the car...luckily there is a washer and dryer at Dave's parents house, so I just wore the same outfit every day!!! And luckily that was the only thing I forgot.

This is the beautiful sunset we saw as we were driving.

We were able to do lots of fun things while we we there. We went out to eat, Christmas shopping, wildlife museum where Aubree got some "squishy" animals, swimming, visited G.g. ma and G.g pa (which Aubree said was her favorite part of trip :) It was fun because every thing was "St. George" for Aubree. St. George house, St. george pool, St. George food...etc

And hit some fun milestones with Soph.

She has been saying words and actually understanding their meaning. I woke her up the other day and she asked me for a "baba" for the first time, it was really cute. And she still asks. She's been saying "Dada" knowing fully well what she's saying. So one day sitting on the couch I was trying to get her to say "Mama". If you remember from previous posts she has said it before as well as "hi" but they were just sounds to her and now that she knows what she's saying it means more to hear it... So Dave and I were trying to get her to call me "Mama" and of course she would only say "Dada". So Dave tried something else. He prompted her to say Aubree, and she did!!! Only it came out "Aubra". We tried to get her to say it again to make sure it wasn't a fluke and she did three more times! So she can say "Aubra" but won't say "Mama". Evil. Another new milestone she's doing that came about in St. George is standing. She obviously has to pull herself up and hold on, but she's doing it. And trying to walk also!

Cute picture I had to put in. At Costco getting Stephen's hot cocoa for Grammi who doesn't have it in Tennessee.

A beautiful creation Aubree made with her new "bubble" worm. And yes that is an In-n-Out cup. Yum.
One of their favorites was going up Snow Canyon and playing at the sand dunes. I was surprised how much Sophie loved it.
And of course Aubree did too.
The last night we were there we went up to Tuacahn canyon. They were having a festival of lights, with train rides, Santa, live nativity, and lots and lots of lights. Aubree was very excited to tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas, but not too excited to sit on his lap. She did make it to the edge of the chair however. I wonder what he was thinking when Aubree said she wanted "squishy" lizards....

You'll have to view this up close to see just how cute Soph is. She doesn't have any reservations yet so we got a good shot.
The live Nativity was actually a short production. It was a perfect introduction to Christmas for us. Aubree was able to see the story and it was a priceless experience. It had beautiful music, live animals, and Aubree's favorite, the angels. She kept telling me how beautiful they were. The spirit there was amazing and you could tell that the girls felt it too. Aubree loved seeing baby Jesus and wanted to make sure that he wasn't cold. Now as we tell her the story and remind her of the true meaning of Christmas she can think back and remember seeing it. It was the right end to a wonderful trip.

Recent Occurrence

Sometimes when we put Aubree to sleep, we'll hear a lot of bumps upstairs and little feet running. Sometimes we hear nothing. And Sometimes we'll go upstairs to get in bed and we have this cutie waiting for us at the top of the stairs...



It's a recent thing she does. And more than anything I just think she is adorable. It does freak me out because she is a wild sleeper and one wrong move and she would come crashing down the stairs...but so far we've been lucky.