Summer Concert Review #2

So I didn't go on any vacations this summer. I think the only night I didn't sleep in my own bed was spent at my parents house. That's about as boring as it gets. However, I was fortunate enough to go to 5 really amazing concerts, and that was a summer getaway enough for me. Here is my review of each show in order...

7/17/10 Ben Folds with The Utah Symphony

Well, as I didn't pay for Paul McCartney, this show rings in at most expensive summer concert to me. $100 for 1 7th row ticket. Worth it...but if they did it again I would get grass tickets. I feel like at least once during all of these concert reviews I'm going to say "this show was amazing." and this one was. I am very familiar with the dvd of Ben live with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, but only 9 of the 18 songs performed were on the DVD. Still, it didn't even matter, as WASO doesn't hold a candle to our Utah Symphony. I'm not trying to be self-righteous or prideful or anything, but the Utah Symphony just sounded better. I could expound on that but I won't. Ben's on-stage banter was hilarious as well. That man is pure entertainment. He understands it. This was the most relaxing concert of the summer and a perfect evening all around. Great weather, we brought in cheese and crackers, and a couple bottles of martinelli's. What more could you ask for than a night out at the Symphony?

I give this show a 7 out of 10. It was a great show, but he loses points because of ticket price, and it was obvious how tired he was, I think we would have gotten Rock This Bitch or a couple other songs if he had had a bit more energy.

Highlights of the night are Not the Same (with no piano, only orchestra, I've never heard him do that) and Angry Dwarf, that is a great song and the arrangement of the orchestra parts was even better. I wish I had a recording of it to share with you.

Summer Concert Review #1

So I didn't go on any vacations this summer. I think the only night I didn't sleep in my own bed was spent at my parents house. That's about as boring as it gets. However, I was fortunate enough to go to 5 really amazing concerts, and that was a summer getaway enough for me. Here is my review of each show in order...

7/13/10 - Paul McCartney

When I heard Sir Paul was coming to town, I kind of put it in the back of my mind, as I wouldn't really have the money for that kind of show, and I didn't have anybody to go with anyway. The night before I got a call from forever and always best friend Zack Golden, who told me he had an extra ticket and that I should come along. It was at that exact moment how much I realized how much I wanted to go to this concert. I real life Beatle. Once in a lifetime show. We had a discussion at work the day of the show about weather or not The Beatles can be considered the fathers of modern rock and roll. I think this is worth mentioning. In old recordings of the Beatles, they didn't have the technology like we do today, they didn't have the speakers and sub-woofer capability we have today. Sure if you listen to the original recording of the song "Day tripper" it is very weak. Relatively quiet, no drums, just a tambourine backing the guitars, I mean come on? It doesn't compare to rock and roll today. That is not the case with hearing Paul live. I have seen my share of great rock shows and this was the greatest. The guitar solos were loud and impressive. The drums were not absent, they packed a punch. Paul's voice is as high and clean sounding as it ever was. This show was amazing. The Beatles will forever be the fathers of modern rock and roll.

I give this show 10 out of a possible 10. With a setlist of 36 songs including 2 separate 3 song encores, I would feel guilty giving it anything less.

There were way too many highlights of the night, but my 3 favorites were Blackbird, Hey Jude, and Helter Skelter. I hope to see you again, Paul.

My heart belongs in Inkom

So, where is Inkom you might ask, and why does my heart belong there? Well, let me tell you a little bit about it my friends. I have recently crossed off 2 very big items on my bucket list and realized that I am a cowgirl at heart. My dear friend Lacey Gilbert found out that one of the things I wanted to do before I die was drive a tractor and work on a ranch and so she invited me to her beautiful home up in Idaho. Ruth, Doug and I drove up there Friday evening and were kindly greeted by the gang of dogs. Elmo is the only male dog on the ranch and therefore is naturally afraid of almost everything so occasionally we refer to him as homo... it's fine. Ring is blind and spends most of her time underneath the Suburban or cautiously exploring the hay fields. Priest is jealous and needy of your attention most of the time but has the endurance of a champ. Sydney likes to bark for no good reason and try and bite the tires of the 4 wheeler as you are trying to drive. And finally Bear is the beary best dog on the ranch and I hear she's the best at herding cows as well. She loves driving in the tractor with you and is very loyal. So, after we met the family and the dogs we had a huge bonfire in the back which included smores and a whole lot of throwing flaming pine cones. We woke up early the next morning and got to work. Lacey lovingly let me behind the wheel of her very large tractor and helped some of my dreams come true. :) We spent the next hour moving large bales of hay from one side of the ranch to the other and this is what it looked like.

I let Lacey take a turn on the tractor and she decided to roll one of the bales of hay over the barbed wire fence and into the field where all the horses were roaming. All of the horses looked over at it as if it were Christmas morning. It was so hilarious pretending to be the voices of the horses as we sat there in shock as to what had just happened. Thank you for that moment Lacey. After we finished the tractor chores we loaded up in the awesome pick up truck and headed down the the river to start up the water pumps which irrigated the land where some of the cows were and then we headed back to get the horses ready for a ride. Lacey's brother in law taught me how to get my saddle hooked up and I jumped on Dakota for our ride through the mountains.
Dear Dakota, I'm sorry that when Ruth took the picture she cut your head off. I'm not sure that you deserve that but there is nothing I can do to fix it, let's still be friends. Love, Me.

I've probably only ridden a horse 5 times in my life but it happens to be one of my favorite things to do. I pretend like I know what I am doing and let the horse know who is boss. During the ride my horse and Doug's horse decided to race each other and so we let them, I beat him by a head and to save face he slowed his horse down and pretended like it was a tie. We all know the truth, my horse was faster... take that Doug. One of the biggest compliments I received however was when Doug told me that I was really ballsy (any questions on this word, please contact me) on a horse. YAY for me.
After the horse back ride we each got our 22 rifles and headed out to shoot some rock chucks. I obviously did not get the memo that we were supposed to look tough in this picture. I guess I was just so happy to be there that I couldn't stop smiling. We spent about an hour trying to find a moose on the loose and finally found him. We named him Dober, we loved him, we watched him chase some mules and disappear into the unknown. Lacey called us a couple days later to tell us that he got ran over by a diesel on the freeway... worst day ever. To wrap it up, I have never felt so happy to use my hands and get to work. I think I was born in the wrong place because my heart belongs in Inkom with the Gilberts.

I'm still straight. I promise.

Okay. No you didn't imagine it, you actually DID see Melissa and I marching in the Gay Pride Parade last Sunday. Thank you to both Wells Fargo and Kyle Mantas for inspiring us to participate. I had a really good time and it was a lot of fun. I've heard a lot of people my whole life use the phrase "well I have a lot of gay friends" and usually if you ask follow up questions that quickly becomes "well I have met gay people before." I am privileged to be able to say I actually DO have a lot of gay friends. So here's to you, a former roommate, a cousin, a former manager, a brother of my best friend, a former co-worker, and all my other LGBT friends I have had throughout the years. I love you all and sincerely hope you are happy.




Oh the Wells Fargo Wagon is a comin' down the street, oh please let it be for me... (this picture was apparently sponsored by Brighton Bank...I wish we had taken it from a different angle.)

Just like Lance

On my mission I learned many things, but one of the most surprising was how other kids could grow up (even in Salt Lake!) and not really feel comfortable riding a bike. (I'm talking about you, Benjamin Metcalfe.) I remember being the youngest and my brother used to tease me because I hadn't learned to ride a bike yet. He would say that when I was in Boy Scouts I was going to have to ride my Big Wheelz 4-Wheel-Jeep up on the mountain bike trails while the other scouts rode real bikes. So I eventually learned how to ride a bike, and after that the family relocated to Murray. In Murray bike riding was a necessity. You couldn't avoid it. We rode our bikes to school sometimes, but mostly it was on the Jordan River Parkway trail, and then to gas stations or grocery stores to buy snacks and sodas with whatever pocket change we could find. Katie Goudie KNOWS what I'm talking about. Where did you most often ride your bikes when you were younger?

Anyway, I didn't ride a bike on my mission nearly as much as I would have liked, I was only in a bike area for 3 and a half transfers, the rest was spent in comfortable automobiles. I like biking and I think we should all do more of it. I read once that if the US increased its biking by 1%, we would save something like half a million gallons of gas annually. So I'm doing my part. Today I went and rescued a bike from the shed at my parents house and took it to the bike shop nearby that my old bishop owns. After they fix it up, I'm going to start biking to work! You just wait. You'll see me around Sugarhouse looking both hipster, and hippie. On a related note, I've NEVER been mountain biking before, if anybody wants to take me on some beginning trails and show me the ropes, I would love to go. Let me know.

In the mean time, here is a cute picture of a brand new missionary that just landed in Houston and bought his bike and hadn't even had his tires slashed while out knocking doors yet. (Actually happened.)

wedding season

My friend Kalie got married on Thursday, and it was so very special. I decided to take some pictures that most people wouldn't on a wedding day and this was one of my favorites from the day.

For stake FHE tonight my friends and I went around and stood next to people we didn't know while one of us took a picture. Hilarious.

My life.

My big sister Becky is pregnant with her first little girl and I am the most excited Aunt ever. I feel like it is mine, just without the big belly and all the labor pains. We all got together for Mothers day and Becky allowed me to take this cute side shot of the little girl growing inside her. I can't wait to be an Aunt the first week of July.


These are just some of the things I've been doing for the past 3 weeks or so. My roommates and I moved out of our 3rd floor apartment into a cute house in Sandy and we were so excited to get out that we had to throw bags of the top balcony. I decided to capture our bliss.


My cousin Kathryn is most definitely one of my favorite people on the planet. We had a sleepover a few weeks ago and decided to eat our cereal with Panda Express serving spoons. After breakfast she talked me into skipping class so that we could play more. Best idea ever.


My older brother Rob just recently celebrated his birthday and so his Mother-in-law threw him and 2 other grandchildren a birthday dinner and Grandma's today. They lovingly invited me along and I was able to capture this Father and son time out on the lawn. Cutest little boy.

The beginning.

With the recent, and spontaneous purchase of my new SLR camera, has come the new found desire to share some of my favorite moments captured in time. I'm going to use this small space of internet to take anyone who desires, on a journey through my life. Thank you for being patient as I learn how to take pictures, and thank you for caring enough about my life to blog stalk me. :). I owe Megan Sollis a thank you for inspiring this purchase and helping to change my life.