Roger Girse visits Utah!

For Father's Day, my Dad got a special surprise...plane tickets to come see us, thanks to my step-mom Theresa!  He's probably the busiest person I know, so for him to put work aside for 4 days was a huge sacrifice.

This is the view from the "Y" parking lot.  We didn't actually want to hike it, but the parking lot has a great view.  So we took sodas and a hot a ready up there to watch the sunset. 

 We went to Olympic Park in Park City, which was actually the first time for all of us!  It was really cool, especially the little Olympic museum they have.  Complete with real Olympic medals!  We got to watch some skiers and snowboarders practicing (yes, in July) their jumps.  They land in this giant pool that has jets at the bottom so their landing is soft.  We saw the bobsled run and some other runs and jumping things, but I don't know which events were done on them.  It was pretty awesome!  So cool that we have that here to go see!

 We also went to the Kennecott Copper Mine, another first for all of us.  That mine is ginormous! The tire that we are standing in front of belongs to the trucks that haul dirt up from the mine.  The tire size is 55/80R63 (that's huge!) and I think each tire costs $125,000!  WOW!!  It was a really neat trip!

 While Dad was in town, Nik was competing in the Techna Glass Olympics.  He's a pretty awesome glass installer, so we all went up to Miller Motor Sports Park in Tooele to see it.  There were other events going on as well, and then we went to a dinner and awards banquet where Nik got an award and a tool set.  We had a proud papa on our hands!

The day that my dad left, we took him up to Temple Square in Salt Lake.  We had to do a quick tour in order to make it to the airport, but we got to see the conference center and the Temple.  The kids came up to see him off and we got some great pictures!  It was such a great visit and we hope to get the rest of the family out here soon!

NKOTBSB!!!

Well, this was almost a year ago, but better late than never!  Last July, Brandon and I went to Vegas with my mom and Jeff so that my Mom and I could go see NKOTBSB.  For those of you that are not current on your boy bands, that's New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys...combined...and incredible.

When we arrived, we thought our seats would be in the nose bleed section.  However, the seating at Mandalay Bay is a little backwards and we ended up in the 10th row!!!  Which is incredible because my Mom and I first saw the Backstreet Boys in 2000 and we were in the 6th row (my mom happened to draw the ticket that got us to the front of the ticket line!).  So, we were really close and it was awesome!  The boys all came in the crowd quite a bit, so there were times when they were only like 10 feet away.  My 13 year old self was ecstatic!

Yep, that's Nick Carter.  A mere 15 yards away.

 

And yep, that's Brian Littrell.  He was always my favorite! 

Mom, enjoying the show, even though her favorite BSB Kevin is no longer in the band.

New Kids!  Singing and dancing to their super hit "Step by Step".

They all came out on stage together quite a bit, but then would do their separate band things as well.  At the end, they came out NKOTB in sparkling Celtics jerseys (like the kind that Ray Allen's mom wears) and BSB came out in sparkling Orlando Magic jerseys.  Both of our cameras were dead, so I couldn't get pictures.  There are more pics of the concert on my facebook.

I have always loved boy band music, but since the concert a year ago, that is mostly what I listen too.  My husband is ashamed.  I am not.  I'm proud to admit that I'm 26 years old and I still love boy bands.