A Biker and a Book Nerd : A Splendind Weekend!

For Justin's birthday, clear back in April, I bought him tickets to see Blake Shelton's "Ten Times Crazier Tour' at the Usanna Amphitheater in Salt Lake City. The concert was this last Friday, and oh my! It was a total blast! Before the concert we had dinner at Red Robin.... yummmm. Love that place. We had great service and great food. I had never been to a concert like that before and I honestly had no idea how many people were going to be there, especially crazy drunk people! We really did have a riot. By some weird luck though we kind of ended up surrounded by old people! And you know old people, always good for a story!

The older couple sitting in front of us, I would say probably in their seventies, were hilarious. They were just dancing and rocking out to every song. And during the first love song, the old guy reaches around and pinches his wife's bottom. Justin and I were dying, it was pretty funny. Gotta keep that romance alive right? It was pretty cute- I hope me and Justin are still that "hot" for each other when we are that old haha.

The couple sitting next to us (late sixties I'd guess) were not as fun however. The guy definitely had a potty mouth and he was most definitely NOT a fan of this type of concert. He was very, and I mean VERY upset that he "paid for a GD seat so that I could F-bomb sit in it! That's why I am not on the D grass! Why the H is everyone standing up? Why pay for a GD seat if your not going to GD sit in it?!" It was colorful to say the least. After complaining to everyone around him, and asking the people in front of him to sit down (which didn't last long because then they couldn't see) he and his wife left. I felt bad that it was wasted money and wasted seats, but honestly, what did you expect at a concert of this sort?

Anywho... back to the concert. It was AMAZING! Neil McCoy and The Band Perry were the opening acts for Blake and they were awesome. I fell in love with TBP! They really know how to rock it and they are adorable and funny and I would definitely love to see them in concert again! Blake Shelton was everything you would expect Blake Shelton to be. He called Adam Levine a douche, talked about boobies, embarrassed a young couple on screen, and was of course drinking the entire time. In other words, he was frickin' hilarious! I was surprised at how many older songs he sang, and was even more surprised that I knew all of them. It did rain on us for a while but fortunately it was bearable and didn't last too long. Unfortunately I didn't plan very well and forgot a camera and wasted my phone's battery with GPS. We did manage to get a couple of pictures before our phones died but they aren't the greatest quality.

After the concert we kind of chilled in the parking lot for an hour to let some of the traffic die down. There were people partying and drinking it up in the cars all around us and two cars down a guy dropped his pants right then and there and relieved himself. He was shocked to find the car next to him full of girls and somehow managed to apologize profusely for exposing himself at the same time as shamelessly flirting with them. It was an incredibly awkward and hilarious situation to watch. We finally got out of there and didn't get back to our hotel until after one in the morning.

So Justin's birthday was the concert and for my birthday we decided to make a weekend of it and get a hotel in SLC and spend the next day in the city. On Saturday morning we slept in, packed up, and hit up Denny's for breakfast. I had heard about a church history display going on at the Church History Library, so we decided to check that out. WOW! I don't really consider myself a history buff, but I really do love church history, so I found this display completely incredible! Some of the things on display are:

Joseph Smith's personal journal

A first edition of the Book of Mormon

A page from the Book of Mormon manuscript that was hand written by Oliver Cowdery

Wilford Woodruff's journal

Handwritten notes from the Relief Society's first meeting

Handwritten notes from the Primary's first meeting

A letter Joseph Smith wrote from Liberty Jail

A first edition of the Hymn book

And lots more!

It was incredible to see these items close up. They are of course in a display case but seeing them like that made it all so real for me. Joseph Smith is probably my very favorite prophet and I love learning about him and about the lives of the early saints. This was such an incredible display and you can feel the spirit so strongly being so close to these things. I would highly encourage everyone to go and check it out, but I think the display closes in October sometime so you gotta hurry!

After the Church History Library we made our way to Famous Footwear (did you know the one in Logan closed?) and the whole family got new shoes. I had to exchange some shoes I got for my birthday. Justin needed new work shoes, and Leland needed new church shoes. Shoe shopping is fun isn't it? I HATE shopping for clothes but I LOVE shopping for shoes. Shoes is definitely my favorite accessory which is weird because usually you can find me in flip flops.... weird... I know. Anyway, after our shoe shopping extravaganza we headed to my aunt's house to pick up Leland (thanks for taking such good care of him guys, he had a blast and was definitely spoiled!). We stopped in at my parents house and they ordered pizza and we ended up watching Dirty Dancing with my mom. After the movie we headed back to Cache Valley.... awwww. Home.

So on Monday we went apple picking with my MIL and FIL. I feel deprived that I have never done this before. I thought it was going to be boring work but we actually ended up having a lot of fun. Leleand LOVED "helping" us. He loved the dirt and sticks and the throwing of the apples. We got caught in the rain but it presented us with a double rainbow which was utterly stunning. We picked a LOT of apples and then went home and got hamburgers and watched DWTS.