July: Month of Action! 4th Weekend

This weekend was also most excellent, but first one event from the previous weekend I forgot to mention: I tested for my blue belt in karate!! I tested after only being in karate for seven months, which is pretty awesome because usually it takes 9-12 months to get to your blue belt. :)

So on July 21st, a Thursday, a wonderful event happened. My dear friend Remington came down from Rexburg to go the the Foreinger and Journey concert with me!! It was spectacular. Foreigner is one of my top 3 favorite bands (with Muse and Heart), and I had previously gone to a concert where they played, but missed their entire act because traffic was so horrible! So I was STOKED when I found out they were coming again. And Journey is just disgustingly awesome, and no one can deny it.

So we went to the concert and it was incredible! Night Ranger was the opening band, and even though I only recognized one of their songs they put on an awesome show. Respect. It definitely set up the right mood.

Then Foreigner came on....oh my heart had wings. They played all my favorites, "Urgent," "Cold as Ice," "Hot Blooded," of course, and came back for an encore with "Juke Box Hero"! which is probably one of the most brilliant songs of all time! Remington and I found out we are both associated among our separate circles of friends with that song, and I bought the shirt for it, too. Beautiful. Wonderful!! I was in rapture.

By the time Journey got to the stage, it was too dark to get very good pictures, plus their light show was amazing (almost as amazing as Muse!) so that made it even more difficult. But they were completely rockin' in concert!! The new singer is incredible! He sang with ultimate intensity and was jumping all over the stage and totally melting everyone's face off. The lead guitar rocked the solos too....it was just brilliant. Without doubt, this was the 2nd best concert I've ever seen!

The next evening was Alyssa's wedding reception, which was a brilliant masquerade ball. I thought that was pretty much an awesome idea and I'm a little sad I couldn't use it first...but I'm sure I'll come up with something equally brilliant. My favorite part was of course, the exotic cheese selection, but followed closely by the fact we got to wear a little bit fancier dresses than normal and wear masks all night! Sarah, Kristan and I went around the wooded areas (it was held in a park) and took a lot of vanity pictures. So I'll end with those and for more practical details of the receptions, see Jill's blog post.

Also, Saturday, July 23rd, was my one year anniversary of graduation from BYU-Idaho. :)