Back Streets Back...alright!

Another fun concert is in the books. My friend Amy found an awesome Groupon  deal for tickets to see the Backstreet Boys. We jumped on it and decided it would be a fun date night. Super glad that I have a husband who is willing to go along for the ride. If you ask him, he will tell you that he had a good time and that he especially liked Avril Lavinge, who opened the show for them. 

We stopped for burgers on our way out to the show and enjoyed visiting. We listened to some BSB on the way to the concert to get us pumped. We got there and could not believe how long the line was to get into the venue. We has never seen the line so long. It was hot, the hottest day to date. We jumped in line and made our way to our seats, which thankfully were in the shade. Amy texted our friend Luseane to let her know we were there. Luseane's son works for the BSB. She told us to meet her after the show and we could say hi to Andrew,( her son) and meet some of the BSB. 

When we met up with Luseane, she told us to meet her after the show and we could go Backstage. So much fun!

We had to get lots of photos.

Avril was good. Wished she had played more of her older songs.

Up next, the BSB!!! The crowd went wild. I don't think I have ever heard so much screaming...and I have been to a lot of concerts -LOL! Those boys still have the moves and were so much fun to watch. It was fun to sing along and dance to their fun music. Not gonna lie, kind of felt like a teeny bopper, like I was 19 years old. Then, reality set in, realizing that I am just months away from turning 40. 

 Here are some fun highlights.

The boys left the stage and the crowd starting chanting "BSB. BSB. BSB!"

And they came back on stage for their encore.  At that point, Luseane came to get us and told us we could go down to the front row. She said she misunderstood Andrew and we could have been down there the whole time. What??? We loved the time we got to

be down there. So close and it was so loud -ha!

After the show, we got to head backstage and hang out. All of the tour buses were lined up and people were coming and going. 

One by one, the BSB were making their way to an after party with fans. It was so cute and very sweet,  they would stop and talk to Luseane and tell her how great her boy was and give her a big hug. We were able to get our pictures taken with a few of them.

Up first:

Howie. How stinkin' cute is he?

He was super nice and friendly. So much fun!

Then we got to meet AJ.

Again, so nice and so cool that we are taking photo with AJ from the BSB. 

Next, Nick came walking by. So cute and so nice. 

After meeting the boys, we got to chat with Andrew for a little bit. Seriously, he is one of the nicest people ever. John and I are huge fans, we love and admire Luseane and the boys she has raised. I hope I can do half the job she has done, with my own boys. I snagged this photo off of Luseane's  FB page( hope she doesn't mind). Some of the nicest people I know. 

Such a fun date night, with Awesome friends and fun music. We agreed that we need to do it again, soon. 

As Sunday morning rolled around, and I had to get up for an early morning meeting, I realized that I  getting too old to stay out so late and that I am not 19 years old anymore. 

date night

John had been talking about the Journey concert for months. They were scheduled to come out our way. I told him we should go. We would talk about it and then forget about it. Well, he decided the week of the concert that we needed to go. An evening spent listening to 80's music, I was totally on board. John found tickets for the lawn and we were good to go. This was the beautiful sky we enjoyed on our way out to the show.















This is the sunset we enjoyed while waiting for the show to start. Absolutely breath taking.

















Up first, Night Ranger. They sounded great. John loved them. To be totally honest, I only knew one of their songs. John was flabbergasted that I only knew one song. Sister Christian was my song-haha. I will say (in my defense)that I AM the younger wife. While he was rocking out to Night Ranger, I was most likely b-bopping to New Edition :-). I had to laugh though, they still have their 80's rocker hair. Some things will never change.














Foreigner was up next. They got the crowd going. They sounded exactly like they did in the 80's. I knew most of their songs and happily sang along.

















Journey finally took the stage at 9:30 pm. They played for a solid hour and a half. It had escaped my mind that the lead singers position had been filled with a guy they had found performing Journey songs via Karaoke. I thought the guy did a great job and sounded pretty darn good/close to the real thing. I loved singing along with the crowd to the old Journey favorites. I got major goosebumps when they sang Don't Stop Believing. Who doesn't love that song???

















We have added another fabulous date night to the books. Thanks,honey!

Same boy...

Different city. Different venue. Different crowd :-). Different songs heard live. *Sigh*. John Mayer was amazing. He really was.
















We brought the hubbies along with us this time :-). We all got there before the gates opened. We had fun chatting in line while we waited. Once inside the gates, we had our picnic dinners on the lawn, we sang Happy Birthday to Pete and enjoyed Amy's scrumptious cupcakes in honor of that same birthday boy.


We were all getting comfy on the lawn when Pete announced that he had landed some upgrade tickets/seats for us. SCORE. We moved from the lawn, up to section 201 row 8...just enough seats for all of us. They were awesome seats & even better when we moved one more time, more towards the center.

It is always so much fun hanging out with these girls. They are the best. They are fabulous. I love them.


An extra bonus to have these guys join us.


A few selfies while waiting for the show to start. Owl City was the opening act...45 minutes of my life(two times over) that I won't ever get back.



{I had to laugh out loud when I saw this photo on my computer. He WAS supposed to be smiling like I was -LOL}.

It was another perfect Summer night in Cali. I loved every minute of it. I am sure I had a smile on my face the entire night. My favorite songs from the evening were Perfectly Lonely, Clarity, War of my Life, Do You Know Me and his cover of Raspberry Beret. I loved his version of this song...he had cool purple lights and the crowd sang along. Two concerts, back to back = the perfect way to end my Summer.

I wonder how soon it will be before John boy (my John) will see another John Mayer concert with me :-)?

Date Night

Date night with my sweetie! We are getting pretty good at our self portraits:-).John surprised me with tickets to see the midnight showing (12:08 am to be exact) of Eclipse(part of the Twilight saga). How fun is that? I don't know of too many guys who would make plans to take their S.O. to a midnight showing of Eclipse. I know it wasn't his 1st, 2nd, or 3rd(you get the picture)choice to see...but he knew it would make me happy. I love him even more for being so thoughtful! We made an evening out of it and hit Outback for dinner. We then made our way over to the theatre. We got there at about 9:30 and had to sit in the parking lot until 11:30 pm with a bunch of wild and excited teenagers. John was definitely out numbered...way more ladies at this movie. I loved the movie & thought this one was way better than Twilight and New Moon. There was lots of action & the love story was great too...two thumbs up from me. Another fabulous date night for the books. Wonder what we'll do next?

one for the books

My hubby surprised me with John Mayer concert tickets this weekend...eeeeeeeeekkkk! He arranged a sitter for the boys and everything. Do you know how happy this made me? This was my favorite date night out with my sweetie to date. In the thick of things, ie: raising four active boys, shuffling them to and from school, sports, scouts, piano, working on school projects, jobs, hobbies, etc...it's easy to feel like John & I's relationship gets lost in the shuffle during the daily grind on the home front. Please don't read this wrong, we are fine...more than fine. We are happy...just super busy. I so needed this night out on the town. We had several hours to ourselves. Lots of good conversation and each other. It really was perfect.

















Once we hit our home town, we went to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants. It is a little hole in the wall,Itallian restaurant. From there, we hit the concert. We got there an hour early...can you say excited and anxious? We sat and people watched (one of my favorite pastimes) & just enjoyed being together. I loved every minute of it. The opening act was Michael Franti and SpearHeads. I only knew one of their songs(from the Valentine Day movie- Say Hey)but they had lots of energy and really got the crowd going.

When John and his band took the stage, a screen was pulled around the perimeter of the stage and the lights went down. All of a sudden, a countdown started. It was the type of countdown you'd see in an old movie and it was projected onto this screen with pictures of JM flashing in and out. Once it hit number one, the lights went on and John started the show with Heartbreak Warfare.
Be still my heart...seriously :-).














He played set after set...two hours of John Mayer goodness. I loved every song. If I had to pick my favorite from the evening, it would be Half of my heart(with Stop this Train as a close second). He added what he said "was the other half of this song"...Fleetwood Mac's, Dream. He is so talented, both lyrically and musically. He is worth every penny to see in concert. He was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. If you ever have the chance to see him in concert...don't miss the opportunity.




































Thanks for an amazing night out, John Boy! I love you!
p.s. Can you guess what has been on heavy rotation in my car and on my ipod :-)?

amazing race - couples addition

John & I got our game on tonight. Our friends, the Jones & Heaps planned a fun evening out, Amazing Race style.
















We arrived at our starting point @ 6:29 pm. Once we arrived, we were put onto teams. We were paired up with our good friends, the Solanos. We started with a handicap right off the bat. We were down a couple(didn't make it due to lack of a babysitter at the last minute). Once everyone arrived, we were given a packet with our first clue & once we were told we could go...everyone ran for their cars. We competed against 4 other teams.


























We had to stop for dinner & come up with a team name. Dinner could be anywhere. We stopped at the first place we saw...Taco Bell. We had to keep our receipt in order to obtain our next clue, exactly 20 minutes later.




















We ended up with the team name V-8(powered by 8). Between the two couples(Solanos & us),we have 8 boys, hence our team name.
We ran all over town, finding our destinations/answers to our clues. Once we arrived at each destination, we then had to complete a challenge, as a team. A few of our challenges included:

Completing a puzzle of the world in a certain amount of time. (this is where that
3rd couple would have really been put to good use).
















Up next, hitting the punching bag for so long(2 minutes). Doesn't sound bad, trust me...it seemed like forever. If one of our team members stopped, we would of had to start over. Good thing we got it right the first time.













Then at the next stop, one of us had to dive into a 50 degree pool at 8 pm at night (the heat had been turned off) & dive for the Canadian penny. There were 19 American pennies in the pool & the ONE Canadian. John took that task on for our team & we were all so grateful. We had to shine flashlights in the water for him, attempting to help him find the ONE Canadian penny.



























Next stop was Big Spoon Yogurt.














Our task at Big Spoon was to fill our Yogurt cup with 10 oz. of yogurt & then another cup that had 2 ounces of toppings. If you didn't get it right the first time, you had to get out of line & add more & then get back in line. Once you got the weight of each cup right, you had to eat your yogurt & toppings before moving on to the next challenge. Can you say brain freeze! Nothing like trying to down frozen yogurt under pressure :-).

Our last stop was the Jones house. We got to play ROCK BAND,the Beatles edition. We had John on the drums with Kristin & Fernando on the guitars. I attempted to sing to YELLOW SUBMARINE. We passed on our first try...whew
















Then we had to run back to the Heaps for our final time. We didn't win 1st place but had a blast trying to do so.

We had so much FUN! John & I are still talking about it. We had so much fun with the Solano's. We couldn't have done it w/out Fernando's mad Porche driving skills :-)(we were in the min van BTW), navigation & good friends to laugh with along the way! Thanks K&F...We'll take the win next year :-)!

A HUGE thanks to Stephanie, Gerald, Julianne & Brad for putting a lot of time, energy & creativity into such a fabulous night out!










{Their hubby's had already gone by the time I had snapped this picture.}
Thank you so much for a fabulous date night...going down in the books as one of the best!

Look at this beautiful sunset.
My hubby whisked me away on Saturday night?
Any guesses as to where we ended up?