Although Michael Jackson was a very interesting person and maybe did things I didn't agree with, my heart is still saddened today with the news of his early death. His music was a huge part of my childhood. My brother adored him and I grew up with his music often playing around me. My thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends at this time.
My five favorite musical guys did a tribute at their Detroit concert last night and I really enjoyed it and thought some of you might enjoy it as well.
Saturday evening our neighbors invited us to go to the Orem Summer Fest with them. They had already staked out a prim spot for the parade the night before. We had never been and in fact had never even heard about it so we decided it would be fun to tag along with them.
Playing Uno while waiting for the parade to begin
A rainbow!
City of Provo float
Pretty float, not sure who it was
Pirates!!!
City of Orem float
As soon as the parade was over it started raining! We've been in a rainy afternoon pattern for two weeks it seems like and Saturday was no different. We decided to head back to the car and see if it would pass. After the rain stopped a while later we went and rode a few rides thanks to Shandra for hooking us up with free tickets!
Tilt-A-Whirl (my favorite ride)
Wes, Michelle, Me & Dave on the Tilt-A-Whirl
Shortly after the above picture was taken Dave lost his wallet, but we didn't realize it until after the fireworks started. It must have worked its way out of his pocket while we were spinning around and around. After riding rides we watched a very nice fireworks show!
Shandra asked that we pick her up some cotton candy in exchange for the ride tickets. After this video was filmed Dave went to get some cotton candy for Shandra. In the process he realized his wallet was gone and so we spent the next hour or so retracing every step we made that evening, but were unsuccessful in finding it. When we got home we got a call from a very nice honest man who said he had found Dave's wallet on the Tilt-A-Whirl. We met him at a gas station around midnight. Before we got his call I had already made Dave call our bank so now Dave has no debit card until they mail him a new one. BUT...we are both grateful we got his wallet back! It was a stressful end to a fun evening, but it all worked out.
This post will have to tide you over for a few weeks. We are leaving for Mt. Rushmore in a few days! Neither one of us have ever been there so it should be fun. We are meeting my mom and aunt there as well. It will be nice to see them again.
Now that I have all of my cruise posts done I can update you all on the few things we've been doing lately. Dave's brother Jake and his wife and two kids were here visiting from Moscow, Idaho at the end of May. We drove up to Tremonton/Logan for Memorial Day so we could spend some time with them and also some of Dave's other family. We ended up doing some exploring in Logan Canyon. While in the area we did get to see Dave's dad for a bit and also enjoyed a wonderful meal with Dave's mom and a few of Dave's siblings and their families. Good times!
Logan Canyon I was playing with the panorama feature on our camera again...I'm hooked!!!
Zach, Jake & Dave looking at a rock with worm burrows (look how bald my hubby is these days!)
Another thing that we finally got somewhat accomplished recently was repainting our living/dining room. I've been tossing around the idea of lightening the room up a bit and bought primer to do it back when Dave was in California on spring break, but I never got around to doing it. I finally talked Dave into helping me do it one weekend. Here is a picture of the primer. We are leaving the bottom part brown, but lightened up the top. The primer isn't the exact color as the final paint will be, but it is close...we had the primer tinted. The color we are going to use is Behr's Gobi Desert at Home Depot if you are curious to see it. We also rearranged the living room in the process. When we finally get around to finishing this project in July probably I'll post more pictures.
Day 3 did not start out like day 2. Our lack of sleep was finally catching up with us. We had no desire and no motivation to get up and go exercise so we slept in. We woke up with just enough time to get ready and eat breakfast before it was time to go stand in line once again. This time we stood in line for a picture with the New Kids on the Block!!!
NKOTB photo-op: There were about 2,000 women on the boat so they divided us into groups of 10 for our photos with the guys. Everything was so rushed. We had no time to talk to talk them. The organizers were even telling us that we couldn't hug them. In a way I was sort of glad we couldn't have any sort of "interaction" with them because I was soooooo nervous to finally be meeting them, but on the other hand I would've liked to at least said something to each of them since I spent the money to be on the cruise, etc. Such is life.
After standing in line for about 30 mins. and watching a girl in front of us faint (scary!), it was finally our turn! I hadn't really rehearsed what I would do or say, but was told by Amy that I had to stand by Danny because he was my favorite back in the day. I had heard that Danny was fairly short so I was nervous to stand by him, but when we walked in the room I realized they were sitting. Due to me being self conscious about being so much taller than Danny I decided to walk around behind him and lean over the chair he was sitting in. For a moment or two I stood behind him not really knowing what to do. I finally decided that he should probably know I was standing behind him so I grabbed both of his shoulders and said, "Well, it looks like you get me!" Right at that exact same moment he jumped and said something to the affect of, "You scared the crap (although he didn't use that word) out of me!" All I could say at that point was, "I'm sorry." I was mortified! The photographer yelled, "Picture time" and then we were shooed off like cattle. I wasn't even entirely sure I was smiling or even looking at the camera. It all happened so quickly and I was so nervous! When we got outside of the room Amy and I were able to discuss what happened and my legs were still shaking so bad. What a dork I am!
From there we decided to go change into our swimsuits and spend some time relaxing by the pool. Since it wasn't a typical cruise there were hardly any children on the boat and the areas that would typically be full of children were empty. They had fun water slides up on the very top deck. I have to admit that I was too chicken to go down them although I wish I would've. We hung out there until it was time for lunch. After lunch I could tell that I wouldn't make it through the rest of the day unless I took a nap. So, while I slept for a couple of hours Amy spent some time hanging out with our neighbors walking around the boat trying to find the New Kids.
After my nap Amy informed me that she had a plan on how we could get good seats at tonight's NKOTB concert. Her and the neighbors had concocted a plan. Jaime didn't really care about having a nice dinner so she would go stand in line around 4 p.m. and hold our place while the three of us (me, Amy & Aimee) ate our final dinner in the formal dining room. Tonight's theme was "White Night" so we got all dressed up and headed up to check on Jaime. We stood in line with her for about an hour before we went and had another wonderful meal. After dinner we ended up back in line waiting with Jaime. I decided that if I was going to be sitting on a floor for several hours that I did not want to do it in my nice white dress so I went back to our room and changed. Party pooper, I know. I can't remember exactly when the concert started, but I think it was around 9 p.m. so we essentially sat/stood in line for a couple of more hours after dinner.
NKOTB Concert: I thoroughly enjoyed the concert. Being in a room on a cruise ship versus in an arena allowed for much better sound quality and a more intimate setting. Don't get me wrong, I loved their concert last fall, but it was so much more enjoyable seeing them in concert on the cruise versus in concert at an arena. They seemed more laid back and relaxed too. We didn't exactly get the seats we were hoping for, but we got pretty good seats. The room was sectioned off into zones and what zone you got depended on how quickly you purchased the cruise when it went on sale back in January. Amy bought tickets in the first 15 minutes so our zone was fairly good. The problem was that in each zone there were no assigned seats so you still had to wait in line to get a good seat within your zone.During the concert they went off script a couple of times and really had a blast. Joe decided that they should sing "I'll Be there" for us since they only had performed it once since the reunion and that was in the UK. Jordan played the keyboard, Donnie was on the drums and Joe and Danny sang the lyrics. The problem was that Jordan started off on the keyboard in the wrong key. Joe and Danny tried their hardest to make that key work, but just couldn't do it. They ended up busting out in laughter part way through. It was definitely a memorable experience. There was a strict no videoing policy at all of the official events, but I was able to find a video of this flub on You Tube...someone broke the rules! Warning: There is a cuss word at 1:33-1:34 so mute it at that exact moment so you don't have to hear it, but enjoy the rest of the video!
After the "I'll Be There" flub, Joe performed the song he has recently written for us fans. These guys are so personal and so appreciative of us coming back and supporting them all these years later. It is evident in this song that Joe wrote...one of the many reasons why I still love them. Warning: Again, there is another cuss word in this video so please mute between 0:18 and 0:19.
At the NKOTB Feud on Friday night Donnie had two of the men in the audience go up on stage to compete for front row seats at the concert on Sunday night. He ended up giving both of these guys front row seats, but asked them if they would be prepared to sing a NKOTB song with them at the concert. Donnie came through on his word and had these guys join them on stage. It was so funny. The guy who sang was actually in a NKOTB tribute band and knew all of the songs by heart. He even knew the choreography. He sang "Games" and killed it! The other guy just acted as a dancer towards the end of the song. This was one of the best moments of the night. That guy really knew how to work a crowd. I think all 5 of the New Kids were very impressed!
Jordan's birthday was Sunday so at the concert his brother, Jon, brought him a cake on stage and we all sang Happy Birthday to him.
Below are a few more random pictures from the concert.
Donnie
Danny
Joe
Jon & Donnie
Joe
Jordan
White Night Deck Party: After the concert we went to the casino for a brief moment because Donnie was playing poker with a few people who had won various poker tournaments throughout the day...that was their reward for winning. The winner of that final poker tournament got something like $1500. They also got tickets to a concert or two for this summer's tour. After watching a few minutes of that game we decided to go up to the Lido Deck and dance the night away. After the poker tournament was over Donnie and Jordan joined the fun on the Lido Deck. Donnie wanted everyone to stay up all night, but Amy and I just couldn't do it. We went to bed somewhere around 3 or 4 a.m. Below are a few videos from the party.
Carnival staff dancing to a New Kids song
Jordan singing along to one of his solo career songs
Donnie & Jordan singing along to one of the NKOTB songs
The final day of the cruise essentially was a traveling day. We arrived in Miami around 8 a.m. and went through debarkation shortly after. We got to the Miami airport around 10ish and our flight wasn't scheduled to leave until 4 p.m. We spent the day wandering around the airport and reminiscing with other fans that we ran into at the airport. Our flight out of Miami was delayed by about an hour because of weather. I had a long enough layover in Atlanta that it didn't affect my flight into Salt Lake, but Amy wasn't so fortunate. She missed her flight back to Maine and was put up in a hotel for the night in Atlanta and flew home the next day. These are a few pictures I took of Miami on our way to the airport.
Overall I had the time of my life! There were a few frustrating moments throughout the weekend, but I'm glad I went. I wish I would've had more run-ins with the guys, but I seemed to be pretty unlucky. This just reminded me of another run-in we had, but I forgot to talk about it on here. It either happened Saturday or Sunday night...can't remember right now. We were walking out of the main cafeteria and saw Jon heading in. We remained calm and simply said "Hi!" to him as he passed us. He said, "Hi ladies!" back. We could've stopped him and asked for pictures or hugs, but we decided to give him his peace and I'm sure he appreciated it.
There is already talk of making this an annual cruise, but I've been told by my dear hubby that this was my first and last NKOTB cruise. We shall see...LOL! (No we won't! It is her last one!!!!!!) Dave's two cents.
