Sunday, June 23, 2013

Red

Trent came with me at the end of May (the 29th) to see Taylor Swift on her "Red" tour and I am finally getting around to blogging about it. Sometimes I put off posts because they are completely overwhelming to me (especially when I have tons of pictures - beware!), but I know I'll be happy that I blogged about it in the future.

This was actually my second time seeing her in concert - last time I was very pregnant with Aiden (HERE).  I just love her, and Trent likes her too, and I always figure, you never know if this'll be her last tour or not!
Before we left.


We got there and immediately got into a long line to get me a t-shirt.  It's a fun shirt, but I didn't get a picture.

Then we headed to our seats in the arena.  We definitely had better seats last time, which was unfortunate.  And there were screaming teeny boppers directly behind us the entire time.  Man were their screams shrill!  We were feeling a little deaf when we headed home later..haha.  I guess we're getting old!  I remember when we (my sisters and I) used to scream and squeal like that, particularly Jill ;) And then the girl sitting right next to me was drinking a nasty beer and taking up all my space (she and her friend had a huge sign).  So clearly my seat was a lot better last time, but don't get me wrong, we still really enjoyed seeing Taylor.

Anyway, the opening act was Ed Sheeran, which was kind of fun since we know some of his stuff ("The a Team", "Lego House").  It was cool to hear some of his other stuff too.


Because of our seats, sometimes it was easiest to just take pictures of the screen above us :/


After Ed, waiting for Taylor!


Taylor came out singing "State of Grace."  It's always exciting when they first come out :)





Next she performed "Holy Ground."


She used a sparkly red microphone the whole time - it was very fitting ;)


At this point she gave her introduction and explained how she compares colors and emotions.  She went on to say that the emotions she wrote about in this album kind of end up on opposite ends of the emotional spectrum -- the happy, in love emotions and the frustrated, complicated, break-up emotions.  She refers to all of these as the "crazy emotions" and that in her mind they are RED!


Then she went right into performing "Red" :)




Performing "You Belong With Me" from her Fearless album.


Performing "The Lucky One."




Getting ready to perform "Mean" (from Speak Now) on her banjo.




"Stay, Stay, Stay" mixed with "Ho Hey" by The Lumineers.


For "22" Taylor came out dressed like a hipster ;)


She made her way through the audience...


...to a little stage at the back of the arena.



Performing "Starlight."  Trent really enjoyed this part of the evening because she played these songs acoustic.


It was nice b/c the stage slowly revolved so that everyone had a chance to see her.


Then she brought Ed Sheeran out to perform "Everything Has Changed."


Performing "Begin Again."


During this one her stage rose - it got pretty high!


During "Sparks Fly" (from Speak Now) she got in this pedestal thing that whisked her all around the arena :)


It brought her back around to the main stage.  Right after I took this picture (below) a kid jumped on stage and was close enough to touch Taylor before security grabbed him and took him away.  I was so astonished that I didn't get any pictures!


Taylor came out wearing this gown to perform "I Knew You Were Trouble."



About halfway through though, her dancers ripped the gown off to reveal this little black number..haha.  I liked the gown better ;)


Taylor played the piano during "All Too Well."



Performing "Love Story" (one of my faves) from Fearless.




Performing "Treacherous."  This was my favorite outfit of Taylor's.  I loved how simple and elegant it was.  Plus she was barefoot.  She looked like a ballerina :)


She walked down to a part of the stage that lifted.


Taylor's final song of the night was "We Are Never Getting Back Together."


She got back onto the part of the stage that rose and it swung out into the audience.


There was so much confetti you can hardly see her!


She slid down to the main stage..haha.


Her final bow!


It was a wonderful concert.  I maybe just wish we had had better seats.  But who knows, maybe I'll see her a third time!

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Amazing Jake's

Aiden got invited to a little birthday party this last weekend at Amazing Jake's.  We had never been before, but it's kind of like a little indoor amusement park in Gilbert :)  He was only allowed to ride 3 rides (since he's young)..haha.

The pictures aren't the best quality since they're all in motion.

First the teacups with Daddy.



You can see Aiden was getting dizzy..haha.


Aiden loved the teacups and wanted to go again.  I guess there weren't enough workers that day b/c they'd man a ride for about 10 minutes then block it off and go over to another ride for about 10 minutes.  While the teacups were blocked off, Aiden literally got down on his stomach and was trying to crawl under the fence.  I wish I had gotten a picture!  He was not too happy that he couldn't get on again.

Next we went to the carousel.  We'd been on a huge carousel (2 tiers) at the mall with my mom several weeks ago and it totally freaked Aiden out, maybe because the horses went up and down.  He was totally fine this time and Trent believes it was because he was here this time..haha.  It could also be because this one was a third the size and the horses didn't move ;)




Aiden wanted to go back to the teacups after this, but it was closed because some kid got sick.  Gross!

We ended with the little train :)



Aiden is at such a fun age.  It is so fun to witness him make little buddies and really interact :)