So, when I was in Germany I got to see Shinedown in concert in Frankfurt. Shortly before I came home, I saw that they were going to be headlining a festival tour called the "Carnival of Madness" after I came home. I begged and begged JME if we could go after I got home and she finally told me that we could. Unfortunately, the closest they were coming to O-Town was Casper, WY, so we had to make a road trip.
We left early in the morning and drove about seven hours to the small town of Casper. Why they chose to hold a huge festival concert in such a small town and completely pass SLC is beyond me. Anyway, we got settled in our hotel, grabbed a delicious meal at a local Mexican restaurant and we headed up to the Casper Events Center.
We got there and they separated the lines into male and female so that they could search us before going inside. A few guys were standing behind us in line and they were talking to every event worker that walked past and calling them by their first names. One of them walked up to them and asked them to huddle up close. So, they all started whispering and I heard the event worker say that they were giving away pink wristbands to the first 200 people that bought a Shinedown CD that would get them to a meet and greet after the show. So, the second I made it through the security guards, I ran to the nearest souvenir stand and bought 2 CD's for us. Along with that came 2 wristbands to meet SHINEDOWN!
Opening the show was the Knoxville, TN band Ten Years. They are known for such songs as Wasteland, So Long Goodbye, and Beautiful.
After them was Sevendust, a group from Atlanta, GA. I have seen them before. They are known for a pretty wild stage show. They are famous for such songs as Angel's Son, Denial, and Enemy.
After them was Puddle of Mudd from Kansas City, MO. I've seen them before also. They are known for such songs as Blurry, Psycho, and She Hates Me.
After that came Chevelle. They are from Chicago, IL. I was really impressed by them. They put on a great show. They are known for such songs as Vitamin R (Leading Us Along), The Clincher, and The Red.
After that came the main attraction, SHINEDOWN! They are from Jacksonville, FL. This was the 5th time I've seen them. What an amazing show they put on! Their set list, which I wrote down as they went a long, went like this: Sound of Madness, Devour, I Dare You, Cyanide Sweet Tooth Suicide, If You Only Knew, Diamond Eyes (Boom-Lay Boom-Lay Boom), 45, Burning Bright, Heroes, The Crow and the Butterfly, Her Name Is Alice, Save Me, Left Out, Simple Man, Fly From the Inside, and Second Chance. It was an amazing show with a lot of visual effects on jumbo screens everywhere and great music. Their singer Brent always does a great job of firing up the audience and getting everyone into the show. It was a lot of fun!
After the show was over, we met up with the rest of the people with the pink wristbands where we were lined up to meet Shinedown. We were told that we couldn't take pictures with the band, but we could take pictures while we were waiting in line. Here are a couple that I snapped.
They were very friendly to both of us. They thanked me for my military service and signed the CD booklets and our tickets. In return, I presented Brent with the coin from the First and Second Class Petty Officer's Association at Landstuhl.
It was the best festival concert I have ever been to. It was a great way to celebrate coming home.
Pen Pals - Blogged by JME
One Sunday during August, N8 and I had some special guests. My cousins from Cali came to visit us. My cousin served an LDS mission in New Zealand and she was here for her mission reunion. It was so nice to have her over. We each made our own personalized pizza for lunch and played 'Curses.' It was a great time.
My mom and dad are both from Cali and moved here when they got married. As a result, we grew up far away from their families. We rarely had big family get-togethers. Thanksgiving and other holidays were never spent with grandparents or cousins. We would see them occasionally when we went to California to visit or if there was a funeral, but it was rare.
My cousin and I became pen pals when we were quite young, around 1990, when we were both about eight. We wrote each other on and off through elementary, junior high, and high school. We wrote about the classes we were taking, the guys we liked, the difficulties at home, and threw in a few jokes here and there. We wrote to each other for about 10 years. I kept every one of those letters and would read them occasionally.
Right before N8 left for his deployment to Germany, we went on a trip to Cali. While there, we stopped to visit my cousin. I brought all of the letters I'd collected over the years so that she could look at them. Apparently, she had also kept all the letters I wrote to her. We spent an evening visiting her and her husband and I left her letters with her so she could look at them.
Before we came home from our trip, we met up with my cousin one more time. She gave me a binder she had put together. She had taken all of her letters and all of mine and made a copy of each of them. There were over 60 letters in that binder. My cousin even put them together by date. It was so awesome and priceless.
It has been so nice to continue my friendship with my cousin. N8 and I really enjoyed having them over. We had a great time talking and hanging out. I wish we lived closer to each other. Maybe someday . . .
My Friend Hil - Blogged by JME
My sister-in-law, Pookie, knows how much of a fan of Hilary Weeks I am. She called a few weeks ago to let me know that Hilary Weeks was performing a free concert close by.
N8, the amazing husband that he is, went with me to see her perform. It was an outdoor concert and chairs were set up for the audience. The night was beautiful and the temperature was nice and cool after a hot day. We were about five rows back and had a pretty good view.
I always say that Hilary and I are friends. The reason why is that two years ago, I saw Hilary and had her sign something and she made some comment about us being friends, so now I refer to her as my friend, Hil. I've seen her twice since then, and each time I tell whoever I'm with how Hil and I are friends. (Pretty funny since I'm sure she doesn't remember who I am from Adam.)
We were able to talk to her again this time. She is so down to earth and so much fun. She likes to mess around and has a great personality.
She sang her famous 'I Believe I Can Fly' song, and luckily I had the camera ready and was able to film it. It is a parody from R. Kelly's 'I Believe I Can Fly,' and is pretty funny. I'm sure a lot of moms feel this way some days.
Even though this wasn't the kind of concert N8 normally perfers, he had a good time and we both felt the spirit while we were there. Thanks my friend Hil for a wonderful evening!
Family Reunion - Blogged by N8 and JME
In August we went up to Lava Hot Springs, Idaho for N8's family reunion. There were easily over 100 people there. This family branches down from N8's great, great maternal grandparents that came to the United States from Denmark. We had a great time. 
The first night was pretty cool. There was a meteor shower and we were in a perfect place to watch it. We saw about a dozen shooting stars. JME got to see the Milky Way for the first time. It is amazing to see how many stars there really are when you aren't in a city with a bunch of lights. We spent one day of the reunion tubing down the river. There were hot springs along the river bank. We would get out of our tubes and sit in them and relax on some of our trips down the river. We had a great time. We went down with Pounder and her friend, BJ, Uncle L, and Z. It was a blast.
While we were in town, we found some fliers advertising a zip line course that was close by. It was only $20 per person, and we decided to try it out. N8 had been ziplining when he was in YMs, but JME had never been ziplining before. We were the only two people out of our whole family that signed up.
The man that runs the course is Czechoslovakian. His name is Mulon and his partner is Keith. The zipline was over 1,000 feet long. Keith and Mulon showed us tricks to do while on the zipline like laying flat or flipping upside down. I don't think either of us went upside down while doing the course, but we tried it while on solid ground. It was kind of scary at first because we had to run off the side of the mountain and hope that the equipment would work. Once we tried it the first time, however, we weren't so scared anymore.
The zipline course is fairly new. This was its first year running. Because of that, there was only one zipline and we had to run back to the launch point each time we finished a turn, but we were able to go on it about five times which means that we were able to zipline for over a mile. That also means that we ran a mile while running back to the top.
When we got back into town, we found a shop that sells potato guns and we both got one. Our neices and nephew all got one as well, and when we got back to camp, we had a big potato gun fight. Shy little Pooh Bear even got involved and had a great time. Pooh Bear used JME's gun so JME had to sit out for a while, but that was okay. JME threw a whole potato at N8 since she didn't have a gun, and told him it was a grenade. N8 thought that was pretty funny and got a good laugh out of it.
That night we had the traditional potluck and auction. N8 brought a personalized Danish licence plate from Germany that had the family name imprinted on it. It went for about $36. We bid on a marshmallow gun and bought it for $8. We also bid on a 1935 Silver Certificate one dollar bill from Hawaii that was stamped with special stamps so that the Japanese couldn't counterfit it. We bought that for $22. Who knows if it will ever be worth that much, but all the proceeds from the auction go to next years reunion so we didn't mind spending that much on the dollar bill. Plus it will be neat to show to our kids someday. 
We left that night so that JME could be at church the next morning for her calling, but as we were leaving, we drove slowly by the family who was still gathered together from the potluck and auction, and we did a drive by shooting with the marshmallow gun. It was so much fun! N8 was the sniper and JME was the getaway driver.
Next year, it looks like the reunion will be in Oregon. N8's already talking about the hang gliding they have up there. Stay tuned for that . . .
