Saturday, August 8, 2015

Trip out west: Part 1 - U2 and Colorado



I just realized today that i never did go back and talk about our trip out west. Which...it's a ridiculously long time ago now - over a month back - but i also know that i will eventually want to make a book about this year, and if i DON'T go back and write about it, then i won't have anything written about it. And by the time i actually get around to doing 2015, it'll probably be something ridiculous like 2030, and i won't remember what happened anymore. SO. The first 1/3 of the trip:

On Thursday, Beth and i headed up to Chicago to go to a U2 concert. (YAY!) Beth gave me a trip to the concert for Christmas, back before we knew the dates of Tony and Meloni's wedding. When we got the invitation, we were all, "NO! That's like...the worst timing!" Except that, with more thought and planning, it turned out to be kind of perfect. I mentioned that we were going to Colorado, and Beth said, "I want to go to Colorado!" because she has family and friends that all live out there too. And so the plan was hatched that she and i could go to the concert, and Juanito could pick us up there, and we could all drive to Colorado together.

We dropped her car off at her friend's house and took the train downtown, where we got dinner and then headed to the United Center for the concert. And the concert was truly amazing. Both of us just completely love U2, and it's so much fun to go to a concert with other people who as completely enamored as you are. It was their Innocence + Experience tour, and they did all of their old songs that i love, and i will stop gushing now.

Juanito picked us up after the concert and drove us out of the city, at which point i took over and drove all night and into Nevada. I'm usually pretty useless for night driving, but having Beth along meant that i had someone to talk to, so while everyone else slept, the two of us laughed and chatted and talked about...i don't even know what for hours and hours. At one point she fell asleep, only to startle awake a few minutes later, throwing water all over me in the process. It scared the daylights out of me, since she was supposed to be asleep, and i'm still not sure how i didn't wake the entire car up, screaming in fright.

As soon as we got to Colorado, Beth went off with her family and we headed to my cousin Sara's house. They were nice enough to let us stay with them for the weekend. I don't remember much about Friday, because i was going on about 2 hours of sleep.

On Saturday, we decided to go do the Lariat Loop again, since we'd all really enjoyed that last year. I think we drove it more quickly than last year since we'd already seen a lot of it, but we still really enjoyed ourselves. The kids love climbing on rocks, so we spent the majority of the time letting them do that. We stopped at a little candy store and got ice cream. We stopped at Red Rocks for a couple of minutes, but didn't really have time to go into it at all, because we were running late for the rehearsal dinner.

Tony and Meloni invited us to their rehearsal dinner, even though none of us were actually in their wedding. They're nice that way. It was really, really appreciated, because that was the only actual time that we got to see them. The next day was their wedding, and they were, understandably, fairly distracted during that. So we hung out and talked to Tony and Meloni and helped with we could.

Sunday was the wedding. We headed over to their church very early so we could help with setting stuff up. We were put in charge of sidewalk chalk, a task which my family all jumped into with glee. The wedding was lovely. The program was Princess Bride themed. The cake was Star Wars themed. There was a storm trooper at the reception. Tony and Meloni both looked completely happy and adorable. I was so glad that we could be there. It was a very, very happy wedding.


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