And, I have discovered, so does pretty much everyone else I know. That makes me happy. I’ve always been a mediocre fan, putting them on the iPod when I want something mellow, swooning every time The Scientist comes on, you know the usual. But when Viva La Vida came out, I realized that I pretty much LOVE these guys. And knew I had to see them live. Surprisingly, every person I talked to had the same feeling, even my company’s CEO.

After a totally legit Grammy’s performance, I checked out their website. Alas! They were on tour and coming to LA! Kellie and I bought tickets to their LA show back in January or February and we finally got to go to the show last night! It was awesome. We ditched our cheap seats sometime in the beginning of the first opening band’s set (Kitty, Daisy and Lewis – really fun!) and went wandering. We found a great place to stand and watch the show and thankfully never got kicked out!

I should have taken a shot from our real seats, but just know that they were far away. And kind of high. Here’s where we relocated to:

That’s during Amadou and Mariam, the awesome second opening act that pretty much made me want to become an African back-up dancer. Seriously.

I don’t have a cool camera that takes good concert pictures, but go with me here. This is during Yellow, they released a TON of giant yellow balloons. It was fun.

Lots more awesome concert stuff happened with giant crowd singing time, Coldplay taking a trip to the back of the stadium to play a cute little set (that included a rendering of Billie Jean), and lots of dancing on the part of Kellie and I.

Then came the trek to the parking lot. Kellie and I were feeling rebellious and not wanting to walk in the long line of people. Through the grass we went. Great idea, until we got to the middle somewhere and discovered it had been watered recently – and abundantly. We attempted to run to the nearest sidewalk as we felt our feet get deeper by the second. My shoes brought back some souvenirs for me:

I’ve had quite the eventful summer so far. I love this time of year because its full of excuses to do awesome stuff. Here’s the laundry list so far.

Took a day off and went home to spend some quality time with my parents, the pups and the pool. Being in Apple Valley always feels like I’m back on summer break again, I love it.  Wish the trips could be longer these days, but I guess I value them more now than when I was “stuck” up there during college.

The beautiful sunset after my dinner date with Dad.

Poolside with the pups

That same long weekend, the roommates and I spent our second year (Kellie’s first) celebrating 4th of July in San Clemente. This year Jamie and some of the family went down the night before to score us a sweet spot on the grass, both to have a nice place to relax during the day, and to have the best view of the fireworks. Except maybe the surfers who watched from the water, I may see about finding a way to be out there some year…

I enjoy this picture of Vo, and it seems appropriate to post as the rest of these pictures are hers… And because I miss her. Moving is no bueno.

We had the great idea to play football (or mostly just throw footballs at each other) on the main sidewalk, next to the busy street, with children.  We are all going to make great parents some day…

Here’s our awesome view of the beach and the pier for the fireworks. Totally worth leaving Riverside at 6am… Especially because we also had prime beach property for napping.

See what I mean?

And lastly, the CASA picture. Yes, Jamie’s cousin Bricyn managed to sleep through the entire fireworks show – including the finale that had us all thinking we may have been experiencing live artillery fire…

Since this is the closest I’ll get to being a proud parent for several more years, I’m going to take this opportunity to tell you about my very own superstar!

Maximus Keen is my 2-year old Golden Retriever who lives with my parents. He’s basically theirs now, but I still like to note that I am his official owner. Since he has lived up there, my mom has gotten very into agility training with him and it is definitely paying off!

For his first ever competitiona few weeks ago, mom and Max tried their hand at Splashdog. While not actually an agility trial, it was a great opportunity to let Max do what he does best – jump after balls into the pool. Needless to say, this dog is a natural.

See, Mom and Dad love him. I refuse to comment on whether or not its more than me… Also, check out the team colors of the dog after them – classic.

Here’s the jump!

Lastly, the classic shake-off.  I’m pretty sure this is the only dog event with a Splash Zone.

More to come of his agility exploits very soon!

I write this post as a survivor!  My roommate Kellie, former co-worker Kerry and I recently conquered the Camp Pendleton mud run and it was quite the experience!  This was my third mud run so far and I definitely feel the best about my performance this time around.  Not as many crazy obstacles requiring more than my T-rex arms can handle (i.e. Volkslauf) and unlike my last failed attempt, the weather was perfect! My recent “love” for hill workouts really paid off. I’m already (kind of) looking forward to next year.

Before:

Note my very nervous face…

Unfortunately, this run didn’t have a posse of photographers focused solely on us, but you can check out some real gems of me mid-race here:

http://www.brightroom.com/view_user_event.asp?EVENTID=53896&PWD=&BIB=5530

After the mud:

And finally, after the “showers”

Be sure to catch us next year, we’ll be sure to come in costume!

Over the last couple years, I have been getting progressively more into running.  Now this is a big deal considering up until halfway through college, the farthest I had ever run without a walk-break was a lap around a track – and that was a major accomplishment.  I had always wanted to be a “jogger,” I liked the idea of just throwing on some shoes and running down the road.

Today I reached a new level in my running career – 6.6 miles! The run was an hour and 20 minutes without stopping and still seems unreal to me.  I think my ability to let my runs get progressively longer has been coming from the crazy peace I feel when I’m out there, I crave it and want it to stick around for as long as possible.  I connect with God in new ways, whether through the worship songs that come through my earbuds every now and then, seeing beautiful sights along the way, or just pushing my flesh to new levels beyond what I think is possible.

So far my favorite place to run on Saturday mornings is the orange groves area in Riverside above Victoria. It looks nothing like the Riverside I’m used to and there are lots of long, tree-lined roads to enjoy. Here is today’s route:

Driving home with Kellie last night I heard the most beautiful thing, Christmas carols on the radio!  Normally I’d be totally annoyed by that but this year I’m pumped! I think its because Cristine reminded me that because Thanksgiving is so late this year, the normal time allotted for the official Holiday Season is shorter than usual.  We can’t have that!

I have yet to even think about decorating or, goodness gracious, Christmas shopping, but I’m just excited for the feeling of the holidays and can’t wait for the festivities to begin!

I was quite fortunate to get to spend Friday night at home with 20-30 of some of my favorite girls. SCU had a Girls Night In and we spent the evening sharing stories, baking and eating cupcakes, and playing games.  I learned all sorts of new things about friends old and new – such as the fact my own roommate has a thing for being upside down.  No joke! We love her anyway

One of my favorite moments of the night though was after most of the girls had gone home and we started up a game of catchphrase that moved to the trampoline out back. Yes, 4 college graduates live in a house with a trampoline. It is awesome. And 50% of the reason why I’m so sore today. (The other 50% has to do with a heated Wii Boxing match). On the way out back the girls discovered that the sprinklers had run, and rather than grab shoes they made a “bridge.” I am so proud.

Hello there blog world! I’m back in the game and have every intention of doing this more often.  Right now priority #1 is finishing Season 2 of Friday Night Lights. Vo and I have powered through the entire season in the last 3 days and we’re down to the last 2 episodes. Woot!

First though, a quick recap of what I’ve been up to… (not quite in this order)

Finally got my butt to Hawaii!

Went to the fair

Watched the teachers lesson plan some more…

And spent some time with my Riverside family…

Stay tuned friends!

Forgive me my nearly four month absence and whatever may come of my attempt to hop back on the horse.

I’ll spare you the 40-page long description of everything I’ve done in the last month and a laundry list of excuses for why I opened this a thousand times and never wrote. Basically, I’m just not a blogger yet. But oh how I long to be!

I just have to say I had a lovely day at the Angels I mean Braves game today, such perfect timing for Father’s Day! I must say, my mom and I are pretty awesome for coordinating a local series for my Dad’s favorite baseball team on Father’s Day weekend. We would hire out, but that just wouldn’t be fair.

I had a lovely weekend of celebrating the graduations of some pretty awesome friends of mine too. Which immediately brought to mind the fact that its been an entire year since I put on my cap and gown and grabbed that lovely participation certificate. I’m pretty sure my diploma is in the exact same place it was this time last year too, safely stored at the Registrar’s office. I prefer to let them marvel over it, if I did it would just be vain…

Now that I think about it, time passes so strangely once you aren’t on the school calendar anymore. Its summer break now, but I’m still going to work tomorrow. Its in the 90s most days now, but I still wear sweaters to work. Time just sort of happens now, but the circumstances don’t really change. Now I’m not necessarily complaining about this, I’m just still finding the transition out of school life a strange one to get used to.

Well, as much as I’d love to stay and chat, I’ve got an early event to take care of in the morning. I tell you, for successful business people, sometimes I wonder about the decisions my clients make. Who has a groundbreaking at 7:30 in the morning? Trust me, when my giant building of awesome breaks ground, we’re having brunch.

I’m at my parents house today and started going through some old pictures. I found some pretty awesome ones from when I was a wee little thing and decided that since the blog is titled “Growing Up Keeno,” it would be more than appropriate to share them.

Looking through them gave me a lot of insight into what pictures are most likely to be appreciated 10 or 20 years down the road. I skipped right over the perfectly posed ones and couldn’t get enough of the ones that looked like the camera had just been sitting on the table.

I’ll stop talking now and let you enjoy the adorable that is Baby Keeno… Most of these pictures blow me away, not only because I keep realizing that I’m that baby in them, but that you can see the love on every person’s face so very clearly. These pictures don’t show you the deep complications that exist in ours and every family, but instead celebrate the love we all have for new life.

I’d love to see what you all out there have in the shoeboxes in your closets, its pretty humbling to see where you came from and who all has literally held you in their arms.

Enjoy, ya’ll!

Some of my favorites are ones of my dad and I. You can really see how much he is in awe of this new baby. Its not an expression I’m used to seeing on his face. I’m so thankful to realize that I’m pretty sure he still likes me just as much even though I talk back a lot more now…

Of course, Mom is pretty cool too. But may kill me for exposing too many more pictures of her from the 80s…

This picture surprised me. I had never seen it before but it blew me away at how a new baby brings so much love to the surface in a family. Also, I’m very glad I have absolutely no recollection of how short my uncles shorts were…

This picture is such a perfect description of each of my grandmothers to me. My dad’s mom is the one leaning over with the camera while my mom’s mom is holding me for the first time. I love that two such different women have been a part of my life at one point or another.

For those of you who may not know, I have a half sister. I haven’t seen or spoken to her in over 12 years for a number of reasons. Mostly now I think its because it has been so long and neither of us has updated contact information. I pray for her and would very much like a chance to see her again.

Here’s one more of some of the family in Lake Arrowhead when I was about 2. Yes, I’m related to the bearded man in the short white shorts. Don’t judge, it was the 80s… Your uncle probably owned the same outfit.