I listen to Coldplay

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:

Summertime

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…

Maximus Keen, Superstar

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!

Camp Pendleton

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!

The long and lonely road

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: