On Monday, my brother in-law,Matt, and I went to Boise, ID to see Metallica. It was by far the best live show I’ve seen. They were genuinely excited to be there even though this was the 118th stop on the tour. The pyrotechnics were amazing.  The sound was awesome.  Every song they played was great.  Here’s the set list.  A bunch of oldies.

1. That Was Just Your Life (Death Magnetic)
2. The End of the Line (Death Magnetic)
3. For Whom The Bell Tolls (Ride the Lightning)
4. Holier Than Thou (The Black Album)
5. Fade to Black (Ride the Lightning)
6. Broken, Beat & Scarred (Death Magnetic)
7. Cyanide (Death Magnetic)
8. Sad But True (The Black Album)
9. One (And Justice for All)
10. All Nightmare Long (Death Magnetic)
11. The Day That Never Comes (Death Magnetic)
12. Master Of Puppets (Master of Puppets)
13. Damage, Inc. (Master of Puppets)
14. Nothing Else Matters (The Black Album)
15. Enter Sandman (The Black Album)
16. Stone Cold Crazy (Garage, Inc)
17. Hit the Lights (Kill ‘em All)
18. Seek and Destroy (Kill ‘em All)

One of the coolest things they do is offer a download of the recording of the concert. So now we can relive the whole experience.  Boise ID 2009

I can’t wait till they come back.

On Friday Jake and Carolyn came over again so Jake could help me put up my Christmas lights.  Then we went to the movies to see Planet 51.  The kids really seemed to enjoy it.  I thought it was pretty good.  It wasn’t Pixar but it was watchable.

On Saturday we decided it was time to get our Christmas trees.  Jake and Carolyn came over once again as is the tradition for our tree cutting.  Alex and Melodie also joined us.  We drove to Moscow and got our permits ($5).  Then we drove out in to the Idaho forest and wandered around until we found trees that would fit and looked good.  We came home and played some Super Mario Wii.  Once everyone was back at their own places we hauled all the Christmas decorations up from the basement and started setting up.  Its a very nice tree.  I love Christmas.

Anyway, long story short, a couple of hours in the ER and we are home.  Stu’s in bed and excited to have 2 staples in his head.  Great story for the first day of school right?  Here’s a pic before the doctor examined it.  I’ll try to post a pic of the wound tomorrow when the dressing comes off.

Monday June 15, 2009

We left in the morning to meet up in Yellowstone at the Mammoth campground.  We were meeting my brother, Shaun, and his family. They arrived in Yellowstone the night before so that we could be sure to have a camp site.  We arrived in the campground at around 7:30 or so.  We ate some hotdogs and setup camp.  It was pretty nice.  The bathrooms were near by and they were clean.  It rained that night but our tents held out just fine and we all stayed dry.

Tuesday June 16th, 2009

We went and saw a bunch of hot springs and stuff.  We saw Old Faithful do its stuff.  We saw a bunch of really smelly stuff and it rained on us off and on.  There was a pretty cool visitor’s center near our campground for that night.  We went there and saw a short movie about Yellowstone.  It was pretty cool.  At that point we decided that we would rather go to Fort Collins and spend time together there, rather than more site seeing the next day.

The Campground that night (The Canyons) was probably the best camp site I’ve ever stayed at.  The sites weren’t too close together, it had a nice fire pit with some seating around it.  Nice bathrooms and even some firewood around.  We had hamburgers that night and the kids had a good time playing light sabers with glow sticks.

Wednesday June 17, 2009

We packed up camp ate some breakfast.  We got on the road fairly early.  We saw a couple more hot springs on the way out and cancelled our reservation for that night.  The trip was relatively uneventful until shortly after a lunch stop.  Weston kicked off the sicknesses.  Shaun got sick a couple hours later, about 2 hours from Fort Collins.  Stuart and I got sick after we arrived at their house and traded off turns in the bathroom.  Luckily we didn’t have any head on collisions.  It’s a good thing we weren’t still camping.  We initially thought it was food poisoning because it came and went so fast but Kami and Jenni came down with it a few days later.

Thursday June 18 – Sunday June 21, 2009

I’ll lump these days together since most of it was spent with someone on their back.  We spent the days hanging out around the house.  I really had a good time.  The kids got to play together a lot.  We played a bunch of Guitar Hero.  We went to church (everyone was feeling better by then).  We played D&D and Crossbows and Catapults.  It was very relaxing and enjoyable.  We also celebrated fathers day.  Shaun got some DVDs and I got a “Meh” t-shirt.  We had cake and my Cousin and his wife came over to play games.

Monday June 22, 2009

Since this was the first day that everyone was back to 100% we decided to go out.  They had an awesome park with fountains to play in and a huge play structure.  We spent the morning there and then in the after noon we went to see old town.  Old town was nice.  We went to a couple of shops and had ice cream at the Ben and Jerry’s store.  That night Shaun and Jenni called their Nanny to come and watch the kids while we went to the Brazillian BBQ.  It was soooo good.

Tuesday June 23 – June 27, 2009

We drove to Springville, UT to see Kami’s parents for a few days.  We went to Thanksgiving Point (Natural History Museum), saw Up 3D and went to the planetarium.  We also played abunch of Guitar Hero.  On Friday we drove to Boise, ID and stayed the night there and drove home on Saturday.  We made it home in time for the Tea Party in Pullman.  I’m really glad we did.

All in all, it was a very good trip.  There was a lot of driving but it was all well worth it.