July

Woo! This month has been crazy. After playing at the Boise Music Festival, Tomás and I headed off with the youth in our church to a Youth Conference. We did a temple trip, played lots of games, and had a great time. We've loved getting to know our youth better, and understanding their needs. Here's some shots from the youth conference. I took WAY too many. haha...

After that, Tomás headed straight out to Scout High Adventure for a week. Unfortunately, he's not big on pictures, and his phone died halfway through, so he doesn't have any shots from that week. Boo. He had a great time though, zip lining, spelunking, hiking, shotgun shooting, and horseback riding. He's loving working with the Scouts.

In other news, our band is doing well. You can keep up with our band 605 to San Gabriel on our blog: 605tosangabriel.blogspot.com, and on our Facebook page at: Facebook.com/605tosabgabriel

Our most recent news is a mini-addition to our family! We adopted a little kitty, and named her Pixie. She looks like a tiger to us, and is super adorable! Tomás especially loves her. Here she is!

My 24th Birthday... and my NEW CAMERA!

This year, Tomás was determined to get me the SLR camera I've been dreaming about for years. He even sold his computer, a few guitar pedals and some other things to get me my camera! BEST. GIFT. EVER. It's just the basic kit, so I still need a camera bag and what not, but I am SO EXCITED! I wanted my first picture to be of my hunny bunny.



Since my birthday fell on a Sunday, we decided to lay low and just hang out. We had burgers, and I got a free ice cream cake from DQ (One of the perks of working there), that we devoured. It was a great time. :) Jamie, my neighbor and friend was too kind and mega spoiled me on my birthday. And, Maritza gave me a really awesome necklace from Guatemala! Pretty much, I'm a happy girl. Anyway, here are the pictures I took on my birthday, and just a few more I took playing around with the camera since then.

the 4th, and Boise Music Festival

This 4th of July week was busy, busy, busy! Maritza, Tomás' mom, came to visit us and hear our performances, so we were excited about that. We picked her up on Tuesday night.

First, our band 605 to San Gabriel had a show in Melba on the 4th, around 5pm at the 4th of July Celebration down there. There were tons of food and craft vendors set up, and the stage situated in the middle of it all. It was a good experience, but wasn't our best show. There were some sound difficulties, and we couldn't hear ourselves. Yikes. We got through it okay.

That Saturday was the Boise Music Festival! We got to perform on Stage 1 at 1pm, and I think it went MUCH better than Melba. The sound guy was great, and overall it was a pretty good performance. We still have much to work on, but it was a fun experience to be able to play there. I posted a video of us performing one number on our band blog, so you can see it here.

Quick SLC Trip

So, one day at the beginning of June I was just catching up on some of my favorite band's album releases and such, and I saw that Keane had JUST released their new album Strangeland. So, I thought I'd check if they were touring in the U.S. (A few months earlier, I had checked and it only showed their European tour). Anyway, it just happened to be the day the tickets went on sale for their show in Salt Lake City, so I JUMPED on that quick. After asking Tomás of course! I love love love Keane, so I was listening to them non-stop all month before the show, getting all hyped up.

Finally, the day came around for the trip down! June 26th. Since I have work, We just decided to go down that day, and leave the next day. Just a two-day quick trip. We wanted to make the best out of our time down there, so we set a plan to visit as many friends as possible. It worked out, and we were able to visit many of you many lovelies down in Utah! Sorry for all those who we weren't able to see. Next time around, for sure!



First, we saw Sara (Tomás' sister) in Salt Lake, had some lunch, and saw Moonrise Kingdom at the Broadway Centre Theatre downtown. It's an independent film by Wes Anderson (director of Fantastic Mr. Fox, for those of you who don't know who he is). We love his films. They are so quirky, unique, and 70s like. We loved it! So great. I'd very much recommend it to anyone. Afterwards, we headed to Alyssa & Gideon's, since they were gracious enough to let us stay the night at their place. (Which by the way, is ADORABLE, and so are they.) We had a great time catching up with them that afternoon and evening after the show.

Next: Keane. AH! The doors for the show opened at 6pm, so we got in line around 5:20ish. It was SO hot and sunny the whole time we were down there, which was nice. Time seemed to pass pretty fast until we got in and waited for the opening band to start.





While we were standing our ground in front of the stage, we met a girl named Carly, who was able to go to a meet and greet earlier that day with Keane, and got two signed photographs from them. AND she gave one of them to us! How cool of her, right? Yeah.

Kiev, a band from southern California, opened for Keane, and we loved them. They have a really cool, alternative rock Radiohead kind of sound. They really jammed out, and incorporated many different instruments and sounds. They were on the bluesy side a little bit, with a saxophonist, but I loved them.



After them was KEANE! We were lucky enough to basically be right in front next to the stage for the show. I only had two ladies in front of me, and I was behind them in the middle. The show was AMAZING. First of all, they sound great, and I got some amazing pictures being so close! My iPhone camera isn't an SLR, but it took a few great pictures! Close enough to see Tom's set list too, which was cool. I also recorded "Somewhere only we know" for Tomás. Check it:

The crowd was loving it, and we were super loud. The crowd sang every single word of every song they played. It was crazy! We were so loud, that sometimes it was hard for me to even hear Tom singing. I think it surprised them a little but too, us singing and being as crazy as we were. I guess Mormons really like Keane! LOL. You'll see what I mean in the video. Tom calls us the "Utah State Choir". HAH. Yeah. You can see it here.

As the show was nearing the end, and the crowd was getting a little crazier, people starting reaching their hands toward Tom for him to grab, yanno? I always thought that was a little weird. I mean, he's just another human being. What's the big deal with him touching your hand? Anyway, I thought, what the heck, I'm pretty close so I'll try too. And, he shook my hand! So, it's kind of like I met him, right? haha. That's what I'd like to think. Nice to meet you too!

After the show, I got a Keane shirt, and Tomás got to meet the opening band he really liked. Overall, it was an awesome experience. I've never been that close to an international band before. It was unreal! They were a lot of fun.

The next morning we surprised Tomás' grandparents in Provo with a visit, and also got to see Sara again, his aunt Sonia, which was nice. They are so cute! We also surprised my sister-in-law Aja, and her two kids with a visit, and my brother Jordan while he was at work. After that, we headed back up to SLC to visit our friend Emily Lee at work during her lunch break, and saw my friend Carolee Beckham after that in her home. I got to see her adorable baby finally! And he, is quite the charmer.



Our last stop was grabbing some lunch with Dave & Diane Moncion at City Creek. Man, are they hilarious. It was so great to see some of these friends that I haven't been able to see for much too long. Around 5:30pm we headed back up to Nampa! It was such a great trip!

Life on 11th Avenue

Hey everyone! I realize it's been too long since I blogged about us. Life hasn't been too extraordinary lately, but I'll let you in on a few cool things coming up, and what we've been up to. Mostly, we're STILL getting settled into our home. We finally have the sprinklers up and running well, we bought a few more pieces of furniture to add and use as storage space. Currently, the band equipment is taking up most of the space in the living room. Life has been going well! We try to go on little outings here and there to get to know the area. We headed downtown Boise a while ago just to explore the area, and the next morning hit up the Saturday Market. It's pretty sweet!

We officially heard back from the Nampa School District about Tomás' teaching job for next year, and he's hired back! We kind of hoped/assumed/thought they would hire him back, but he still had to shoot through the hoops and apply and interview just like everyone else. Luckily, they wanted him over everyone else! So, we know he'll be teaching Spanish at Skyview High School for the next school year. Woohoo!

I'm still teaching dance and working at Dairy Queen. Idaho Rhythm just had their last performance hurrah of the season, and my kids did so great! They love me. :)

Tomás is LOVING having the summers off, and is playing music non-stop. We have band practice twice a week, and it's been a lot of fun. We did a benefit concert at Skyview a few weeks ago, and it was a great experience. You can check out the post about that, and lots of other cool stuff on our band blog here.

I'm exciting for the end of this month, because we got concert tickets for Keane in SLC! I'm stoked!! I love love love Keane. It will be my first experience seeing them live, same for Tomás too. In July, we will perform at the Boise Music Festival, and right after that drive to visit Portland! Yay. We also recently both got called into working with the youth at church, so we'll be going together on their Youth Conference as soon as we get back from Portland. Tomás' parents will be visiting us at the beginning of August, and my family will come visit us in the middle of August. It will be a great and adventurous summer, with lots of family!