Viva La Vida

While at the beachouse, I decided to give Marianne a late birthday present and take her to the Coldplay concert. Ben and Mandi were planning on going as well, and Ben found us some great tickets at the last minute. I need to insert here that without my mom watching ALL the kids at the beachouse by herself including June and William, this NEVER would have happened. THANK YOU MOM!

Marianne loves surprises, so we didn't tell her anything more than to get dressed up because we were going out for her birthday. The drive was about 90 min, and the anticipation grew higher and higher as we exited off the ramp to concert traffic and the excited hustle and bustle of people walking to the concert.

At this point, Marianne had guessed we were going to some concert, but had no idea what it was. We met Ben in the parking lot, and he told her to never tell anyone he had actually gone to this concert with us--(this threw her off the scent, since Ben LOVES coldplay). We made it to the seats and through the opener without her knowing, and then the Coldplay Album cover (VIVA) flashed on the big screens and she went wild. This was one of the only concerts she still really wanted to go to, and coming with her brothers and sisters while in California on a perfect summer night was just a perfect scenario.

(We took this picture before leaving--meredith erased all the concert pics from my camera!. Oh, and by the way, you can see I cut myself out of it. I had just had the miscarriage and looked a little waterlogged. Believe me--not a pretty sight.)

As we left the gates, they gave out free CDs of the live concert to everyone. I still play mine regularly and think of that magical night. One of my joys in life is surprising my sis....from Riverdance when she was 18, to elaborate days of surprise activities when she would visit me at BYU, she is just the most fun person to spoil! I love you Buuzz!