22
Jul
A magical night with James Taylor
Kim

This week, we had the pleasure of seeing James Taylor and Carole King perform live at the Honda Center in Anaheim. It was the last stop of their “Troubadour Reunion” tour, and it was absolutely perfect!

My siblings and I got together to surprise my parents with floor seats to the concert for their 30th anniversary, and at the last minute my parents encouraged me and Robby to go, too. We didn’t want to impose on their anniversary date, so we got cheap seats in another part of the arena (with all the traveling we’ve done lately, our entertainment budget is a little strained). We met my parents for dinner, and then headed to the arena. Despite the fact that our seats were so high up that we almost needed oxygen, we had a wonderful time.

Mom and Dad at dinner.

Waiting for the show to begin.

James Taylor is my all-time favorite singer, so being able to see him live was a dream come true. Both he and Carole sounded amazing and put on a fantastic, energetic, entertaining show (seriously, I hope I have half as much energy when I’m in my 60’s!). They performed all my favorites, and I couldn’t help clapping and singing along. I may have embarrassed Robby a bit, but oh, well. :)

James and Carole on the rotating stage.

I think my favorite part of the show was witnessing the genuine respect and admiration that James and Carole have for each other. They performed every song together; she sang backup during his songs, while he played guitar during hers. Both artists also seemed to enjoy themselves. Carole in particular had a huge smile on her face the entire time, while James broke out into some spontaneous dance moves. Even Robby agreed it was one of the best shows he’s ever seen!

Close-up of the video screen during the final encore.

After the concert, I ran out and bought the Live at the Troubadour album. It’s been playing on my iPod almost non-stop ever since. Nothing quite relaxes me like listening to James sing “Fire and Rain” and “You Can Close Your Eyes,” mmmmm…

Category: Family, Photos, Stories  One Comment
22
Jul
11 Christians in Sin City
Kim

Let me start by saying that I’ve never really had the desire to go to Las Vegas. So it was with some trepidation that I agreed to join Robby and 9 of our friends there this past weekend. We enjoyed seeing our friends, but in the end I can describe Vegas in four words: hot, crowded, expensive, and tacky.

We both had last Friday off, so we drove out to the desert in the morning and made a side trip to the Hoover Dam. Despite the 117° heat, it was an impressive sight. We marveled at the engineering accomplishment, then jumped back into our air-conditioned car to head for the strip.

A dam picture. :P It's a loooong way down!

Robby and me, trying not to melt into a puddle on top of the dam.

After waiting 45 minutes in line to check in to the Aria, we finally got to our room, where Robby had a great time playing with the programmable curtains, music, and lighting schemes. :)

Side note–the technology in the room was just about the Aria’s only redeeming value. The hotel was way too crowded; check-in was disorganized; they ran out of rooms with 2 queen beds so we ended up squeezing 3 people in a king while others slept on the floor; the hotel pumped a nasty vanilla air freshener into the HVAC system but it still couldn’t mask the cigarette smoke; it took at least 20 minutes to get down the elevator and out the front door to the strip; the gym cost $30 a day; wifi was $15 a day; and everything else cost way too much (they didn’t even have free coffee in the room!)

In our swanky room at the Aria.

Anyway, when the rest of our friends showed up on Friday night, we wandered the strip for a while and finally ended up at the Wynn’s Parasol Down bar. The frozen drinks (and psychedelic singing frog show…?) were a welcome respite from the crazy heat (95 degrees at night!).

We spent most of the next day in the Aria’s pool, trying to cool off. We had a great group dinner at Todd English’s PUB, then explored the strip a bit more. I was really surprised and slightly disturbed at the number of kids I saw–I can’t imagine exposing a kid to the kind of things Las Vegas has to offer! The heat had sapped most of our strength and we were practically zombies by midnight, so Robby and I ended up going to sleep early (well, early for Vegas–12:30am).

We slept in on Sunday morning, then headed to Paris for crepes. While we were waiting for our friends, I won $5 in a slot machine (that was the only gambling we did the whole trip. Maybe it was beginner’s luck?). After delicious pear and almond crepes, we jumped in the car in hopes of beating some of the Southbound traffic on I-15. No such luck. :( It took us over 5 hours to get home. Once we stepped out of the car and felt the 80° weather, I resolved to never again complain about LA being too hot!

Yes, the thermometer says 120 degrees! This was on the drive home, near Baker.

In the end, I was pretty uncomfortable in Vegas and I don’t think I’ll ever go back. But I’m glad that I can at least cross another tourist destination off my life list. :)

Category: Photos, Travel  One Comment
22
Jul
Our first 5k!
Kim

Robby and I recently ran our first 5k! Well, the first 5k we’ve run together (we’ve each done them separately). We’ve been trying to jog together in the mornings, and a few months ago we started pushing ourselves to run the 3-mile track at the Rose Bowl. When we realized we could run the whole thing without stopping, we decided to seek out a local 5k.

We discovered that Pasadena City College was holding a 5k charity race at the Rose Bowl in July, so we signed up. At 6am (ugh) on July 13, we pulled ourselves out of bed, laced up our running shoes, and hit the pavement.

Here we are, after mile 1!

It had been a few weeks since we’d run that far (so much for training!), so the race was a bit of a challenge. Despite snapping at each other a few times when one of us was running too fast, we managed to stay together and cross the finish line without walking at a semi-respectable 32:20 time.

We were both proud of ourselves for finishing the race. Will we do another one? Maybe…

Category: Photos, Running  One Comment
22
Jul
4th of July in Birmingham
Kim

After Robby’s Nashville conference was rescheduled for Dallas in late June, we made plans to combine it with a trip to Birmingham to visit Robby’s siblings for the 4th of July. Robby went to his conference without me, then we met up in Dallas and flew to Alabama together.

The highlight of flying was the fact that I got to fly first class! Robby had a standby ticket since his uncle is a pilot for American, and he ended up being placed in first class. Being the southern gentleman that he is, Robby swapped with me so that I got the chance to sit in first class for the first time ever. :) It was nice, but I wished it could have been a longer flight. The one-hour trip from Dallas to Birmingham didn’t leave me much time to enjoy the experience!

Once we got to Davy and Kelly’s house in Birmingham, we spent most of the weekend lazing around and playing with our adorable nephew, Graham. While we were there, Robby helped his brothers repair the dock in the pond behind his brother’s house. It ended up being a pretty  gross job, thanks to waist-high mud, frogs, fish and a bad sunburn for Robby. :(

On Saturday night we went to a charming small-town fireworks show in Chelsea and then came home to set off our own firecrackers. We were having fun throwing M80s into the pond when the neighbors showed us up with a couple of huge semi-pro fireworks displays! I don’t know how they did it, but they were setting off huge aerial fireworks all around the neighborhood. I tried to take pictures, but our camera had too much of a shutter lag. The best part of the fireworks display was seeing Graham get excited and yell, “boom, boom, boom!” over and over.

On Sunday, we headed to church where Robby’s brother Davy preached a sermon on Revelation. After church and lunch, we drove out to the lake to swim. I had a fairly bad headache that day, but still enjoyed seeing Graham splash in the water.

On Monday we flew home, then drove to Temecula to pick up Lucy. We had a great time with the family and can’t wait to see everyone again at Christmas!

Some pictures from our trip:

Category: Family, Photos, Travel  3 Comments
20
Jun
Seattle Vacation!
Kim

We just got back from a great Wilcox family vacation in Seattle, and I thought I’d post some pictures. Robby’s cousin’s wife’s family (got that?) owns a gorgeous beach house in Indianola, WA, and my family rented it for a week.

My mom, sisters, sister’s boyfriend, Robby, and I all had a great time riding ferries, walking around Seattle, roasting marshmallows over the fire pit, exploring the forests (we could not believe how green everything was!), visiting Victoria, BC, and finding shells on the beach.

Our trip started when we flew into Seattle, rented two SUVs, and piled in to visit the campuses of the University of Washington and Seattle Pacific University (two schools my sister Claire is considering applying to). After walking around the campuses (and getting a parking ticket at UW, boo), we boarded the Bainbridge Island ferry and drove to the beach house.

Once we saw the beautiful house and its amazing view, we picked our jaws up off the floor and settled in for the night. The next day, we took a passenger ferry back to Seattle and spent the day exploring the city, starting with Pike Place Market. After a delicious stop at Top Pot Doughnuts, Robby and I went to an evening service at Mars Hill Church, and then we all headed back to the beach house for a night of family fun around the fire pit.

The next day, we drove out to Port Angeles to board the Victoria Express for a trip to Canada. The trip was pretty rough–Robby and I sat on the upper deck of the ferry and ended up getting soaked by high waves, and I spent the rest of the day trying to recover from seasickness. :( We only spent a few hours in Victoria, but it was definitely beautiful and my sisters got another stamp in their passports!

It rained the next two days, so we spent our time lounging around the house and exploring the town in between showers. On our last day, we were blessed to see a huge rainbow ending right in the water behind the house! With that image burned into our memories, we headed back to sunny Long Beach. My sisters were excited to be back in 80 degree weather, but I kind of miss the cool temperatures and amazing scenery of Washington. We’ll have to go back someday!

Here are some pictures from our trip:

Category: Family, Photos, Travel  One Comment
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