I'm Starting with the Man in the Mirror

Oh, it was a big weekend.

1.) There was my Dad's 60th Birthday Spectacular. It was so big that the 15 freeway was closed down, causing Casey and Kylea to give up their plan to drive to Utah and instead return to the house to celebrate some more with us. I have spent my whole life hearing how great my dad is - as recently as yesterday at church from a man who, I'm not even kidding, has never met him. And I'm here to tell you, you're preachin' to the choir, brother. I know.

2.) There was an epic Bocci Ball War in the park. Oh, it was a battle. We cheered and strategized and did hands-in and slapped each other on the butt. And it was loud and people stopped and stared and smiled. I have realized that this happens all the time. Whenever a bunch of us are out in public - either friends or family or a combo of both - people generally stop and laugh along with us. They come up to us in restaurants and comment on how happy we seem. They listen in on our conversations and laugh at the jokes. It is bizarre how often this happens. I have two theories on it: 1.) It's so rare that you see a group of genuinely happy people who aren't drunk that it's a bit of a phenomenon, 2.) The people I spend the most time with are really loud and cannot be ignored.

3.) There were nephews. Blessed Nephews! Here's Ben making soup in the watering can for Lindsay's dog Bo.

4. There were Wimbledon matches and World Cup matches (I'll write a post one day on my feelings about soccer. It will no doubt fascinate you.) The England loss put a kink in my bracket.

5. There was a little something called the Michael Jackson Sing Along. You already know how much I love a good sing along. Well, the Music Center has free ones every few months and they had one on Friday. We had been planning on attending for months, not realizing that it was on the anniversary of his death. Being there made us look a bit like super fans, but really we just like to sing and dance.

Here's what it looked like:

Yeah, Camille totally pulled out the thumb mic.

About 15 minutes into the program a group of elderly patrons walked into the amphitheater. They must have been on the board or something because they were all dressed like they were going out for tea.

Even though there all had lyric sheets none of them were singing. They tapped their toes but for the most part looked as if they would rather be talking about their stock options. It would have been a highlight of my life if one of them had gotten up to shimmy but I imagine none of the ladies would want to ruffle their well-coiffed hair.

The show went long and we weren't able to sing all the songs, including Man in the Mirror, which is Camille's fave. So on the way home Katie called into Love Songs on the Kost and requested it for her. She got on the radio and made up a story about how Camille had been on the wrong path for a while but was finally making some better choices in her life. She was so poised and sincere. It was very impressive. What was also impressive was how Kylea, Camille and I were in such hysterics over it that we all reverted to the grandpa laugh but you couldn't hear a peep from us on the radio.