fun. Times

We've kind of had a run of awesome concerts lately, starting with the two-day Mile High Music Fest in August, followed by Ben Folds, and now fun.! I think it's pretty awesome because I love music.

Last weekend, we went to see one of our new favorite bands, fun.. Their name is a little confusing, but they actually call themselves "fun." with a lower-case f and a period. I promise, I'm not making this up. It made things a little confusing when I told people I was going to the fun. concert. Anyway, I call them one of our new favorite bands because they've only been around for a couple of years, but I feel like we've been listening to them for much longer. That's because Matt and I have loved the lead singer's former band, The Format, since college. The song that really got us into their music was the title track off their album, Dog Problems. It's pretty ridiculously awesome. If you don't believe me, have a listen.



I've always loved The Format's music because of the epic, storytelling quality that they consistently utilized. I feel like I travel through various emotions and states of mind as I listen to each song. The Format combined many musical elements to create really good music, which seems to be more and more scarce in our modern culture.

When we heard that The Format had broken up, it was pretty disappointing. Luckily for us, the lead singer quickly formed fun. and I have been listening to them ever since. Here's one of their songs from their new album, Aim and Ignite.



I tell you this history of one of my favorite bands in order to prepare you for the remainder of this post, which is all about the awesomeness that was the fun. concert.

Umm... they forgot the period. Lame.

I took pictures of our tickets because (a) I was excited, and (b) the Fox Theatre sucks at organization and we stood outside in the cold for an hour - I was a little bored. It made me angry, but I was still excited.

We got inside just as the first of two opening acts was starting.

The first opening act. It was a guy whose name started with a "J." He was kind of cool, but obviously, not very memorable.

The second opening act (though they played a really long set) was Steel Train. This was when they mellowed down for a song. The rest of their set was crazy, with lots of jumping around and excitement. Unfortunately, jumping around makes pictures look blurry, so this is all I got.

Finally, it was time for fun.!

fun.

Awesome.

So excited.

The band put on a really good show. The epic quality of their songs worked really well onstage, and the lead singer's theatricality, along with the other musicians' talent and passion, added to the whole show. Most of the audience in the small venue knew all of the words and sung along the whole time. In fact, the musicians struggled a little with keeping up their energy in the high altitude, so the audience was encouraged to help out! It was a great show, and I hope to catch them again the next time they come to town.

So good.

I guess you could say that fun. was fun! Ha!

Down on the Farm

Sometimes my job is pretty cool. Well, my job is often pretty cool, but sometimes it's super fun in a non-educational way. Last week, my school's SpEd department took a trip to the farm. It was the best field trip I've ever been on, even including all of those I took in my own school days.

Our trip to the farm was made even better by the fact that one of my students LOVES everything about the farm. And I mean LOVES. I can't put into words the amount of joy he experienced in this field trip. In fact, a significant amount of misery was also experienced in waiting for the day to arrive. We had many meltdowns and crying fits because "Today's not the day!" But finally, Farm Day (as we were calling it on all of our many countdown calendars) finally arrived.

We started our fun day with a big breakfast with all of our kids. Each classroom was responsible for making something to contribute; our class made juices. The kids loved following the directions and making something delicious. After the very large breakfast of pancakes, bacon, and juice, we got on the bus for our trip up to Loveland.

After getting a little bit lost on the back country roads, we finally made it! My little kiddo was so thrilled to finally see the animals!

Big pig.

Charlotte's web... or an awesome spider web over the pig pen. I liked to imagine a little spider saving the life of a little pig.

The farm had pigs and piglets, cows, chickens, kittens, a horse, and kids (baby goats), which were my absolute favorites!

The two sisters were huddled together.

I got to hold each of the goats. It was pretty awesome.

My teacher and a piglet.

After our tour of the farm and the animals, the kids got to take hayrides and cook hot dogs and marshmallows over our large campfire.

Children and fire! Scary...

For the rest of the trip, the kids had free reign over the place. We wandered and played until we had to drag our kiddos back on the bus.

The kids wore out the pigs.

Visiting the cows. They were his favorite.

Ancient KFC bucket inside the chicken coop. Oh, the irony!

The kids (and the teachers) had such a great time that they were talking about it for days after. It was such a fun day!

Fancy-Shmancy Music... Kind of

I love music. Coming from a musical family like mine, it's pretty impossible not to. Aside from a short time period in sixth grade when I told my mom I would never like the horrible stuff she played in her car, I've pretty much listened to anything and everything my entire life. From show tunes (thanks, Mom) to classic rock (thanks, Dad) to new indie and R&B, I dig it all. So it's especially exciting to me when different musical styles are combined to create something new and awesome.

Early this month, we went to a concert of one of our favorite musicians, Ben Folds. What made this interesting was that he was performing with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.

Heading to the show. Looking much fancier than we usually do for concerts.

Ben Folds is a piano player and vocalist who has had a long career of performing piano rock music in the band Ben Folds Five and as a soloist. Like many pianists, Ben has a background in art music, so he really has a passion for supporting the art form, and he often includes symphonic elements in his music. In fact, I was surprised to see how well some of his songs worked with a 100-piece orchestra behind him. Of course, there were a few of his "harder" songs that, while still awesome, were a little more forced in that setting. But I must reiterate that they were still completely awesome; it was so interesting to hear some of my favorite music in a completely different context.

To give you an idea of the change the orchestra had on his music, here are a couple of clips of the song "Annie Waits." The first is the studio recording (with a pretty lame fan video - but the music is still Ben's), and the second is a recording of the same song performed with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra.






Interesting, no? I encourage you to explore some of Ben's other symphonic performances - and check out your local symphony, too!

Anyway, the night was tons of fun! Ben really knew how to put on a good show, and the orchestra was awesome! Plus, I got to sing harmonies on one song!

Ben Folds, conducting his "choir," which was the entire audience.

After the main show was over, Ben continued to play as the orchestra cleaned up and left. He played a long encore by himself, which was great for all of the fans who didn't want the show to end (like me).

Ben continuing to play as the orchestra leaves.

Ben in his famous rock-out stance on the empty stage.

After the show, I was pretty giddy. It was just so cool!

So excited after the show.

Now I have an even deeper appreciation and love for Ben's music. Awesome.

Leaf Peeping

Yep, that's right: Leaf Peeping. I had never heard the term until this season, and I think it sounds pretty ridiculous. But the act of hiking through fall foliage is less ridiculous, and actually quite fun!

A few weeks ago, we headed up to Rocky Mountain National Park to take a familiar hike. Of course, things looks quite a bit different without the few feet of snow on the ground.

Aspens and evergreens.

I'm hiking!

Our end destination, Mill's Lake, was much less frozen than the last time we were there. That meant we couldn't go traipsing out into the middle of the lake this time. At least it was awfully pretty from the shore.

The only not-great part about the pretty hike was that the Park is BUSY during leaf peeping season. We managed to see a little wildlife:

A chipmunk, with a GIANT mushroom in his mouth. It was pretty hilarious.

But for the most part, we only saw people. Lots of people. So instead of taking the same path as our winter wonderland hike and continuing up to Loch Vale, we were content to get a little further away from tourists and call it a day.

Luckily, on the way down the trail, we were able to catch a few spots in between crowds to get some more pictures of the foliage. Looking through the pictures, you'd never know that there were so many people around us!

Small aspen grove with mixed greens and yellows.

For the following pictures, keep in mind that I'm not a photographer. I just wanted pictures of the pretty colors, and I realize that my composition may be a little off. Oh, well.

At the end of the trail.

Despite the crowds and my poor picture-taking abilities, we got to see some beautiful fall colors. And the following weekend, we tried again. This time we headed up Crosier Mountain. We saw fewer people (by a lot - the trail was practically deserted) and we had our photographer friend, Dave, along to do the foliage some real justice. Unfortunately, we were a little low in elevation to get the good color we were looking for. But hey, it was still hiking. And we like hiking.

The last of the summer flowers. A harebell, my favorite.

A tiny bit of color. And Dave.

The guys amid the green aspens. Sadness (that the aspens are green, not that it's a picture of the guys).


A little bit of yellow toward the top.

While we didn't see a lot of color, we still got to summit a mountain! We hadn't been on a summit hike all season, and in case you were wondering, sitting on your butt doing homework all summer does not prepare you to summit a mountain. There were a couple of moments where I wasn't sure I'd make it. But make it I did. And without homework to get in the way next summer, I'm vowing to summit at least five mountains. At least.

Anyway...

At the summit.

Proof that I made it.

Resting.

"I am all that is man!"

So, the whole peeping at leaves thing turned out to be pretty cool. The leaves around Denver are finally starting to turn, making me almost ready for fall. I'm never really ready to say good-bye to summer, but I suppose the pretty fall colors makes it a little easier.