Kenny Chesney in the house

What an absolute BLAST Kenny Chesney was in concert on Friday night!  Oh my gosh!  I have seen him before but had forgotten how much energy and life that guy has in him when he puts on a show.  Even if you don't like country music (which, let's be honest, most of his music could fall under the Jimmy Buffet category rather than country), it would have been awesome to be there.
K.C.  had Uncle Kracker and Billy Currington both open for him which was also super cool.  I hadn't really liked much of Uncle Kracker's music before but after seeing him open the show and then have a three or four song impromptu jam session with Kenny and Billy later in the night, he started to grow on me.
K.C. played for over three hours... his birthday was on Saturday so he wanted to try to play until midnight to ring in his b-day with us.  He cut it about 5 minutes short of midnight, but it was still awesome.  You could totally tell he was winging the last hour of his show...you would see him go up to his band during a long stretch of "instrumental" during a song to tell them what to play next and at one point he told us to forgive them if they can't remember some of the words of their own songs!
Here are some pics from the show.  I borrowed them from the St. Paul Pioneer press because my camera battery died right before KC came on.  These are much better than the ones I would have taken anyway!

Speaking of cameras... the couple behind us asked me to take a picture of them.  Well for some reason (based on the way she handed the camera to me), I thought it was one of those new cameras where you can see yourself on each side (like when trying to take a picture of yourself).  It was really thin like an iphone, and the way she handed it to me, it seemed as though that was the way she wanted me to hold it to take it.  It was also dark in there at this point so I had no idea what the button situation was on the top.  So, here I am holding out the camera, pressing the button to take a picture of them when all of a sudden the flash goes off in MY FACE!  HOW EMBARRASSING!!!  I obviously was supposed to turn the camera around but didn't think I had to based on how she handed it to me!!  We all were laughing about it and I told them: "you can delete that one when you get home".  Imagine when they upload the pics to their computer and go to show their friends...  "here's Uncle Kracker when he opened.., here is Billy Currington singing 'Pretty Good At Drinkin' Beer'..., and here's this girl who didn't know how to use the camera and took a picture of herself."

Sights of San Diego

After taking a few days to compile some of my pictures from our trip (I took over 300 so you are lucky I am not putting them all on here!) I am finally ready to post them!
As everyone knows, photos don't to justice to the real thing, so take these pictures and boost your imagination to 500% and you might get a glimpse of just how beautiful everything was!

Some of you have already gotten a sneak peek at these photos but here goes for the others who haven't.

     Awesome park that I discovered on the map.  I absolutely loved this place.  We went there twice and I could just sit for hours on these cliffs watching the waves, surfers and of course the sunset.  The drive up the hill to get there was unreal as well.  The houses were so pretty and unique and the ones lining the cliffs were massive and so awesome...I can't imagine what it would be like to see that view every single day!  Sign me up!

      Trolley tour we went on the first day.  This was a perfect way to spend our first whole day.  We got to get on and off as we pleased and it was a great way for us to discover places that we wouldn't have otherwise known about.  We ended up going back to Seaport Village (photo of mom & dad) and Old Town twice while we were in S.D.  If not for the Trolley Tour, we wouldn't have known about them!
I would highly recommend this tour, even if you ride along and don't get out at any stops; it's very informative and you learn a lot of misc. things about the city.  :)

     The zoo pics don't need much explanation.  We went to the zoo all day on Friday.  It was so cool!  It makes the MN zoo look like the State Fair petting zoo.  Between my mom and I, we have a ton of animal pictures, but I took a select few of my favorites.  You will notice the peacock...they probably have three peacocks roaming the zoo freely.  They were so tame and let you get super close.  I would have had a good shot of me right next to one on a railing if the dumbo that was before me hadn't scared the poor bird off!

     Coronado Island is also a wonderful place we visited.  The homes are unreal and the hotel on the island is one of the best in the country.  The red peaks are all part of the hotel and that's not even all of it.  They have massive beach side bungalows that you can rent for probably a pretty penny.  The hotel was built in the late 1800's and still has some of the original parts to it, including a gate elevator (like on Titanic) with an elevator operator!
My mom and I rode this original wood carousel that was a part of Seaport Village (from the above collage) and the bottom middle is my parents at Sunset Cliffs.

We went to Point Loma on the last day.  Point Loma was a landing place for Juan Cabrillo in 1542.  It then turned into a place for the military to hide out in during WWII.  It is now a park and still home to naval training.  The top middle is the grounds/housing for the U.S. Coast Guard.
Bottom left is a statue in Seaport Village.  It was modeled after the famous Life Magazine shot that was taken at the end of the war of the sailor kissing the nurse.
bottom middle and right is our lovely hotel on Shelter Island.


I hope you enjoyed!

To: Deaken, Love: Leiann

A Place In the Sun

I will have pictures and stories posted soon, but just wanted to say that I am back from vacation.  My parents and I went to San Diego and had a blast!  The weather was perfect, the sights were awesome and the tsunami was nowhere to be seen!
To everyone who told me "you will love it"...you were right.  I would go back in a heartbeat.
We flew back in to MSP on Monday morning at 4am.  Between the time zone difference, daylight savings time and the red eye flight, my sleep pattern was a little off but I managed to make it through and go to work today.
I will share more once I get my pictures sorted.  Can't wait to share the fabulous sights!  Here is just a taste.

(not my photo--taken from Google images but I did see a Panda eating like this one is)

Celebrity Sightings

I have always been a huge fan of following celebrity gossip.  I once was a subscriber to US magazine (when it started as a Monthly mag.)  and was VERY disappointed when it turned to US Weekly and basically turned into over-recycled pics of celebs and a bunch of trash; a mere step up from the National Enquirer.  Don't get me wrong; I still enjoy the magazine once in awhile and enjoy laughing at the dumb "Stars: They're Just Like US!" comments, but I wish it would go back to classic celeb following, not paparazzi hunting down the latest reality TV star in hopes to catch them coming out of a club with their "newest fling!" <--- lame.
ANYWAY... I don't know about the rest of you, but I am a Team Angelina fan.  This really upsets my friend Caitlin from Life On the Fax.  We have ongoing battles about it and at the end, we just agree to disagree.  I told her that the reason Brad left Jen is because she didn't want to have children and Angie obviously does.  I will argue this point until the day Jen becomes pregnant.  During an email battle one day (after reading that Jen supposedly "hated" the "Rachel" haircut), I asked if Jen had ever heard of this new invention called a scissors.  If she had, then she should use it!  She desperately needed to get rid of that long hair and get a fresh cut.
Well, it looks like her stylist Chris McMillan hacked into my email and listened.  Congrats Jen on cutting that mane; it was long overdue.  No pun intended.
If you wish, check out the article in PopEater; they share my views.

I hope I wasn't too harsh on Poor Jen.  My dream to be famous and make an appearance on the Tonight Show someday is still alive and I wouldn't want them digging back into "Something To Blog About" and this post would suddenly be on the front cover of US.  I can see the headlines now:  Leiann Wright's Beef with Jen & Why She Hates US Weekly!

CHD Awareness Week

This week is CHD week.  Please remember my nephew Deaken this week and wear red in his honor.  Deaken lost his battle with CHD on
April 12th, 2010 at just 26 days old.
One in every 100 babies born will have a heart defect.
Many defects go undetected and aren't found until it's too late.

Our Warrior Deaken

26 Days Forever

Mom's Are the Best

I have been in a late 20's funk for a few weeks now for reasons I won't get into.
I was having an especially rough day on Thursday when I got called down to the front desk at work for a delivery.  I get work-related deliveries all the time so I figured it was just another proof to get approved and send back at some point or another.  Much to my surprise there was not an envelope or a box full of product, but a beautiful bouquet of flowers sitting on the counter for me!  Without even reading the card I knew there was only one person they could be from.  The one person who knows me better than anyone and always knows what to say or do to make me feel better.  Who other than my Mom.
I know everyone says that their own mom is the best and I must agree.
My mom is truly the best.