face 2 face tour::billy joel and elton john

sandee picked me up friday at 10:00 am. we were quickly on the road to salt lake city. we left the kids behind with their capable fathers and intended to have a blast. and we did.

we checked into our hotel at 3:30 pm.

this was the view outside our room window. i love this building.

we unpacked our bags, got settled and were right back out the door. we went to the gateway mall to walk around and stretch our legs and aching bottoms.

we also filled our stomachs with rice bowls from rumbi island grill. tasty.

after a couple of hours we went back to the room and got ready for the main event. the reason for the trip. the thing we had been looking forward to for months. it had already been postponed in november so we could hardly stand it.

we were finally going to see:

we were so excited! we got a hotel within walking distance from the venue which turned out to be perfect. it was a very nice walk. we were finally inside and searching for our seats!
after locating our seats we went in search of souvenirs. they had a good selection.

i settled on two flash lights for the girls.

and some magnets for the bus.

then we went to our seats for reals. we were so high up i felt sick. oy.
the poor lady next to me was scared for her life. she hung on to her seat and her husband the entire time! i eventually got used to it and the feeling of unsteadiness went away. that wasn't the case for her. although we were up high, we still had good seats as far as what we could see. we were at a great angle and it was totally worth the $55. :)

this is the best i could do with my iphone in the dark. :) but it proves we were there together!

finally the show got started and it was amazing. when billy and elton came on stage i was emotional. they played four songs and i couldn't believe how amazing it was. it's hard for me to even put it into words. a.maz.ing. that about covers it. i'll admit i got a little worried when billy left the stage after those four songs, and elton just kept playing on and on and on. after almost an hour i really thought maybe something had happened and billy wasn't coming back out. i was enjoying elton but i was there to see them FACE 2 FACE! playing together. that's where all my emotion was. finally after elton played for an hour, billy came back on stage. he then played for an hour. he is definitely a better entertainer. he really engages with the crowd. he told jokes, like when he waved to the people in the back of the arena and joked that they were sitting in logan. and talked about how he once went to the osmond studios and that he had a crush on marie and way back then he just "wanted to mess her up a little bit". he was funny, danced around, introduced his band and just really enjoyed himself on stage. he was my favorite hands down. i've seen elton before and he was good but billy is a much better entertainer. so after two hours, each one playing an hour by themselves, elton rejoins him on stage and they play another 45 minutes together! we heard 32 songs! the show was over 3 hours long! no intermission. un.believable! and they also didn't do an encore. i was so happy about that. i can't stand encores. it's such an ego thing. if you know you're going to come back out and sing another song, don't leave and make your fans beg for you. just keep your ass on the stage and sing everything you intend to sing. ok. off my soapbox. so the fact that bj and ej did their set and were done totally won me over and made me admire them that much more. no games.

we had some good laughs to at the expense of the two girls in front of us that thought they were super good dancer but really they sucked. the lady next to me, the one that was scared for her life, could not stop laughing either. fun times. :) there was also some really interesting dancer in the floor seat section that kept us laughing.

i found all these photos online since i didn't take my camera in and once it was dark my iphone was useless. plus, i was enjoying things too much to take photos.

i LOVE the piano. i could watch them play all night.

they saved the best two songs for last. candle in the wind and piano man. the latter is what i came to here. is it my all time favorite song. i first heard it in elementary school and i've been hooked ever since. it's even one of my ringtones. love it. and they performed it beautifully! i was giddy. best concert ever.
it only took us 15 minutes to get back to the hotel and i went to bed a happy lady!
saturday we woke up and endured the crappy free breakfast at the hotel. then we were off to ikea! sandee had never been and i'm always up for it. i wanted to get a shelf so i was excited. i also got the girls some new plates, cups and bowls. sandee found a few things too.
after that we met marco, stephanie and tieran at in-n-out. i don't get what the big deal it. the burger tasted like the cheap mcdonald's burgers and was the same size. i only ate half. i did the love the fries though. i couldn't believe how busy they were. it took an hour to get our food. the line went clear out the door.
no sitting room. people were stalking out tables. we finally got one. crazy.
after that we went to see my grandma madison. we had a nice visit. sandee left with a nice vase from japan.

finally we made a stop by jamba juice to get a drink before we got on the road.

we finally made it home by 9 i think. i had such a good time and i'm grateful sandee was able to go with me. it was nice to hang out with my sister, sans children, and enjoy myself.