The Suitcoats Revamped

What a terrific Labor Day weekend!  On Saturday (September 4) we drove up to Parowan to join the Adams family at Co-Op for the day.  It was a beautiful day and we loved being with the family, including Kelly (Burke's oldest sister), Wes and their three girls who drove down from Montana to be with us.  Kelly had requested that Alan give us a tour of the mountain so she could set straight the corresponding names and places, such as "The Goozie", "Cherry Choke Hill" and "The Hoosier."  Alan brought a map up for the occasion and showed us the aerial view of the property before taking us out on a caravan of 4-wheelers to show us their physical location.  As always, the mountain was gorgeous and I loved sitting behind Burke as we cruised around the trails on the 4-wheelers, wrapping my arms tight around his stomach and burrowing my face into his back.  I always feel like we're dating again when we're on the 4-wheelers! :)

Some of the extended Adams family were up on the mountain as well and would come into camp to visit throughout the day.  A few of us tried out the riffles and zipped through an entire box of clay pigeons.  I wasted bullets putting holes in the clouds, but I still enjoyed watching the boys blow up the orange clay discs, shattering them into a hundred pieces as they sprinkled down out of the sky mid-launch.  Someday I will get one!  We loved our time up at CO-OP with wonderful family, beautiful scenery and delicious food!

Early the next morning we headed back to St. George for Kevin and Danelle's blessing of baby Hallie (pictures and explanation to follow), taught our lessons at church, reloaded our duffel bags and drove back up to Parowan, this time with the entire Adams family there - hooray!  Monday (Labor Day) morning we headed over to the famous Parowan Labor Day Parade.  Our nieces Macie and Sadie were in the parade with their dance group and were pretty proud to be a part of the production.  I love how Sadie is totally hamming it up, waving and grinning in this picture.

When the parade wrapped up, we headed back to Alan and Marie's home where they hosted a huge extended family and friends BBQ lunch in the back yard.  We picked corn straight from their bountiful garden and had it with our beef burgers straight from the farm!  It's fun having farmers for in-laws, knowing almost everything you're consuming has come from their garden, the wheat fields, or the cows.  All the while, Burke, Kevin and Brett were no where to be seen, down in the basement running through their 8 songs to perform at the fair grounds that afternoon.  That's right, the Suitcoats were asked back for the third year in a row to be one of the performers at the entertainment pavilion.

Kevin has gotten really good at graphic design and he took pictures of each of them in poses with their guitars, turned them into silhouettes and put the whole design on band T-shirts for the brothers to wear.  They turned out terrific and the boys liked great in them!

The pavilion was packed to the limit with people lining the edges to hear the legendary Suitcoats.  They did a couple of cover songs from Weezer, Jimmy Eat World and MxPx as well as several of Burke and Kevin's original songs.  I sang a Frank Sinatra duet with Burke called, "Something Stupid."  I couldn't hear myself at all, but I just kept singing hoping it sounded alright!  They sounded so much better this year, I think mostly because they were way more relaxed and looked like they were having fun on stage rather than terrified.  Such a good time!