Last weekend, I went to Oklahoma City with Lindsey, Shelby, Hayley, & Kelly.  The reason we went to OKC was to attend Winter Jam 2010 at the Ford Center.  Winter Jam featured mini-concerts by Revive, Sidewalk Prophets, Robert Pierre, Tenth Avenue North, Fireflight, Newsong, Newsboys, and a grand finale by Third Day.  It also featured a message by Tony Nolan.  Admission to the event was $10 and was paid at the door.  I read comments on Twitter & Facebook from the performers and organizers after the show.  From what I can tell, the OKC crowd was the largest crowd to date on the Winter Jam 2010 tour!

Of the musical performers, I have only heard Newsboys in concert before.  I first saw them probably 10-15 years ago when they were here in Springdale at First Baptist.  I saw them in Tulsa my freshman year in college when they were on their Love Liberty Disco tent tour (which featured the rotating drum set).  Tony Nolan spoke back in the fall at FBC Springdale.  Lindsey, Shelby, & I were pretty excited about hearing him again.  Other than the Newsboys & Tony Nolan, getting to finally see Third Day in concert was exciting.

I really enjoyed the event as a whole.  There were a few performances that really stuck out.  I think the song that spoke to me most during the evening was Sidewalk Prophets’ The Words I Would Say.  The following is an acoustic version of the song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8UpaifPbqI

So, as I mentioned, I’d seen Newsboys a couple of times in concert prior to OKC.  It had been a while.  Last year, Michael Tait (formerly of the band DC Talk) replaced Peter Furler as the lead singer of the band.  I hadn’t heard a Tait led song on the radio yet so I was curious (but, yet, skeptical) of how he would sound singing traditional Newsboys hits like Shine and Breakfast.  I was pleasantly surprised.  The Newsboys closed their set with DC Talk’s hit Jesus Freak.  I loved it!  It wasn’t DC Talk but it was a DC Talk song live which I hadn’t heard since I saw them in concert in 7th grade.  I also kind of found it amusing that Kelly & I were the only ones around us it seemed that knew every single word (including the rap-like portion in the middle) of the song.  Here’s a video from the Winter Jam 2010 tour of Newsboys performing Jesus Freak.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xheIKyE84J8

Finally…Third Day…Amazing!  Mac Powell is an awesome songwriter and has such a distinctive voice.  Here is an official video of Third Day singing their recent hit Revelation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6u0P9kwfF4s

All of the performances were almost teasers of full sets by some of the performers like Newsboys & Third Day.  I left the event wanting to look up their tour schedule so I could see a full show by each of them in the near future.  I definitely recommend seeing any of these artists in concert!

I did take a few pictures at Winter Jam.  Check out my slide show.

2009 was quite a year.  The most important and exciting thing that happened to me this year is that I bought my first home.  I’ve looked and talked and planned for several years.  The pieces all fell into place very quickly at the end of July for me to officially begin my search for a home.  The house I bought was the first one me & the realtor that assisted me looked at together.  Greg (my realtor & Lindsey’s father-in-law) found me the perfect house.

My other major purchase of 2009 was a Nikon D90 camera.  I’ve had fun playing with it this year.  Although, I haven’t ventured far from the automatic settings yet.  One of my goals for 2010 is to learn more about what all my camera can do.

Lindsey, Kelly, Hayley, & I saw the Paisley Party Tour stop in Tulsa in January.  It included Brad Paisley, Dierks Bentley, & Darius Rucker.

My mom’s birthday in January marked the beginning of a very bad ice storm.  I don’t remember ever having weather like that.  The ice was crazy.

In March, Kelly & I went to San Antonio for a few days.  We saw a bit of a history at the Alamo, had dinner on the top of the world, and even visited the beach.

In April, we took our annual trip to Dallas/Fort Worth for some NASCAR.  While down there, we visited the Sixth Floor Museum & Dealey Plaza where JFK was assassinated.  Jeff Gordon finally won a race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Memorial Day weekend I traveled to Charlotte, NC to visit Penni and go to the NASCAR races that weekend.  It was a weekend full of rain but it was a great weekend of visiting old friends and meeting new ones.

In June, I went to a couple of concerts.  The first one was Casting Crowns at the Church at Pinnacle Hills.  The second one was Chuck Wicks at the Poultry Festival.  I got to meet Chuck in person twice (once by accident) that evening.  It was great!  He’s hilarious and very down-to-earth.

Lindsey, Shelby, & I made last minute plans to go to Junction, TX in July to our cousin Lacey’s wedding.  We made Mom come too.  We took our time going down to visit Mom’s brother (our uncle) Mark and also to visit Dublin for some wonderful Dr Pepper.

In the beginning of October, Shelby & I traveled to Dallas.  The University of Arkansas Razorbacks played the Texas A&M Aggies in the new Cowboys Stadium.  Shelby, our uncles Mark & Rod, and I went to the game.  It was an awesome game in an aswesome stadium.  I’m hoping we get to go again next year!

In mid-October, I traveled to Phoenix with a couple others in my department for an SAP conference.  Besides the conference, we took some time to do some sight-seeing.

The last trip I took in 2009 was with Shelby the first weekend of November.  We went back to Dallas/Fort Worth for the NASCAR race.

Here are the blog entries I wrote this year related to my year in review.

January 3, 2009 10:57 pm - The Nikon D90
January 4, 2009 5:54 pm - New Camera – Day 2
January 10, 2009 10:32 pm - New Baby
January 11, 2009 2:38 pm - The Red Coat
January 24, 2009 8:56 am - Tulsa Bound
January 26, 2009 6:40 pm - Family Tradition
January 28, 2009 1:34 pm - Be Still!
January 29, 2009 6:32 pm - Tulsa Time
January 29, 2009 8:27 pm - Ice Storm
February 1, 2009 12:02 pm - Ice Storm Aftermath
March 5, 2009 9:00 am - San Antonio Bound
March 6, 2009 9:25 pm - Where’s Dad When You Need Him?
March 7, 2009 8:31 am - 173 Years Later
March 14, 2009 3:03 pm - Life is like a box of chocolates
March 14, 2009 3:59 pm - A bit of history
March 15, 2009 6:38 pm - The San Antonio Zoo
March 15, 2009 6:57 pm - The Texas Beach
March 15, 2009 8:03 pm - Sea World
March 21, 2009 2:40 pm - Tower of the Americas
March 21, 2009 4:15 pm - San Antonio Re-Cap
April 18, 2009 4:05 pm - Who Dun It?
April 18, 2009 4:45 pm - He finally won
June 20, 2009 3:58 pm - Chuck Wicks Times 3
June 27, 2009 4:47 pm - Casting Crowns
August 9, 2009 4:58 pm - My New House
August 23, 2009 5:42 pm - My New House – Before
October 7, 2009 9:52 pm - Long Wait
November 6, 2009 3:32 pm - Shop a Little, Race a Little

As far as 2010, I don’t really have any plans for any major traveling.  I know we’ll go to both NASCAR races in Texas in April & November.  Other than that, this may be a year that I take it a bit easy as far as traveling goes.  I do need to catch up on here with some blog entries.  I really want to share what my house looks like now that I’ve gotten it painted and decorated.

Overall, it was great to get away for a little bit of a Spring Break with Kelly to San Antonio (& Corpus Christi).  It was definitely a packed 3 full days but we saw a lot and enjoyed ourselves.

You can read all about what I thought of what we saw by clicking here to see all blog entries from the trip.  You can also click here to see my Flickr photo album of the trip.  (Believe it or not, I didn’t most near all of the pictures here on my blog so you need to check out the photo album to see them all.)

Up Next: I’ll be heading back to Texas in a couple of weeks for the NASCAR race at Texas Motor Speedway.

We had gotten somewhat close to the tower while in San Antonio but hadn’t really gotten close enough for the full height of the structure to hit me.  When we drove up & got out of the car, I must say the thought of going up in the elevator (which you can see in the photo above) really starting sinking in.  I am NOT a heights person so it is definitely very freaky.  I wasn’t going to not go up there, obviously.  I just had no idea how I would be when we got to the top.

I must say the elevator ride up was not near as scary as I thought it would be.  Only 1 side of the elevator is glass and I made sure I was on the opposite side from that so I didn’t have to look out.  The elevator ride did take forever.  It was weird not knowing how much farther we had to go.  (Although, that may have been a blessing in disguise for me.)

We got to the top and got out on the restaurant level.  As I mentioned before, the restaurant rotates around so you get a view of the whole city.  It didn’t move around very fast at all.  The food was delicious.  Of course, it was expensive but we knew that ahead of time.  We all three got the chef’s special which was a crusted salmon that was stuffed with cream cheese & spinach and served over pasta with a little marinara sauce.  It was delicious and has had me wanting some more salmon.  For dessert, I tried their key lime pie.  Not to sound like a broken record but it was delicious as well.

After dinner, we decided we were brave enough to go up a level to the observation deck in the tower.  (The observation deck is open to everyone, not just restaurant goers.)  I didn’t get too close to the edge of the deck, especially when we were outside.  (There was a series of glass & bars that were obviously holding us in but my fear of heights kicked in and the wind whipping around just didn’t make me very comfortable being on the edge.)  It was pretty neat to look around see all of the sights of San Antonio from that height.  We were kind of kicking ourselves that we hadn’t come up there first or earlier in our trip because it was dark at this point and so some of the sights (i.e. The Alamo) were hard to pick out.

This was a very good ending to our San Antonio vacation.  It was great to see Wyndi again and to have a very nice dinner while in San Antonio.  I recommend at least visiting the observation deck at the Tower of the Americas if you are ever in San Antonio.  If I go up there, you can too.

Click here to see my San Antonio photo album on Flickr.

Because we were so far south and so close to the beach, we decided to drive the couple of hours it takes to get to Corpus Christi and see the beach on the Texas coast.  I’ve seen the coast in Gulf Shores, AL and in Puerto Rico.  Kelly has previously seen the coast in San Diego, CA and in Destin, FL.

The temperature was in the 80′s the afternoon we went there but the wind was blowing HARD.  (I’m pretty sure you can tell that in this photo of me standing in the Gulf of Mexico in Corpus Christi, TX.)

We got into town long enough to drive the coast for a bit, dip our feet in the oceans, (pose for photos), and then eat a WONDERFUL meal at Landry’s Seafood House on the pier.

The USS Lexington is permanently docked in the Corpus Christi Bay.  Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to tour it but I did get a couple of photos of it from across the bay.

If I’m ever down in this area again, I want to drive on to Padre Island.  The flat tire we had to deal with Friday & into Saturday set us back going to the zoo and then to Corpus Christi so we didn’t have enough time to tour the USS Lexington or drive further down the coast to Padre Island and Port Aransas (and, no, I did not mean to spell Arkansas).

Click here to see my San Antonio photo album on Flickr.

Saturday morning, Kelly & I decided to go to the San Antonio Zoo.  (Every young couple with toddlers or babies in strollers decided to do the same thing.)

The San Antonio Zoo is said to be the 3rd largest zoo in the US.  In the 2 hours or so we were there, I would say we only saw about a third of it, if that.

Kelly & I are most familiar with the Tulsa Zoo having both been there multiple times over the course of our respective lifetimes.  We both found ourselves comparing the two zoos.  I personally noticed the lack of grass in San Antonio.  I think the space and the climate both had to do with this.  There are also seemed to be just 1 of some of the animals (i.e. zebra, giraffe) at San Antonio.

Overall, what we were able to see at the San Antonio zoo, was very neat.  I’d love to go back and spend the entire day exploring it all (because I think it would take all day to see it all).

If you all are ever in San Antonio, I’d recommend the zoo.  At $10 admission for adults, it is a very cost effective way to spend the day.

Click here to see my San Antonio photo album on Flickr.

After spending the day at/around the Alamo and dealing with the flat tire, we decided to go to one of the Spanish missions just south of our hotel a little ways.  The mission’s name was Mission San Jose.

I’ve always enjoyed history and being able to visit historical sites on vacations.  Luckily, Kelly & I are a lot alike in that area.  We were both pretty excited about getting to visit the Alamo and then also one or two of the missions in the San Antonio area.

Because of the tire issues, we only had about 30 minutes to spend here.  Unfortunately, that means we didn’t get to learn much about the mission itself.  It was more of a quick walk-through of the property.  If I’m ever back in San Antonio, I’d love to spend more time there.

Click here to see my San Antonio photo album on Flickr.

Before daybreak on March 6, 1836, the Alamo fell to the Mexican army leaving the only survivors to be 20 women & children and Colonel Travis’ male slave.  Among the defenders of the Alamo who died was Davy Crockett.  Yesterday was the 173rd anniversary of the siege of the Alamo.  At 6 am, Kelly & I went to the Dawn at the Alamo (a ceremony honoring the fallen on both sides in the Alamo conflict).

After the ceremony, we hung around the area to await the official opening of the Alamo’s interior to the public.  This gave both of us some time to take plenty of photographs of the exterior without the tourists milling around in all of the shots.

Click here to see my San Antonio photo album on Flickr.

Today was the first full day Kelly & I spent in San Antonio.  The plan (as of last night and even about 5:30 this morning) was to get up, be at the Alamo for the special Dawn at the Alamo event, go to the San Antonio Zoo, and enjoy the Riverwalk.  This plan went out the window at around 5:45 when we walked down to get in my car and saw that one of my tires was completely flat.  I don’t mean low.  I mean very very flat.  We decided to walk the 4 or 5 blocks to the Alamo and deal with the tire later.  About 2 this afternoon, Kelly & I went down to the car to change the tire.  It took us less than 45 minutes from start to finish (and we did it all by ourselves).  I must say that Kelly knew way more about changing a tire than I did but I definitely feel more confident in my ability to change a tire in the future if I need to.  There happens to be a Goodyear place less than a mile from our hotel.  We stopped by on our way to one of the missions.  They looked at the tire and said they couldn’t repair it.  They showed us the damage.  It was crazy looking and we have no idea how it happened.  I’m having to buy a new tire in the morning.  (It is the last Goodyear tire in my style/size available in the San Antonio area, by the way.)

I must say that this isn’t something I was wanting to deal with on this vacation.  So far, it hasn’t completely ruined anything though.  I’ll be sharing the highlights of day 1 in the upcoming days.  Stay tuned.

The best of the pictures I took today have been loaded on my Flickr.  Click here to see my San Antonio photo album so far.

Lindsey, Hayley, Kelly, & I did a bit of partying Saturday night.  This party didn’t have anything to do with alcohol (the drink), though.  We were in Tulsa, OK for the Paisley Party Tour 2009 featuring Darius Rucker, Dierks Bentley, & Brad Paisley.

Overall, the concert was definitely a great one.  While this didn’t top Garth Brooks or New Kids on the Block, it is definitely high on my list of best concerts ever.

Darius Rucker opened the night.  For those that might not know him, he was the lead singer of the 90′s band Hootie & the Blowfish.  Darius released a country album in 2008 and had a #1 single with the song Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It.  Beyond that song & his Hootie & the Blowfish songs, I didn’t know anything else he sings.  This made me a little skeptical about whether or not I would like his portion of the concert.  I was very pleasantly surprised.  He kept us very entertained and I felt like I knew the songs, even if I didn’t.  He played his #1 hit and a song that I’ve heard several times on the radio since the concert called It Won’t Be Like This for Long.  The audience got a big kick out of a song called Drinkin’ & Dialing from his album.  He closed his set with the Hank Williams Jr hit Family Tradition.  I personally thought this was a good song for him to sing.

“Country music singers have always been a real close family but lately some of my kin folks have disowned a few others and me.  I guess its because I kinda changed my direction.  I guess I went and broke their family tradition.”

That line of the song made me think about Darius.  While I don’t think Hootie & the Blowfish’s music is very different from country music, Darius still made a pretty big leap to where he is now.  Based on his album’s hits so far, I would say that leaped has worked out just fine.

Stay Tuned: Look for two more blog entries – one about Dierks & one about Brad – coming in the next 24 hours or so.  (I’m hoping to get them all posted in the next 2 or 3 hours, actually.)