Back from River Rafting & American Idol Try Outs

I'm back!! Just returned home last night after being gone 10 days. I spent the first 7 days on the Colorado River. Which was AMAZING!! The last 3 days were spent in San Diego, with my niece, trying out for American Idol. FUN but a freak fest! LOL

The Colorado trip was wonderful. We went approximately 188 miles from Lee's Ferry to Whitmore Wash on a "boat" down the river. It was so pretty! We had sun, rain and lots of clouds. For the most part, the weather was wonderful. Only one hot day and one very rainy night (the last one). We went hiking every day to waterfalls and scenic areas. We ate wonderful food (Yes I stayed YOAD true--with the exception of a piece of dutch oven pineapple upside down cake on day 5. It was delish!). I learned about the geology of the canyon, folk lore of the pioneers and saw a few watery graves along the way. I'd highly recommend that trip to anyone!

American Idol try outs? Wow, that was an adventure too. Spent Sunday, after getting our wristbands for my niece to try out late Saturday night at 11:55 PM (note that we'd been up since about 4:30 AM that morning on the Colorado), at the San Diego Zoo. It was fun! We pretty much just hung out together all day. (My niece is 19, I went with her for moral support). Monday morning we arrived at Qualcomm Stadium at about 5:15 AM. We stood in line until about 9 AM, then they started letting people in. At around 9:45 AM, they started singing some group songs "California Dreaming" and "Walking on Sunshine". (Keep an eye on the AI try out San Diego show. We were a part of that). At about 10:30 AM they actually started the try outs/auditions. There were 13 tents set up, 12 of them had a producer and an "industry person" at them to hear auditions. They lined people up in rows of four to audition in front of the people in the tents. About 24,000 people and 14 hours later, it was my niece's turn. She didn't even get to sing to the chorus of the song and they told her "you have a lovely voice but you're not quite what we're looking for this year". Unfortunately, all the freaks that tried out (bikini girl, hugely obese girl, rollerskating girls, mime girl, giant sombrero boy....to name a few), made it. I think of the 70 or so that moved forward (out of approximately 25,000 folks that tried out) at least 30 of them were gimmick type of people. She said that she'll try again next year and be sure to have a gimmick as a back up. LOL! It was fun but very cut-throat. How could it not be? If I had to weed out 24,920 people--that'd be tough work! I can't imagine having to listen to those auditions all day. They turned away some amazing talent too! We heard some really good singers that didn't make it. "Not what they're looking for this year"....hmmmm.

Now that I'm home, it'll be time to do the weekly weight tomorrow. I "cheated" and snuck on the scale this morning. It said 226 lbs. That'll work! It'd be nice if it said 219, but I'll take 226....for now! :-) I'll do the full measurements and post them tomorrow. This morning, for breakfast, I had a Kashi instant oatmeal (150 cal) for breakfast, about 1/2 c. of Vanilla soy milk & 10 oz. of water. Mid morning snack was 1 oz. of raw almonds. For lunch I had a ww pb&j sandwich (organic pb & sugar free j), c. of raw baby carrots and 12 oz. of water. I have a small sugar free applesauce and a sugar free yogurt for mid-day snacks too. I think I'm going to eat the yogurt when I'm finished typing here. I'm still hungry. :-)

Glad to be back! (But I had an amazing time!!)
Shannon