wow wow whee wow!

first things first: a happy, happy birthday today to mama wan! she's off on an alaskan cruise this week, but i know she'll read this eventually and i want her to know i'm thinking of her today. hope you have a wonderful day, mommy.

now, onto the rest of the jonas brothers weekend shenanigans. last week, i learned via twitter that there were still tickets to be had for this year's teen choice awards. we'd never been able to go in previous years because the taping always fell on a weekend that the teen was with her dad, so i was excited to take her. from the seating chart during checkout, i knew we'd be in the balcony (i.e., nosebleed seats), but i figured it would be cool regardless. and she was super stoked when i told her how we were going to wrap up our weekend.

i'd read that morning that the red carpet was scheduled to begin at 3:00, so we got ready and headed out the door at 2:00. we thought it would be super cool to see the celebs arrive, and even if we needed to enter the park to see it, it didn't matter because our annual passes still had three days left on them! perfection.

so, for the second time in almost as many weeks, i found myself pulling into the parking lot here:

and shelling out $12 for a parking spot. the parking sitch here is kind of funny - the "preferred" parking is $8 more, and granted, you do get closer spots to citywalk. but it's a regular parking lot vs. the cooler garage where you can park out of the direct sunlight. not that it mattered much since it would be pitch black outside once we were done, but still.

once we parked and made our way over to the entrance to gibson ampitheater, we were quite dismayed to see a ginormous line that went all the way out and wrapped around the fountain. ugh. not to mention, i checked twitter for updated information and found out that the red carpet was closed to the public. laaaaaaame. so we did what any of you would do: we turned around and looked for something to eat.

we ended up, as expected, at the crepe cafe.

after stuffing ourselves with crepes and fries, we went back to see if the line had dwindled down, and it had. there were still 45 minutes left before the doors closed, so we picked up our tickets:

the teen had been handed a promotional postcard for some new boyband, comically named "wow." wow, indeed. and then as we turned around, we saw this group of guys and realized that it was wow, up close and in person.

try as i might, i could not get the teen to go over there and take a picture with them, despite the fact that she was immediately attracted to the dude on the left, in the blue sweater and yellow pants. [snicker] and he was obviously interested too, because he totally checked her out as we walked by. of course, she completely regretted not jumping on the opportunity later on. oy vey.

we decided to go on in, since there wasn't much else to do and it was hot as the sun out there, standing around.

excitement was definitely in the air. do you love our matching goofy faces?

self-portrait in front of the entrance: FAIL. psh.

the teen and i were totally nudging each other and snorting quietly at these girls' getups. i mean, seriously??

the laugh was on us, though, as we observed those two sashaying around down by the stage later. they ended up being part of the lucky group who got to watch the show from the pit and mingle with the celebs, including one taylor lautner. bitches.

i thought these little girls were super adorable.

18 is my lucky number! too bad that in this case, it meant sitting up in the boonies.

the set was colorful and bright.

we had the misfortune of being seated behind this woman. heffa looked to be about 45 years old, was BY HERSELF, and spent the entire time before, during, and after the taping jumping up and down, dancing horrifically off-beat, waving her arms in the air, and clapping and cheering wildly. every time she stood up, the folks sitting behind us yelled at her to sit her ass down. it was comedy.

our view of arriving celebs was pretty limited. those of us up on the balcony spent most of the pre-show time squinting down in the vicinity of the countless flashes and high-pitched squealing, and guessing as to who was down there.

somehow, we managed to figure out who these folks were, seated on colorful couches down by the stage.

and then it was showtime. the jonas brothers were this year's hosts, and we could just barely make them out as they stood next to this mini stage.

they'd filmed a cute little video clip pretending to be reporters at a presidential press conference, and then the opening credits rolled.

as the crowd hooted and hollered, the boys officially opened the show as they performed a new song on that mini-stage. it moved along the aisle and stopped about halfway over as they played and sang.

then they hopped off, ran over to the stage, and finished the song.

i took pictures of almost all of the presenters/awards, but they're all really sucky and crappy quality because of our bird's eye view. this was the cast of nickelodeon's "iCarly," and it's significant here only because one of the actors on the show is a member of our church and we've met him several times. his father was part of the group that the hub went to africa with a couple of years ago. i know, so not important, but it was cool to actually know someone down there.

the "dare the jonas brothers" segments of the show were super duper lame.

jordin sparks was there too.

somewhere in this mishmash of folks, rob pattinson and the rest of the "twilight" cast sat back and listened to the audience freak the fuck out over their very existence.

taylor lautner went up to accept a surfboard of his very own, and the entire audience (including the teen and, um, me) swooned. team jacob!



the jonas brothers' littlest sibling, frankie (a.k.a. "the bonus jonas"), won an award too. it was bigger than he was.

and then production came to a halt as the crew scurried frantically to assemble the set for miley cyrus' performance.



she came out in what we thought was a completely inappropriate outfit - a bra-baring top and short-shorts - and performed a perfectly acceptable song enhanced with totally inappropriate dance moves. and i don't care if you use an ice cream cart as a base, that thing is still a freaking stripper pole, people. especially when she grabs it with one hand and swings around it, bumping and grinding. miley needs to remember that she's still only sixteen, and her father is no better - he was interviewed later and said some crazy shit like "i think it's great, she's having fun, and that's all that matters." a-what??

the black eyed peas also performed, and made their entrance perched on "surfboards" that descended from the ceiling. pretty cool, even if i'm not a huge fan.

i was pretty excited when fergie's hubby, hot ass josh duhamel, came out to present an award to the "twilight" cast. so much yumminess on one stage!

since it was a fox production, they took every available opportunity to plug their upcoming fall line-up. while i rolled my eyes a little, i'm actually really giddy for this show:

the jonas brothers closed the show with a final performance, and that was the end.

before we left, we got someone to snap a quick photo (which we reciprocated, of course).

since the park was still open, we went in to ride a ride - one that we hadn't been able to get on a couple of weeks ago, when we were here last.

with the plethora of signs cautioning pregnant women not to take part in this attraction because of its jerky movements and roller coaster-like nature, i was slightly appalled to see this woman bellying her way through the line.

of course, i wasn't about to get involved - and the ride attendants didn't care enough to say anything. i guess that rule about not assuming anything when it comes to possibly pregnant woman applies everywhere. and of course, she ended up seated right next to me, screaming and grabbing onto the lap bar for dear life. sheesh.

our ghetto asses never buy the ride photos. we just check 'em out and then take a picture of the screen. ha!

by then, the park was closed and we made our way back out to the exit, where we endured leering and catcalls by guys passing by. ew.

popcornopolis weekend continued, as we scooped up some snacks to go.

i thought of my friend 10years as we perused the goods at sparky's.

we also checked out this fun store:

our final stop was here, to grab dinner. i'd been looking forward to this for days!

mmm, garlic chicken and rice, and black beans and rice for the teen. a perfect way to end a fun weekend!