Vacation!

Well, we're back from this year's big vacation. "Big," meaning three days. We tend to like taking a day here, a day there, and then hubby doesn't have the vacation time left for anything longer than 3 days, so... there you go. We're going to try to save up days for a longer vacation next year.

We made the 3.5 hour drive across Michigan to go to two days worth of the 4-day Unity Christian Music Festival in Muskegon. Although I had heard nothing but glowing reviews about the festival, the family friendly activities, and very reasonable food pricing, we went in with mixed feelings. After all, we have two very easily bored children under the age of 9, not to mention the temperature was in the mid 90's with extremely high humidity. However, the kind volunteer staff at Unity allowed us to bring in a backpack full of water (coolers were prohibited by the venue,) and they had lots of fun stuff planned for the kids so they didn't have to just sit and listen to music in the blazing sun all day (oh yes, the audience area for the main stage was completely unshaded. But we made do!) In addition to the main music stage, there was an "A" stage for alternative/heavier music; and for the kids they had inflatables, an arcade tent, crafts, games, etc. The consensus from the kids (and the hubby - grudgingly, because he hates heat,) is that good times were had, so I hope we'll be able to go back again next year, and to all the days this time!

When we got there on Thursday, we staked out a spot with our lawn chairs, and it wasn't long before Downhere took the stage. This is the second time I've seen them. I loved them the first time, and they didn't disappoint this time around.

After watching Downhere, I purchased their "Two at a Time - Sneak Peeks and B-sides" CD, then we went over to the A stage to hear Fireflight perform an acoustic set. My daughter was very excited to hear them because she loves the few songs she knows of theirs, but I think she was a little disappointed that it was acoustic. My girl likes to rock! She was still happy to see them though. :)

Then I got in Downhere's meet and greet line, and got my CD signed and my picture taken with them (the picture in my blog header.) There was more wandering and playing kids games before we settled down to watch the final two acts, Britt Nicole and Third Day. The daughter absolutely loved Britt Nicole, so I bought her a CD and we tried to get in line for an autograph, but the line was SOOO long. She was still signing when Third Day was almost done playing, and possibly beyond... so I'm glad I didn't miss Third Day's performance to stand in that line! I love Third Day. This is also my second time seeing them, (and a third will come next month, along with Steven Curtis Chapman, yay!) The crowd was very thick for Third Day, so my best picture is pretty far away...

At this point it was quite late, and my kids were not about to wait for me to get Third Day's autographs, so we headed back to our hotel.

Wow, I'm getting really wordy and it's getting really late, so I'll try to keep the rest of this shorter. The second day of Unity, we saw Josh Wilson. He's a very good musician. I've never really seen up close before what a good guitar player can do with loop pedals. If you hadn't been watching, on some songs you'd swear he had a band with him... but it was all him.

Next, Sidewalk Prophets. Loved them! Very entertaining.

Downtime... kids playing in the arcade tent.

The evening of the second day closed out with Casting Crowns. They were wonderful. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get any pictures because it was incredibly crowded. It was said that over the 4 days of the festival, there were over 60,000 in attendance, and that that particular day was the highest attended day in Unity's ten year history. So, I'd say well over 20,000 people were there to praise God with Casting Crowns that night. Awesome. I'm OK with not getting a picture. :)

On our third day of vacation, we spent the day at the gorgeous sandy shore of Lake Michigan, in the beautiful Hoffmaster State park. It was very wavy, and we had fun riding the waves with the kids.

That evening, we went to Grand Haven, Michigan, to watch the performance of their famous waterfront musical fountain. My pictures don't do it justice.

It's worth checking out on youtube... Grand Haven musical fountain - Heaven

Well, that's enough from me for now! So much for keeping it shorter. If you're friends with me on facebook, you can see more pictures there, I posted different ones. :)