WinterJam! One Rockin' Night...

Saturday night we went to the WinterJam Tour Spectacular :)

This year it came to Dekalb, so we didn't have to drive very far (yay!!)

And Samantha W. got to come along with us so that made it at least 10x more fun! Our chauffeurs :P
Some of our 'snacks'... I made some granola (which actually managed to turn
out okay!) And Mom was having a popcorn craving...

The real sustenance! Laffy Taffy, Shockers, Cookie Dough Bites, and Pixie Stix.

Oh, and don't forget the glow sticks! :D No, we didn't eat those...

Finally there! Good grief was it cold outside! Originally we had planned on being

at the concert at least an hour earlier that we ended up getting there... But after

waiting for certain members of our party to get to our designated meeting

place so they could follow us to the concert building, and the snowy roads...

We only had to wait outside for about 5-10 minutes! I was okay with that!
Brrrrrrrr!

Yay yay yay!!! We got floor seats! There were some really tall guys

blocking our view so we just stood on our chairs :) Female ingenuity!

This was Chris Sligh. He was really neat to get to see! He was a finalist on

American Idol. (He finished 10th on the 6th season).

And wow, does he have a voice!

Chris August. This guy was a mainstream musician/singer and over the

past two years he re-dedicated his life to Christ and has started singing in

the Christian music 'scene'. He was quite fun! He sang this really crazy

song about eating too much candy... :P Pretty funny!

Crystal's friends Priscilla and Tony were there with some other friends

and they came and sat with us for most of the evening! It was lovely

getting to hang out with them. Of course we didn't get to do much talking,

but we got to laugh and watch each other be goofy at a concert, and really enjoy

the music together!

It was more fun yelling at each other to get them to hear you than it

would have been to just converse in a normal voice!

See Dad and Mom down there at the end??
They're kind enough to humor us and take us to concerts even though it's

not necessarily their 'thing'.

:) We're so special... :D

Awww...

Do you like our shirts? We had both gotten new shirts

the day before and decided there was no greater place to 'break them in' than

at a concert! :P

Sidewalk Prophets, (the 'The Words I Would Say' guys...)
We've seen them quite a few times, and I think I enjoy them more

each time I see them!

KJ-52. :) He sort of was like our host for the evening. He would

announce some of the other bands, and would also sing, er, rap a song

while the stage was getting set up for them.

*Shouts of glee mixed with Rach and I hugging each other*

This is RED. :D:D:D:D:D Although we loved seeing/hearing all the bands

that played, this band got done and I grabbed her head and yelled into her

ear that "If we had to leave now I'd still go completely satisfied" :D

And they had FIRE! :D It would shoot out in streams from behind

the drums to the beat of the music during the choruses of some

of their songs! (I'll post videos later!)

And of course fog machines!

Newsong. These guys are the ones who put on/sponsor WinterJam!

So needless to say we were quite appreciative to them!

During one of the waits for the next band they had a couple youth pastors from

the audience come up and they got to 'giant slingshot shoot' some T-shirts into

the crowd! And one of the youth pastors was a guy that we know! (the guy in white).
So yes, my Dad did jump and wave and yell "Hi Tom!" And no, Tom didn't hear,

or shoot us any shirts...

Next up was Francesca Battistelli. She and her guitar playing band

members played ukulele for one song, it made me laugh!

And then there was the David Crowder* Band! :D
They are always so fun! :D And this time when David Crowder invited

everyone to 'hoedown' during one of the songs Rach and I started a Conga

line and bounced along the aisle for a while. We got 20 or so people (outside of

family members and people we came with) to join us too, before the security guy

told us to quit. And that was probably okay because if we'd have gone on

much longer we may have needed oxygen. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted!

Personally, I found it quite enjoyable to see a violinist on the stage!

Heh, this guy does have really wild hair!

And Kutless! Rachel and I have wanted to see these guys for quite a while,

so it was great to finally get to see them. They put on such a touching

worship set, and it was beautiful.

The had really cool backgrounds too!

Notice the tree in this one?

This background's awesome too!

And the Newsboys!

These guys really know how to put on a show!

The had risers, and fog, and their drummers riser could spin and tilt!

They had the drummer whipping around at a 90 degree angle to the ground!

If I had been the drummer I would have surely fallen out or gotten sick

or something!! :P

Cool huh!?

I didn't even have to stand on my chair to get this one :)

Such a good night! On the way home (after thawing out our drinks which

had frozen solid in the van while we were inside) and finally eating, we

were in crazy moods and talked so much that we got to Dixon and none

of us realized that we had been anywhere near home!
That's the best way to travel! :D

That was a great night! I'm all for doing again as soon as we get

another opportunity!