Fireflight Rocks VanAndel Arena

Today the Winter Jam crew pulled into Grand Rapids, ready to rock.  Rainah and I showed up after lunch and caught up with Jessica.  We were able to go out for coffee and hang out most of the afternoon, which was great!  We even met up with Don and had dinner with Jess and Justin at the BOB.  We had all-access passes, so we pretty much got to go anywhere... backstage, the buses, and we got to pretty much pick where we wanted to sit.  We watched the first few bands, and the Fireflight took the stage.  Rainah is kind of in awe, I think.  She just sits in her seat and stares.  I tried to get her to stand up and dance, or clap, but she was content just sitting and watching.  Fireflight was awesome, playing to a pretty full Van Andel Arena.  We hung out a bit after Fireflight played- Rainah chowed down on some cotton candy, and we talked with Jess a bit more at the merch table.  We caught up with most of the band to say good-bye and left around 9ish.  Rainah did pretty good considering she had no nap, and the afternoon and evening were so crazy.  I had a great time, too, and it was really great to see everyone.  I was also excited to catch up with an old highschool classmate who is in Newsong, so that was a nice surprise, too!  Here are the photos:

One of Fireflight's biggest fans

Robert Pierre

Phee takes the stage behind his drumset

Justin and Glenn

Fireflight

Uncle Justin

Dawn

Fireflight Plays Richland

This morning Fireflight arrived at Richland Bible Church ready to play their 9th straight show of their HOPE tour. Mom and Dad came over and hung out in Grand Rapids with us yesterday, and we took off for Richland around 10:00am. We got there a bit before 11:30 and the band was just waking up. The crew was starting to set up all of the equipment and we hung out with Jess and Justin for a bit before we had lunch. Afterwards Jess started setting up the merch table (with mom and dad's help) and Jill arrived with Hayden and Talan. The kids all had fun playing, running around, and watching the set up and sound checks. We had dinner with the bands, where Hayden took an instant liking to the white boards and quizzed all of the musicians on their letters (they all kindly played along!).
An old friend from Ward EPC showed up with his daughters who are big Fireflight fans, so we spent some time catching up with him. At one point I took Rainah in to listen to one of the opening bands and she freaked out. I thought it was because it was so loud, but when we came out she said she didn't like the dark.
I finally got her to go back in when Fireflight started and she just wanted to be held. She was so worn out by that time, but she was good. I eventually made it over to the front/side of the stage and set her down to get some photos. I looked down and she had layed down under a a cross and was covering up with the tulle that they had wrapped around it. Like I said, she was tired.
Fireflight was amazing, and we even got to hear one of their new songs, due out on their new cd February 9.
We had such a fun time and it was great seeing and spending time with everyone for a bit. Thanks for putting up with us for the day!

Rainah stayed out of trouble by reading a church paper while set up was going on

Talan- ready to rock

My baby sis- she does good work!

Dawn

Justin

Phee- rock on, superfreak

The Gardens and Fireflight with Grandma and Papa

Today was a gorgeous day and we decided to go hang out at Meijer Gardens in the morning. Mom and Dad have only been to see the butterflies and it's always freezing out, so today they got to check out the OUTSIDE part. Rainah showed the around the Children's Garden and Papa showed her how to douse Grandma with the water squirters.

After enjoying the gardens we headed home, had some lunch, and packed up to head to Muskegon to the Unity Festival where Fireflight was playing. We got there and had to wait in line for about an hour (thanks a lot, Jill!), and once we finally got in we found Jessica who was just finishing setting up the merch table. We walked around, got some yummy eats, and hung out to watch the bands. Rainah had a great time and it was so great to see Jess. Unfortunately we weren't able to talk with the rest of the band as there was a HUGE line of people waiting for autographs- we're so happy they are doing so well! Here's a few photos from the day (I wasn't allowed to take my DSLR into Unity Fest- I was yelled at last year for using a camera like that... this year they had signs everywhere... what's up with that???):

That is one big horse

Rolling down the hill

Fireflight taking the stage

Sweet, quiet, Uncle Justin

Rainah dancing

Phee

Uncle Justin