Alive 08

Another fun filled week for the Mills. We attended the Alive Christian Music Festival in Canal Fulton for six out of the last seven years in some capacity. This year, like most, we camped (in a tent) for the entire week. It was a wonderful time with lots of stories and pictures. Nate worked security for the second year in a row, so the kids and I were alone much of the time, but we did get to have some great times with daddy as well.

I don't know proper Blogging procedures. Is it better to post one long post about an entire week of events, or make a separate post for each day, like I did for Kentucky? Anyone know? Well, I'm making this one long recap. Also all the bands/speakers have links to their websites if you'd like to check them out, just click on their names that are in yellow.

Nate went Tuesday night to set up our tent, and the kids and I joined him on Wednesday morning. Toby had not been camping before, so we were not sure what to expected. He was excited about the tent.
The kids also enjoyed Smores soon after we got there, no sense in waiting for the evening.
Once we got all situated, we headed up to the hill for the concerts. Wednesday night we were entertained by Red, Salvador, Jaci Valesquez and David Crowder Band to name a few. We always go with several families from church, and one family has a very large tarp that we take up and all sit on. It is really nice to have. the kids know they have "boundaries" and can't leave the tarp. The first night, Toby was real good about staying put, but he soon learned what his boundaries are. Here are the kids horsing around as we wait between concerts.
We did not get back to our campsite until around midnight, and Toby woke up around 12:30. It was cold the first night, and it didn't look like Toby was going to sleep any time soon, so I packed him up and brought him home. Nate and the others stayed the entire night. The next morning, they got the chance to hearing Brady Quinn, quarterback for the Cleveland Browns, share his testimony as one of the featured speakers. This year at Alive, they also had a SportsZone set up. The kids really enjoyed it. They had football drills, basket ball hoops, soccer goals, etc. set up for the kids to play, and people were at each station helping them, and timing them and keeping track of how well they did. I think throughout the week, Drew must have run this football drill at least 50 times. And he improved each time!Taylor got to play a little soccer.
Toby got in on the action posing with this Browns cut out thing. He had fun watching everyone as well.
Nate even got to have a little fun with this passing competition. He did pretty darn good, considering how long it's been since he did something like that. I believe he made about 33% or so!
We usually take food up with us to the hill for dinner. Toby enjoyed his oranges!
After all the playing around, two of my boys took a nap on the tarp while we waited for the show to begin.
We were going to be entertained by groups like Leeland, Hawk Nelson and Casting Crowns as well as a message from Tony Nolan

Toby took a liking to our friend Rob and his daughter Erika. He spent a lot of time hanging with Rob, giving him "the rock" handshake. He also spent a lot of time looking for hair on Rob's head. I think the bald look was new for Toby.
It is always amazing to me, to sit at these concerts, and just look out at all the people. It is hard to put into words, or pictures for that matter, but here is attempt at getting a shot of the crowd during the Casting Crowns show.
Thursday night, we stayed at the campsite, and Toby did great! He didn't get up until around 8 in the morning! It was a perfect night for sleeping in a tent!

On Friday, we made it out in time to see the family fun tent performers. They had a magician and balloon artist. The kids really enjoyed that (really they did, I know Drew doesn't look like it).
We also spent some time in the lake swimming. The kids had a lot of fun, especially when some of the high school kids came and played with them. Brandon had fun throwing the kids into the water.
Pete, Brandon and Jared had a lot of fun chasing Drew around in the water.
Adam helped Toby navigate the kiddie slide
And after a morning of swimming...After we left the swimming area to have some lunch, I got a call from Nate's cousin Sara asking if I took all the kids with me. I told her yes, they were all three with me, and she went on to explain that a child was missing, and believe to be in the water. They had evacuated the water and were doing a search of the water with people lined up holding hands walking slowly through the water. Jared is a lifeguard, so he was one helping. It was horrible to watch. The kids and I went up there and just prayed, along with others, that they would find the boy safely. After finding nothing in the water, they allowed people to swim, and we found out several hours later that the missing child was found, safely, and had just wondered away. It was so scary, but God was faithful. I can't imagine what those parents were going through watching all of that unfold.

We then headed up the hill for an AMAZING night of concerts. the groups to perform included Family Force 5, Thousand Foot Krutch (TFK) and TOBY MAC!!! We also got to hear an amazing message from Reggie Dabbs. Hundreds of people gave their lives to Christ following his message.

Family Force 5 was entertaining, as usual! Drew's favorite band is TFK. I had to take this little video of him dancing during their show.

Toby and I waiting for Toby Mac!I didn't get any photos of Toby Mac. I guess I was too busy enjoying the show! Let me just say it was INCREDIBLE. He may be over 40, but he's still got it! That man can dance. And I love the message of his music! That we are all God's people, Red, yellow, black or white!

Saturday we got to see Disciple, John Reuben, Sixpence None the Richer, Skillet and Chris Tomlin/Louie Giglio.

So the Disciple concert was great. John Reuben began to play and someone in our group announced, "There are tornado warnings to the West of us, heading our way". So we all began to watch the skies. During John Reuben's set (he was also the Alive Emcee, which was fun) the wind picked up and toward the end of his set, they asked us all to get under the huge tents they have set up. Here Taylor and Toby (and Lindsay in the background) try and make the most of being stuck in a tent with hundreds of other people

Here are Ken and Judy Gable and Rob Miller discussing what to do next... how long the storm would last, watching the storm on cell phones, etc. After about an hour or so, several of them decided to just head home. We had heavy rains and winds. I heard that the inflatable things for the kids blew into the lake. There was also a tree that fell on someones car (actually, this was before the storm even) We considered heading home, and even began walking back to our vehicles as Sixpence None The Richer played in the background. However, the skies began to clear and so we decided to turn around, and enjoy the rest of the festival. We stuck around for Skillet, which was an amazing show, and about half of Chris Tomlin. At that point, it was dark, and we were getting cold from being so wet from the rains, and the kids were falling asleep so we decided to call it a night. We left a little after 11 and were home, in our own beds around midnight!

Alive 09 tickets go on sale in less than a month!!! You all should consider going!

God is Good