The second birthday this month belongs to K, and it comes just two weeks after A's. That's usually plenty of time to give each of them their own special birthday time with some recovery in between, but with all the activities this month, her birthday kinda snuck up on us.
Spurred on I'm sure, by A's request for a cinnamon roll breakfast, K wanted the same, only she requested the even-more-elusive chocolate-frosted kind.
We'd seen them in a grocery store a couple of weeks ago, and now I'm kicking myself for not just buying them then. It's 10pm on the night before her birthday and I've now been to 5 grocery stores with no luck. The 6th grocery store is the biggest one around, and I figure that if this one doesn't have it, none will and I'm going to have to go to plan B. Sadly, there's no chocolate cinnamon rolls here either, so I go with the plan I've somehow come up with even though I'm completely exhausted - chocolate frosting! I buy a pack of the regular cinnamon rolls and one of the caramel rolls because I can't remember which one the chocolates are more like and I pick up a couple of cans of chocolate frosting as well. I'm hoping she doesn't notice in the morning, but I really did try!
The next morning I manage to make the rolls without her seeing me and I microwave the frosting a bit so I can drizzle it on. I am so relieved that she's too busy playing her DS at the breakfast table (it is her birthday, after all!) to notice the difference in the rolls. C is not fooled, though. She notices there's something not quite right about these rolls ("they taste weird"), but thankfully doesn't make too big of a deal about it.
As far as activities go, K rattles off about a dozen things for her to-do list. Unfortunately, they all involve a guinea pig, which has been her obsession for months now. She wants one so badly, probably almost as much as Mike doesn't want one. K's plan is to go to the pet store and hold a guinea pig, then buy a guinea pig, come home and play with the guinea pig, snuggle the guinea pig, buy supplies for the guinea pig, feed the guinea pig, snuggle it some more, play with it some more, etc., etc., etc. It's literally the only thing she wants to do today. I'm not sure if Mike believes me how bad she wants this thing, so I have her call him on the phone and tell him her schedule for the day. She has literally been asking me every night for the last several weeks if she's going to get one and if I think her room is clean enough to convince Dad.
We've even been visiting the pet store where we got C's snake and holding the baby guinea pigs there for weeks.
Mike finally calls and says he's going to let her get the guinea pig. I break the news to her (being sure to tell her to say a big thank you to Daddy) and she is so happy she actually starts to cry. I give her a snuggly hug while she wipes her eyes and the whole way to the pet store she keeps saying "I can't believe this is actually happening!". But first we head to lunch because we've stalled so much in the morning that it's nearly 1 o'clock already and I'm hungry.
We head to Red Lobster to order the kid's crab legs (something they're only allowed to do on their birthday) and then enjoys her birthday ice cream.
When we finally get to the pet store (they've run in ahead of me), I'm surprised to see them approach the register and ask if they can hold the baby bunnies. Wait, what? I guess when you know you're taking the guinea pig home, you might as well get your time in with the other animals while you're there. These rabbits are incredibly adorable, and they spend a pretty long time playing with them.
I finally tell them it's time to put the bunnies away, so they trade off for the guinea pig, grabbing the same one out of his cage that we've been coming here and holding since late June. We take him up front and pay for him just as casually as if we were buying a dog bowl or a can of cat food. It might seem odd, except for the fact that the people who work here know my kids so well from all the times we've been in here, and I can't help but wonder if maybe they're hoping now that we won't be back for a little while.
On the way home we have a brief scare (freak-out) with a mealworm that has stowed away in the box they gave us, but found its way out onto K's seat and wiggled too close for comfort. Screaming ensued until I pulled over to let her out. Good thing I was there to be a hero and rescue her from the beast. Ugh. I hate mealworms! We left the mealworm on the side of the road and headed home to drop off the guinea pig (who has had so many names - Buster, Peanut Butter, Oreo, Jake, Louie, Blaster, Buddy, Rascal, and probably many others that I can't remember. If one sticks, I'll be sure to use it.), so we could head to another pet store to buy some food and supplies. We've actually been to several pet stores today (and the Humane Society) looking around and pricing supplies. I don't remember anything about taking care of guinea pigs, so we also buy a book to read up on what we should and shouldn't do. If we're lucky, maybe this thing will survive. K tends to love animals so intensely, I'm afraid it might be possible for her to literally love this little guy to death. Although I must say, this guinea pig is so incredibly tame, mellow and patient with her. And he's pretty stinkin' cute, too!
By the time we've finished running all of our errands, it's pretty much time for dinner. It helps that the pet store told us not to hold him much for the next 24 hours to let him get used to his new home because that doesn't make it such a fight to leave now. K picked Chili's for dinner, although I think she might have eaten more cupcakes than dinner while we were there.
Back at home, I gave her 5 minutes more to hold the little guy before bed. Happy Birthday, K! And welcome to your new home, little guinea pig!
If you've never played with Legos (or any kits that have flower pieces in them), maybe you won't notice it, but we went out looking for butterflies on the flowers down the street the other day and I swear they look exactly like Lego flowers, don't they?
And for reference...
Uncanny, don't you think? If you want your own Lego flowers, they appear to be a member of the Lantana genus, and there's even 150 different species of them in all kinds of colors to match any decor.
Here's some more pictures of the bush here by our house. The individual flowers start out as little squares and open up beginning on the outside, with the ones in the center opening later.
(Note: I am very far behind on writing these blogs, so I'm going to keep working on getting "caught up" while throwing a few things in that are out of order as I go. I was hoping to keep these chronological, as a diary of sorts for the kids and I to read when they're grown, but at this point, I can only remember so many things and my brain is starting to hurt...)
Two days after we got home from Spirit West Coast, we got the chance to volunteer at one of our favorite charities, The Family Giving Tree. They do a huge gift drive for Christmas, but they do a smaller, much less well-known back-to-school drive in July and August. Considering that we no longer have any reason to buy backpacks, lunch boxes, or school supplies, it's kind of a fun way to get our fill of adorable puppy folders, cool backpacks with more pockets than we'd know what to do with, and all kinds of cute little things that are partially useful but mostly incredibly fun and cool, like these..
pencil pouches with monster mouths
The Family Giving Tree relies on local businesses to provide empty warehouses for them to work in, and unfortunately this year it's a 35 minute drive from our house. We're still exhausted, but very excited, and the girls get to work straight away as soon as we get there.
We've been going for years to both the backpack and gift drives, so the girls have done just about every job there is and immediately jump right in on their favorite one. To do this job, they grab some backpacks (always using the wagons, which makes it much more fun!) and bring them to one of the tables. On these tables are big posterboards with sections for each item that's supposed to be in the backpack. Our job is to unpack everything in the backpack, place it where it goes, and get any things from the 'store' that may be missing. We also have to take some things out of the backpack that aren't allowed, like Sharpie markers, liquid glue and personal information. Those, along with a few other things, are on the "no-no" list.
The most fun part is seeing the variety of themed school supplies, plus the extras that some really thoughtful people include, such as water bottles, stickers, little toys, and notes of encouragement for the kids that get the backpacks.
These backpacks are then distributed throughout the area, to kids whose families are struggling to buy food, much less crayons, markers, calculators and binder paper. I love thinking about the smiles on these kids' faces when they get these brand new backpacks full of goodies just for them!
In fact, we love doing this so much that we come back again the next day to do it again. They're running a little behind schedule this week, so we offer to come help one more time. I know better than to volunteer three times in a row without a long break in between (done that before!), but we gladly offer two afternoons up there. We can't do any more this week anyway, because we have another vacation to get ready for! :)
heading back from the backpack piles (those are big piles! - and there's a whole row of them for each grade range and for boys/girls, no to mention to the row on the opposite wall of completed packs, and the other room on the other side of this wall with more bags being assembled over there)
hmmm... which grade to do. Pink is K-1st, Yellow is 2nd-5th, Orange is Middle School, and blue is High School
A at her station
K at her station
C at her station (ok, so she's not exactly the hardest worker, but she did shop for supplies for us and did things here and there when she wanted to)
By the time we woke up the next morning, we were ready to head for home. We knew we had plenty of time to pack our stuff because we didn't have to be out of the site until 11am, and we'd done this many times before. And with only four of us on this trip, we could once again pack the car without too much planning, arranging, or thinking and just pile it up.
I was a little sad to miss the Sunday morning worship service that is offered only to the campers at SWC, but I knew the girls were far too tired to walk down and all the way back up that hill again this morning. I was also sad to see that the shower trucks had packed up and headed home last night. I so love taking a shower in the morning, but today I am just out of luck.
When we drove down here on Wednesday, we'd planned to stop by the beach on our way back out. There are huge sand dunes that always catch the girls' eye whenever we head down here or to the aquarium. The beach is totally not my thing, but the road back to the freeway dead ends into a beach parking lot just under the overpass, so I promised them we'd make a quick stop there today.
We had a nice breakfast and began to pack very slowly. It was once again really wet today and the tent, chairs and wagon were all pretty damp this morning. On each of the days we've been here, it's been foggy like this, and then somewhere right around 10am, the sun just appears out of nowhere and the sky is completely clear within 15-20 minutes. So, I figured we'd just wait for that to happen and let the tent dry itself out. Bailey's family was busy using towels to dry their tent off, but it would have been a ton of work by myself, and I wasn't convinced it would make the tent dry enough to pack it away for good without worrying about mold.
10 o'clock came and went and still there was no sign of the sun anywhere. Then 10:30, and then 11:00 and still no sun to be seen. Not even a hint of where it was in the completely clouded sky. Obviously this plan wasn't going to work. Luckily, I had brought some black garbage bags with me, so we just took everything that was wet (including the rolled up tent) and threw it all in garbage bags. I piled everything loosely in the car and decided I'd just set it all up again once we got home and let everything dry out that way.
It was all piled in by 11:30, so we said our goodbyes and hopped in the van. We'd heard that the 11am timeframe is just a formality and that no one actually comes to make sure you're out of there in time. I guess others have heard that, too, because when we were pulling out I noticed at least half-a-dozen tents still fully setup. It's likely they're waiting for the sun like I was.
Bailey (pink fuzzy hat - covering her bright pink hair, which K loved!), Jennifer (white hat), and the girls. I tried to clean K's face last night before bed, but she still has a noticeably orange tint to her face and although you can't really see it from this picture, her eyes looked a bit like she was an 80's rocker who'd partied too hard the night before.
We took a few minutes to drive around to the different campgrounds, noting their colors, ground slope, and placement and making mental notes for the next time we come down here to camp. It was good to see where some of the other areas are since it's a little hard to tell from the cartoon map they post online.
By the time we finally got down the hill, we were already hungry for lunch. The Black Bear Diner was calling my name again, and although there was a little bit of a crowd there waiting for us, I think we got pretty lucky considering it was Sunday lunch. After lunch, we headed straight to the beach, cold as it was here. It was still in the mid-50's with that same ferocious wind that had been plaguing us all weekend, so we wore our jackets the entire time we were there. At least we won't get sunburned this way - if the sun ever comes out, that is.
As is customary at just about any place my girls are at any time, the first thing on the docket is to find some animal to obsess over. It is briefly the seagulls, who are all in some form of maturation that makes each one a unique blend of colors (in case you didn't know, our common gulls are gray or brown and often spotted when they're juveniles, and then they turn that trademark white with a gray neck when they are adults). But after one trip down to the water, their focus suddenly shifts to crab skeletons - loads of them. There are traditional and sand crab skeletons by the hundreds down there (mostly the latter), and although A will claim anything that looks more or less like a complete animal, C is a purist and will only keep the best of the best of the traditional crabs.
poor guy
a winner!
looking...
C's collection. While her sisters are hunting for crabs, C stays by my side nearly the entire time, talking endlessly, occasionally shrieking at an 'adorable' something or other, and making requests to K, who seems to be hunting on her behalf. At one point, C decides she going to start a "crab collection" and put each set of crabs in a bag and label it with the beach's name she found it at. This worries me greatly since some of these crab's shells aren't cracked which means there might still be meat in there. Ew. At home I casually offer for her to put them outside to 'dry out' after a few days in the plastic bag, and then I feel extremely guilty at not having mentioned to her to protect them somehow from neighborhood birds and cats and all of them are gone when we get home. :(
sand crab bodies, looking very decorative
A's collection, buried in 'shoe-shaped' holes that she places her shoes over to hide them from passers-by
At one point, the girls actually even found a live sand dollar. Thanks to Sheri for letting us know that they have stinging feet, so they stuck it in a plastic bag with some water and sand instead of holding it for too long. We'd seen live sand dollars before, looking all purple and fuzzy, but I wasn't quite sure if this one was alive at first because it seemed odd to catch one on the beach in the afternoon. But sure enough I watched as it very slowly buried itself in the sand in the plastic bag. It was slow, but definitely noticeable.
Found the picture of the sand dollar!
We ended up being at the beach a whole lot longer than I thought we'd be. It's been about 4 hours by the time we finally leave here. The sun finally did come out around 2:30pm (and the temperature actually reached 60 degrees!), and I'm glad I didn't sit around waiting for it. There's actually quite a few people at this beach today (Seaside), including a couple of kids in actual swimsuits, although most are like us and just enjoying the water from a distance with our layered clothing on.
I noticed these guys a little ways down the beach from us. At least the water was showing off and looking extra beautiful with all that wind.
We also were entertained for quite some time by four guys who were apparently trying to learn how to surf. A couple of them eventually nailed it (and were SO excited about it!), but their falls left me giggling several times. If nothing else, it makes me feel a little more confident about maybe trying to learn to surf someday - hey, I couldn't look much worse than that, and they were having fun! And it also makes me hope that there isn't someone sitting on the beach filming me and posting it on YouTube for everyone else to laugh at. Sorry guys!
I thought briefly about playing a Beach Boys song or maybe the Hawaii-5-0 theme song to the video because of the loud wind noise, but you guys always say you like the kid's comments, and I actually thought their comments were pretty funny on this video and especially descriptive of our day on the beach. You can clearly hear C mocking the surfers in the beginning, followed by her squeals of excitement over a nearby bird, and then some heated discussions over 'crab-trading' and why C's were obviously superior to whatever she was being offered. Besides all the funny ways these guys fell off their boards, I liked the excited fist pump by the guy on the yellow board at the end, and if you had the volume all the way turned up (not recommended), you might just catch the guy on the red board yell "I'm up!"
Once we finally got back home, I pulled everything out of the car and proceeding to pretty much recreate our entire campsite back at SWC (including the annoying wind - I had to weight the tent down with the bags of library books because it kept blowing over). The tent was in the street, the sleeping bags were on the sidewalk, the chairs were in the driveway, and for a minute I entertained the idea that we could just sleep out there for the night. But after a few hours in the toasty sunshine, I was convinced that everything was dry enough to pack away, and I was completely ready to sleep in my own bed and use my own shower.
Yesterday morning the girls and I awoke to the feeling and sound of water dripping on us. The fog had been heavy each night and although the tent was wet on the outside each morning, it had never been enough to feel wet inside the tent or to get any of our stuff wet. Yesterday morning the air was so wet that the water droplets were accumulating on the open-screen roof of the tent and ever-so-slowly dripping down on us while we slept. It wasn't enough to get anything in the tent soaked, but things were definitely damp and we decided we should cover the tent with the tarp last night, just to be safe. It took several adjustments to get the tarp tight enough so it didn't make a ridiculous amount of noise in the relentless wind, but eventually Mike got it all settled and we woke up completely dry this morning. (Note to self: buy a new rain fly!)
Unfortunately, we now had a giant tarp that was wet and no real good way to dry it out. We ended up dragging it up the hillside on the other side of the fire lane and staking it to the ground to dry.
Shortly after we got the tarp settled, Bailey came over and told us that her family was planning to head down to the Black Bear Diner in town for breakfast. We had plenty of food here to make breakfast, but I just couldn't get the thought out of my head of a nice, hot meal with no dishes to do afterwards and the more I thought about it, the more I wanted it! Coffee, in a truly clean cup that wasn't made of paper - refilled as many times as I wanted! Everybody having the breakfast they wanted with no complaining! No cold wind cooling our food off instantly! And if we ate enough, maybe we could even skip lunch! Ok, it sounds pretty pathetic now, but at the time it sounded like a little piece of heaven!
Needless to say, we did end up driving down the hill for breakfast. We managed to just beat out the lazy Saturday morning crowds and we had a great time (and lots of coffee) down there. Back up on the hill, Bailey's family offered to save us a space on the lawn since today (Saturday) was likely to be the most crowded day. We gladly took them up on it and helped ourselves to a little more time to get organized for the day so we wouldn't have to come back up to camp for any reason until the end of the day. I even packed the stove, a can of beans, cheese, olives and tortillas to make burritos for dinner, along with marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers for dessert and some hot chocolate mix. I was pretty sure we wouldn't need any lunch after that huge breakfast, but I brought a ton of snacks to last us through the day just in case.
In hindsight, it would have been much smarter to pull the stakes and the tarp up before we headed down to the concert since it was dry pretty quickly, but gladly we did manage to eventually find all of the stakes in the darkness (the tarp had partially blown away, even with the stakes) when we got back to camp at night, though the tarp had since become damp again.
On the way to the lawn, the girls asked me to take some pictures of the critters in the 'crayfish pond'. These are some of the pictures of the creatures in there that I took during the weekend. There's actually a pretty cool collection of frogs, polliwogs, and many things that are somewhere in between. And yes, the water really is that murky and green. Eww..
Mostly tail, almost no back legs - and huge! (probably nearly a foot long total)
mostly frog, but a bit of tail back there still
both legs and a pretty big tail still - these frogs are probably about 5-6" in length (without tail)
little teeny-tiny guys
The lawn area was pretty full, even this early in the day, although in years past the crowd would be spilling out everywhere onto the dirt. I don't think we've ever been within 30 feet of the grass before, much less on it. We like that center grass section there - not quite so crowded as the front lawn, but not so incredibly far away as the back lawn (and no chance of getting hit with a flying ball of some sort since the back lawn is usually home to a volleyball net or pickup football game or something).
We went ahead and bought a lemonade cup, since for $8 we can refill it an unlimited amount of times for the whole day. We've always bought these at SWC and the kids all share it, although I'm pretty sure they love filling the cup at the spigot on the side of the wagon more than they even like the lemonade itself. They take turns throughout the day running over to the wagon to fill it. It's seriously a good deal for $8 a day, and when the weather is hot and sunny (unlike this year), it's a great way to make sure they stay hydrated out there.
Once we'd set up our area on the lawn, we left everything there and headed back across the grounds again. K and C decided they wanted to get their faces painted, and I really wanted to visit the vendor tents, which we hadn't been in yet at all.
The girls at the face painting tent were hardcore today. A few of them were definitely semi-professional, even though there were still stencils being used by many and some were still trying to get the hang of it, but when K sat down and asked to have her face painted like a tiger... the whole room was stunned. I think the girls got lucky being the first kids of the day. There's no way they could have kept up that level of makeup with all of the kids in line.
an orange base layer
the artist
the girl said she looked like a giant Cheeto
About this time, C's artist was finishing up her artwork. C had asked her to paint a ball python on her cheek (shocker!) and the girl had actually pulled up a picture of a ball python on her cell phone to work from. She even let C see the pictures and pick the one that looked most like Ginger for her to work from.
the snake shape is easy
but the pattern is a little more difficult
Done! One happy customer...
Meanwhile, K's girl was still working on what was apparently an extreme face-painting session. I didn't see another kid for the rest of the day that looked anything like this. I mean, she could have joined Cirque du Soleil right on the spot! And all for free, even!
painting the stripes
painting the eyes
the finished product - amazing!!
she even made her eyelashes orange somehow!
We got a lot of stares and gawking wherever we went for the rest of the day, even after the lips had worn off completely. It was quite impressive!
Next, we made our way to the vendor tents which houses both the artists' merchandise booths and a variety of other small businesses from t-shirt printers to painters to college information booths and inspirational CD messages. Most of the bands also give autographs inside of this tent, either before or after their time on stage. Audio Adrenaline is in here right now along with some band I haven't heard of before. I've always loved the fact that they do this, and it's kind of fun to be so close to these bands. We've gotten autographs from some of them before, and pictures, too. I remember A's infatuation with Hawk Nelson and the line we waited in to get her bag signed. I also remember a stint standing in line waiting to meet Kutless, a band that's nearly always here at SWC, but is missing from the line-up this year. Both of those bands have had some changes within their groups in the last year, but I hope to see them back here soon. Although it would be a change, I'm sure, to see Hawk Nelson without their lead vocalist of 10 years, Jason Dunn.
Suddenly C is upset with me because Matthew West isn't here and she wants his autograph - badly. Apparently he's her new favorite person in the whole world, thanks to that song about port-a-potties I shared yesterday. She wants to buy his $25 t-shirt and then changes her mind and has to havethe $700 autographed electric guitar. Sigh. If only I could have seen this infatuation coming, I would have brought her here yesterday to see him. I'm sure he was at these very tables smiling and joking with people and signing tons of autographs.
Eventually we make our way out of the vendor tent having only bought a plush fuzzy mustache for Jessey and some buttons from Bob Smiley's table. There's a few empty tables in here, but it's still pretty full, which I'm glad to see. It's hard to know how many artist merch tables already packed up, because some leave their stuff all weekend and some don't.
Somewhere between the vendor tents and the concert lawn, A realizes she's been 'pinned'. We see these every year here but never remember how fun it is to play with them, and we always forget that we've said in past years we'd bring some and do it ourselves. She tries to pin it on Bailey's family, but they're all too smart for her. She's too shy to walk up to a stranger and try to clip it to them. I can't blame her - I definitely wouldn't have done it at that age either. Hopefully Bailey kept it moving through the crowd for us.
There's no sign of Grace and Gabriel's family today anywhere on the lawn, so the girls amuse themselves setting up forts and snack stores with the chairs and blankets all afternoon.
K's snack shop. Want to buy something?
A's fort
There's a tiger in there somewhere
Mike and I listen to Esterlyn and the Rhett Walker Band as I very anxiously await the return of Audio Adrenaline to the stage. Now that the Newsboys are sans Peter Furler, the only band I can think of that I would want to see come back more than Audio Adrenaline is dcTalk itself, and considering we've seen Toby Mac several times here and the new frontman for The Newsboys is Michael Tait, it's ironic that the third man from dcTalk, Kevin Max (or K-Max for dcTalk fans), who has been missing all these years, will be the one bringing Audio Adrenaline back to us.
The girls pose in the hats I made for them this weekend
In the break between bands, the K-Love booth plays "Monkey Commando", using a giant air cannon to shoot t-shirts and stuffed animals into the crowds. Honestly, your odds are probably less than a hundred to one to catch one, but to my girls, that still meant there was a chance. We ran up close to the stage, and not a single monkey or t-shirt came anywhere near us. Oh well. At least I got to hear Bob Smiley crack some jokes (he's on the far right). Jessey and I always watched his late-night comedy show, but with no one here to side with me, I'm stuck missing his show and taking the tired girls back to camp long before midnight.
Finally, Audio Adrenaline takes the stage. The voice I've missed the most from dcTalk is back singing awesome songs like "Kings and Queens". The previous lead vocalist from Audio A, Mark Stuart, makes a heart-wrenching guest appearance via recording. After six years he can still barely speak due to severely damaged vocal chords, but he had the courage to speak out about what happens when the one thing you think is the most important thing in your life is taken away from you. Who are you then? What do you become? Are you still worthwhile? Do you still have a purpose? I can't imagine what it would be like to have the one thing you felt was your gift and calling suddenly gone like that, and I'm thankful he took the time to share his thoughts and emotions with us.
K-Max is a fabulous addition to Audio A. After seeing Michael Tait a few times and now hearing from Kevin, it's pretty clear that a conflict of egos likely caused the breakup of dcTalk. Thirteen years later, fans are still begging for a comeback. dcTalk is the band that many of us feel sort of started it all. They made Christian rock music, rap music, and energetic cross-over hits ok for the first time, breaking new ground throughout the 80's and 90's. They've teased the thought of reunion for years, appearing in cameos at each other's solo concerts and hinting at a possible future reunion, although that now seems more and more bleak as each member now has their own separate bands. I'm sure the cameos will continue, although there's none here tonight.
During this concert, Kevin talks about the last 13 years of his life, how he's made some bad choices and lived his life out of God's will. It's a humble and welcome sentiment that I'm glad he has the courage to share. His humility in joining the band and recognizing its legacy is something Michael Tait, sadly, has never done, instead choosing to bask in the spotlight and avoiding the huge, familiar hits of the past in favor of the new tracks The (new) Newsboys have released since he's been on board. Crowd favorites like "Shine" and "The Breakfast Song" get a 15-second interlude each, with the rest of the Newsboys joking that he doesn't know any more words to the song than that. It suddenly dawns on me that this might actually be true. Maybe filling the shoes of Peter Furler is just way too much to ask. Anyone who has ever seen Peter Furler in concert or heard him speak would understand why. He is truly a gift to anyone who has the privilege of being at his concerts. Following in the footsteps of Carman Licciardello and Rich Mullins, some lead singers just have that gift. It's rare and it's amazing, and I really, really miss it.
Don't get me wrong, The Newsboys are still a very popular band. Their ridiculous touring schedule (which is the reason Peter decided to step down from the band in the first place) has still kept up its insane pace, one that clearly shows in the exhaustion and lack of enthusiasm the band shows in increasing amounts from year to year. Gone are the stage tricks and lengthy encouraging messages. Gone are the thoughts of signing autographs or making personal connections with the audience. Gone are the magical moments when Peter would sing "Let it Rain" and it actually would (it actually did once - I was there!) or the renditions of "He Reigns" that would give you goosebumps and bring tears to your eyes. Gone are the moments when everyone in the crowd would pull out their boxes of Cap'n Crunch and throw cereal all over everyone during "The Breakfast Song". No more Jonah in the belly of the whale, either. It's ok, though. The band is still reaching people all over the world, and while I mourn quietly for what was, I rejoice that I got to experience it at all, in the first place.
As The Newsboys finish their final songs, the night is turning very cold and the fog has rolled in thick and wet. I start to think about that tarp on the ground and the exposed tent we left behind. I hope the inside of the tent stays dry until we can get back up there. We wake up K who's fallen asleep again and pack up the wagon to head back up that hill towards camp.
Mike is actually planning to drive home tonight. He has finals next week and needs to study and finish his homework. I'm sad he can't stay, but I'm glad he took the time to come and spend the day down here. This is the first time he's ever been at SWC. It's probably best he gets a head start, too. I'm sure we'll work at a snail's pace packing up camp tomorrow morning, and we're hoping to have some time to spend at the beach, too. He sticks around for a few extra minutes to tie the ground cover to the top of the tent. It's fabric, so it'll be really quiet in the wind, and it will provide plenty of coverage for us tonight while we sleep, without making it too difficult to pack up tomorrow. He took the big tarp home to air it out along with a couple of flat air mattresses that failed us the first couple of nights. We say our goodbyes and he heads down the hill for a long drive home. I've done that drive many times and I definitely don't miss it this year!
