Pictures from Soulfest

Well, I'm back from vacation, and boy, do I have pictures. Ready? Here goes Entry #1 of whoknowshowmany.

OK, I'm going to combine all the Soulfest pics into one entry. If you don't know what Soulfest is, it's a huge Christian music festival (it's been going on for several years now, starting at Loon Mountain in Lincoln, NH and moving a few years ago to Gunstock Mountain in Gilford, NH), featuring tons of artists from really well-known ones to much smaller, lesser-known groups. Plus, there are lots of churches and other types of ministries and organizations that set up booths/tents, and they even have a skate park and a playground and other things for kids to enjoy. I'd never been to Soulfest before, but Tony had, 2 years ago, and was eager to share the experience with me.

We spent 2 days at Soulfest, arriving on Thursday night (with our friend Wayne in tow--he went to Soulfest with Tony last time). We put Ari to bed at the hotel and I stayed with her while Tony and Wayne went to check out the last act of the night at Soulfest. Friday was a bust. We went there around midday and it was just pouring rain, with thick mud everywhere. Luckily, the hotel wasn't far away, so Tony, Ari and I went back there, ate lunch, and then I stayed there with Ari (so she could nap) while Tony went back to meet up with our friends Wayne and Jason.

Wayne shared a hotel room with us the first night, and we realized we'd forgotten to bring Ari's Pack-n-Play, which meant that me, Tony and Ari shared a queen-sized bed. I slept fine, but Tony didn't. Ari kept snuggling up to him, and I teased him, saying, "That's what you get for being her favorite." Seriously, though, we could never do that co-sleeping thing. There's just no way.

Anyway, the rain stopped in the evening on Friday, so Tony came back to get me and Ari so we could go see Natalie Grant and Casting Crowns (they always ended each day with 1 or 2 really big name singers/bands).

Here's a shot of the main stage, with Natalie singing. They had 3 or 4 different stages set up on the grounds, plus lots of tents with food and other ministries and such.



I have a lot of pictures of Ari on Tony's shoulders. And this is the reason that mine and Tony's clothes got so dirty--because Ari kept wanting to be picked up, which meant her muddy shoes got all over our clothes.



Very pretty sunset that night--this picture does it no justice.



I love her eyes.



Tony and Wayne had staked out a spot on the hill for us earlier in the day, so when we got tired of standing up front, we headed back to our seats. Ari was getting pretty tired by this point. (This was during Casting Crowns' set.)



Saturday, August 1, was an absolutely gorgeous day, and also our 11-year anniversary. The hot sun dried up most (but not all) of the mud, leaving a lot of dust. So whether it was mud or dust, we still got pretty messy that day too.

I took this pic before we left the hotel on Saturday. Ari was showing me her rings. (They change from clear to color in the sunlight.)



Ari with our friend Jamie. She's an old friend from our college days, and she lives only a couple hours from where Soulfest was, so she joined us for Friday night and Saturday. Tony saw her several months ago when the 2 of them met up to go to another Christian concert, but I hadn't seen her in years. It was good to hang out with her again.



Ari, hanging out in our spot...



She stayed cool by sucking on ice cubes.



We made an attempt at getting a nice picture of ourselves, since it was our anniversary and all...



Then we added Ari. I'm not sure if she's hugging me or trying to strangle me.



Ari on Tony's shoulders, again.



Jamie, Ari, and Wayne. As you can see, Ari and Jamie bonded pretty well.



The big act on Saturday night was Third Day. Before they came on, though, they passed out candles to the crowd and had everyone light them. When most were lit, they darkened the stage so that all you saw was candlelight. It looked pretty cool.



Ari was fascinated with the candles. She probably wondered whose birthday it was.



And she wanted to check out everyone else's candles too.



Ari fell asleep on Tony's shoulder about halfway through Third Day's set. She hadn't napped earlier in the day, so she was totally gone. She woke up a little, though, right before we left, and was almost inconsolable, just crying and moaning. Poor thing was so exhausted. But she fell back asleep in the car and slept great the rest of the night.

The next morning, we packed up, checked out, had lunch with Jamie at McDonald's before we went our separate ways, and then we were off to the White Mountains.

To be continued...