Spirit West Coast

Each year over Memorial Day Weekend we head on a great little family vacation to the Spirit West Coast festival in Del Mar. This year despite being on bed rest we headed for Del Mar...okay, I know your thinking, "hello, bed rest! That doesn't sound like bed rest", but we are not as stupid as it sounds. We borrowed a motorized wheelchair, so I did NO walking and either sat in that or layed down, not my ideal vacation, but better than sitting at home ;)

We got started Thursday in the pouring rain, headed through hail, thunder & lightning, severe traffic from the aftermath of a tornado, more rain and as we continued to drive at about 10 miles an hour, we wondered if we really should go. Because you know a weekend camping in the dirt (mud) with pouring rain sounds like lots of fun right? Anyway, we made it there and it hadn't started raining yet. We thought we might be lucky and have missed the worst of it, but...It rained all day Friday and then on and off on Saturday, but Sunday and Monday it cleared up and it turned out to be a great trip. Altogether, there was 50 of us that camped and ate together. The youth kids are wonderful and very tolerant of our kids, I think everyone had a great time.

The kids absolutely love this trip and look forward to it all year long, so keeping them entertained was no challenge at all. Veggie Land was where we spent most our daytime hours and they did great during the night concerts too. The kids made some friends and danced around each night and Grady fell asleep in the stroller. We sat up in the seats this year, so it wasn't too loud, but everyone did well with their earplugs.

We asked each kid their favorite part about SWC and this is what we got:

Zach- the white puppies in Veggie Land, getting dip and dots, "playing that wood game with the big kids" and "TobyMac was tight!"

Gracie- The Strong Man show, getting a treat each night & the Newsboys.

Hoper- the petting zoo, "getting my face painted 2 times" and the Barlow Girls.

James favorite concert was TobyMac and my favorite concert was Third Day, but the Barlow Girls were amazing too!

But, I have to say that the highlight of my weekend was that Gracie accepted Jesus into her heart at the Strong Man show! He has such a powerful testimony and at the end of his show he had wordless (colored bead) tract bracelets and explained each of the colors on the bracelet and offered and "alter" call. Gracie raised her hand high and was proud to show James and I her bracelet and tell us what each of the colors mean. She said she is excited to one day go to heaven so she can see Grandpa Boaz (Grady's namesake) Hoper got a bracelet too and knows what each color means, but doesn't quite grasp the complete concept yet. :)

We were all really tired and worn out once we got home, but we unpacked, napped, showered and then headed to dinner for James birthday. I was a bad wife and didn't take any pictures of James at his birthday dinner, but it had been a long few days.

All in all it was a great weekend and we plan on it again next year :)