Toby Mac, Relient K, B.Rieth and Stephany Smith

On Sunday, after church we planned to go to Salem for a concert. My sister and I had heard about this concert at the Jeremy Camp one we had gone to last month. Toby Mac is a Christian musician, I had gone to see him before with my sister, but I was incredibly ill and missed most of the concert. So, this was going to be a make up concert for me. This time, Sis and I talked about bringing the kids along with us. You see, Toby Mac doesn't sing nice, quiet, stay in your seat, songs....he plays like he means it. With passion! This concert series was entitled Winter Wonder slam. Well, you know how I love Christmas music and we had gone as a family last year to see Natalie Grant's Christmas concert and really enjoyed it. So sister and I planned a great trip to enjoy this concert. Sister, Bugg, Peanut, Puddles, T-Rex, Curly and Honey Bunches of Oats and I all piled into the suburban and headed north to the Salem Fairgrounds. Some of the peoples in the car were afraid I was taking them to an outdoor concert. Especially after record setting low temps this week, they were a little nervous *evil grin*. The concert was in the new Pavilion at the State Fairgrounds and it was great. I had ordered tickets on line and had to pick them up there. The doors weren't open yet and the line was 8 people wide through the parking lot and into the road! But, after picking up my tickets we found out we had to get in that line. It was just a little chilly as we wound our way into the Pavilion. We were general admission seating because I didn't pay the extra money to sit on the floor *mean lady*. So we grabbed coat tails and rapidly headed up the stair well. We actually found relatively close seats pretty quickly. It was really cool. Sister then went out to find merchandise and the rest of us played around taking pictures and waiting for the show to start.

Curly, me and Puddles
Sis and I

Honey Bunches of Oats and Peanut

Curly and Bugg

Puddles, T-Rex, Bugg, Honey Bunches, Peanut, and Curly

This young man is named B. Rieth, not pronounced like wreath. He has a very nice voice and should be making a wave in the Contemporary Christian music scene here really soon.

This young lady is Stephany Smith. Her music was very rock and roll and very loud and very hard to understand. She was just a moving on the stage and Curly says, "WOW" (not in a good way). Bugg says, 'she's starting to scare me', so I guess we won't be looking for her albums.

This fine bunch of lads is RELIENT K. They are a great group that have been around the teen scene for a while. They were very good, wishing they would have been able to do more. They did the most Christmas music. One of their band mates was unable to continue in the tour, so they were having to change things up a bit. But, they were a pleasure.

This, my friends, is TOBY MAC. He is so good.

I really don't know what I can say about him, but he really got the crowd going. The best thing is.....he loves JESUS!

He is in the middle of the crowd here singing. He just jumped right on down there and sang from the audience. Later he jumped off the stage and into the audience, thankfully they caught him and he body surfed back to the stage!

Trying to get out of the parking lot took longer than driving back to the freeway. We stopped for gas, and hot chocolate for the kiddos, coffee for the adults, a potty stop and home ward bound we were. We got in a little late. Thankfully I didn't have to work today. I took a "mental health" day. I need to take those more often. ;~)