Blissful Saturday Afternoon.

It was one of those Saturday's that worked out to be about as good as it possibly could have gotten.  

The kids were behaving.
The husband and wife were super sweet to one another.
The weather was perfectly sunny, yet cool, and breezy, and crisp.
We had nothing to do, and nowhere we had to be,
but plenty we could do, and a few places we got to be.
Hell. Was. Freezing. Over.

Nahhhh......
It wasn't...
Was it?!?!

No.  Ok.  Good.  I wasn't just dreaming.  That really was our Saturday.
Yay!
That's nice.

Something in all of us must have supernaturally clicked; requiring a drastic movement to just CHILL-our-crazy bootie-hiney's out.  It was good stuff.  I liked it.  I liked it uh-lot.

We had a play day outside, for ultimately, THE ENTIRE DAY.

The morning and on into the afternoon brought on free-clothe-getting (thus encouraging big-pride-swallowing), amazing yard sale find-ing, tree-rope-swinging, picnic table snacking, and
vitamin-D sunshine soaking.         Mmmmm!  I LOVE Vitamin D!!

The late afternoon and onto the late-later evening brought us to a Rock On outdoor concert at Faith Fest via the somewhat historic town of Winder.  There were (FREE!!!) jumpy-jump-jumping playhouse things for the kids to play on, aromatic vendors teasing us with Jamaican cuisine, hugenormous soft pretzels, and the unavoidable funnel cake.  (Who can resist a funnel cake?!  Not. My. Husband!)

Bestest of all..... we got to mingle among an easy going crowd (people like, TOTALLY smiled back at me when I smiled at them.... ya...mmm-hmmm....I know.  It's crazy!).

We  basked on cool dry grass inside a sunshined breeze, and watched our children run wild and tightly leashed as we listened to talented artist and musicians bring incredible a-LIVE music to the stage.  Aside for the guy we decided to nick name " bald snoop dog", everyone was definitely talented inside the genre/style of music they chose to create.  Of course, we were only there for the last leg of the event- so I certainly can't testify to ALL of the talent, but you get me, right?

My seriously awesome 7 year old took over the photography for the night.

John Waller walked on stage, started singing some straight-up WORD, and Kyla got mesmerized.  I'm loving this artist even more than I did already!  My big-baby girl was starting to get an "annoyed-moody" attitude before J.W. broke out into "As for me and my house.... We will serve the Lord"  sangin'.

Kyla must have thought dude somehow had a magical power, because she looked at me and said
"MOMMY!!! He is singing about what is written on-our-wall!!!  It's. On. Our. Wall! Those words that he's singing!!!!    Remember? It's on our wall... right when you walk down stairs....before you walk in the kitchen. YOU wrote it on there... you know?  you know?  you know?"
(Yes, baby.  I know....)

This guy, WHOA!,  we're not talking about how good the vocals were (they were solid!), and we don't need to discuss the music (perfectly composed)... we're gonna talk about the lyrics, and we're gonna talk about... I mean....  I AM gonna talk about the ministry.  Dude is like- ALL kinds of anointed.   He's signing from the Word- bringing prophetic song and prayer into his talent, and ministering to our hearts (whether we like it, want it, receive it, or NOT.)

One point of the song/prayer, he said something about "Make our house like Leah's" and my (almost) 3 year old, LEAH asked "Me!?!  That's ME!!! ?"   Precious.

Mr. Waller and his cute wife finished up the set, and then intermission, and another band came on.

My mom and dad came around this point, or bit later- which in and of itself- made the night ALL the better.  Kyla and Zoe got to walk around with Grandma and Grandpa, while Joshua and I sat on the blanket with Leah (who was on the verge of passing out).

My bud JP, whom I had the great pleasure of meeting while I was trying to 'get my fitness on' at a local gym, is in a STINKIN'-AWESOME band; and they were to play at Faith Fest that night as well.
Love the band (obviously) but had YET to see them live.  I was exceptionally stoked.
From the sporadic times that Jon and I have chatted, most of which were in between my super-stanky eliptical work out sessions and my half-hearted attempts at weight resistance on the muscle machines- he's shared tidbits of clusters of information on the bands process.  It's a sweet testimony to the ministry of Echoing Angels; knowing that the band members have all been patiently (and maybe sometimes NOT so patiently) waiting on the Lord to release them to put out another record.

AnyWHO, the band (have I mentioned? SMOKIN' hot awesome!) proved that endurance is a worthy cause- and they're gonna be sportin' a whole-new-album this spring!
"Looook.  It's your friend!" my 3 girls like to say (back) when we are either arriving or leaving the gym, and one of them gets JP in sight.  For them, it was So-FUN to watch "our-friend-from-the-why-em-c-A" play the drums.  My oldest decided it was something she wanted to learn to do as well.
(Nuh-uh.  Not happenin' baby girl!)

Joshua and I ooohed and ahhhed at how well behaved our children were.  Leah fell asleep, eventually- in the middle of the EA set.  So? We parked her in a chair behind us and continued on with our head banging and crowd surfing... um.... hand clapping and sing-along-singing.  It brought back memories of when our Kyla (7) was a little baby in her little infant car seat- and she slept through a LOUD Jeremy Camp concert.  Twice.

On the way home, all 3 girls fell asleep- and Joshua and I were able to conversate.  Like? A real conversation. No interruptions.  For. A. Whole. HOUR!

And we had fun.  And it was awesome.  And I am so thankful.

Bliss.