Joyful Noise!

I've been contemplating which pictures and videos to post from this last weekend at the Joyful Noise Family Funfest. We have a few cute pics and videos. It was a lot of fun for the kids and lots of really good music. We started our day listening to the MN Teen Challenge Choir. That was pretty cool. Then off to the kid's play area and lots of inflatable bouncers and the opportunity to meet Bob and Larry from Veggie Tales!

JJ really liked Bob and Larry... he kept going back to find them throughout the day and even gave Bob (the tomato) hugs.

Ally enjoyed the bouncy Titanic slide (you can see it in the background of the tomato pic) and the jumping thing they strap you into-no clue what it's called. She got going pretty high!

There was lots of good music... One of the acts - Josh Wilson doesn't have a band, so he creates layered recordings to accompany him. He uses his guitar as the drums, layers a guitar line, maybe harmonica (you can hear him do that in the video) and then sings and plays.

We also saw Tenth Avenue North, Lincoln Brewster, and Mercy Me. Of course, it was all Christian music, so there was lots of worship going on. It was really something to see that many people with their hands in the air to worship God. The video is unfortunately really dark because it was about 10pm.

The kids weathered it all very well though it was a pretty long day. Jim and I got sunburned (we used sunblock!), Ally got sunburned on a patch of her chest because we forgot to put sunblock there, and JJ made it without any sunburn. He was easier to keep out of the sun because of his stroller! He did very well only having a couple of meltdowns because Mean ol Mommy wouldn't let him wander off among the huge crowd of strangers. He managed to take his nap in his stroller! Ally was really wiped out by the end of the day. JJ just saw the late night as a rare treat and extra playtime! They were both promptly asleep in the car about 5-10 minutes out of the parking lot (again, JJ held out longer than Ally!).