Kingdom Bound 2007

I didn't get anything ready in time for Show & Tell on Friday, but I am back in blogworld, so I figured it was time to post a summary of the vacation here at last!  To start with I need to explain what "Kingdom Bound" is, because I had a couple comments from my last Show & Tell asking me just that. Kingdom Bound   is a ministry based in Buffalo, NY - there are many outreach events that they put on year-round, but the highlight is the Kingdom Bound festival held at the beginning of August each year.  It's a Christian music festival at Darien Lakes Theme Park (formerly Six Flags - Darien Lakes) featuring concerts by Christian artists, along with times of worship, seminars and speakers.  This year was our fourth trip in six years.



So...we arrived at the campground late afternoon last Saturday and set up camp.  We went into the village and had dinner at a little diner there and then went and picked up our supply of groceries and ice from the market in town.  Once we got back to the camp we had a relaxing evening there.  Had a campfire, but no marshmallows to roast - didn't matter, because I'd forgotten to bring our marshmallow forks from home. 

Sunday morning we went to the church in Clarence that we like to attend when we are in that area; got our usual super-warm welcome.  My "imaginary friend" (this is what my DH calls my online friends! LOL) Mary invited us over for lunch so we spent the afternoon at her place catching up on each others' news.  I have another online friend, Lisa, in that area, so I looked up her number, and later in the evening, we met up with Lisa's family at an ice-cream place.  We found out they serve the most monstrous sized ice-cream cones ever!  LOL  Next time we go up to KB, I will know to order a baby-size cone.  LOL  When we got back to our campsite, our friends Tom & Ruth had arrived and were pretty much set up "next door" to us.  Spent the rest of the evening visiting with them. 

Monday we started the themepark/concert routine.  Went over to the park late morning and did a bunch of rides.  Checked out some hip-hop stuff at the midway stage (including Starlit Platoon and Group 1 Crew) - not my usual stuff, but we all enjoyed it.  Lunch at the campsite and then back to the park for the evening's concerts. We saw Leeland (not bad), David Crowder Band (awesome!) and Casting Crowns (also awesome!)  Then as we were leaving, I tripped (yes, I'm a bonehead) on a part of the concrete that was slightly raised (hard to describe - it's not like I walked into a wall, but still... ) and *thought* I stubbed my toe really bad.  Feeling stupid, I put my flip-flop type shoe back on and carry on trying to look normal.  (failing LOL)  Then I realized that my shoe felt slimy, look down, and yep - blood.  I hadn't stubbed my toe, I had sliced a layer off the bottom of my big toe.  Limped back to the van and rinsed it a bit with some water there to see how bad it was, then I doctored it a bit better back at the campsite.  It was pretty gross.  In the morning, Ruth rigged up a "foot spa" with a small crate and a garbage bag so I could clean/soak it properly.  Yuck.

Since Kennady still has a penchant for taking foot pictures, she got one of my bandaged toe.  LOL



Tuesday - after breakfast and dealing with my yucky toe, we headed over to the park again for more rides.  Got caught in some rain which was interesting, but we were pretty lucky and didn't get totally drenched.  Early dinner back at the campground, then back for more rides etc.  We got back a little later than planned, so only caught the last few songs of Aaron Shust's set.  Harrison went over to the park stage for Red and .Disciple  I would have liked to see Disciple, but couldn't be in two places at once, so I gave up the park stage experience this year.  LOL  After Aaron Shust was Denver & the Mile High Orchestra (loved them - very fun).  Headed out to check out the merch tables, and got a good deal on two more DMHO CDs, then got Denver to sign one of them.  Then while checking out the Toby Mac merch (his show was the headliner later on) heard that he too would be signing autographs.  So I bolted back to our seats (well, as fast as I could with the gimpy toe LOL) and asked the kids if they wanted to meet Toby Mac.  Duh.  So we went back out and bought the new Toby Mac CD and a poster, then stood in line FOREVER to meet him and get those things autographed.  Here's Landon getting the CD autographed.

Missed about half the Chris Tomlin set while doing that.  WEll, we could hear everything very clearly, but couldn't see it.  He was really good.  Then Toby Mac to end the evening.  Awesome show, so high-energy!  Probably my favorite show of the week, hard to pick between him and the Newsboys.

Wednesday - few rides in the morning and a quick look in the vendor tents before lunch at the campground.  We had hotdogs and mixed together the leftover sloppy joe and taco meat for chili dogs.  I put mine in a tortilla and added cheese, sour cream and mustard - sounds gross, but it was really good!   Headed back to the park so Harrison could get to the park stage in time for Decyfer Down (he also got them to autograph his teeshirt).  He hung at the fringe stage the rest of the night so he could see Skillet  later.  The rest of us took in some more rides and finished looking through the vendor tents before buying a pizza for dinner and heading to the main stage for the evening.  We saw almost all of  The Afters show (they were pretty good) and heard Bob Lenz speak.  Then DH took Spencer and Landon over to the fringe stage to catch a little bit of Skillet while Kennady and I held onto our seats at the main stage.  (I would have gone over for Skillet if I hadn't been lame - I mean my foot was lame, not me personally.  LOL)  So Kennady and I saw Geoff Moore & the Distance.  They did a really enjoyable show as well - almost all old stuff, since they haven't been playing together for about 10 years.  Then the highlight of the evening - the Newsboys!  As always, they did a super show, but with as much great music as they have, it is never long enough ykwim.  There's always about a dozen songs I wish they would do that they didn't, but I wouldn't have wanted them to skip any of the ones they did, if that makes sense. 



And now... back to school....