theQcrew: Casting Crowns Concert Weekend!

One of my favorite bands is Casting Crowns and I have been wanting to see them in concert for a few years now. It seems they aren't going to come to me, so I decided to go to them! I looked on their website and found they were going to be in Southern California on a weekend that my family could schedule in! Yay!

Family Vacation Weekend 2009!

Oh, it was such a perfect weekend! One of those that makes you go, WOW, this is what I always pictured when I was a little girl and wanted a husband and children! Sorry so Polly-Anna, but it was a

much MUCH MUCH MUCH much

needed weekend getaway that only laughing, tickling, music, ocean, movies, junk food and the people you love most that makes the daily grind worth it all!

The kids watched some great movies on the car ride down (whoever invented the built-in DVD player; I love you sooooo much!).
Saturday morning was full of driving around Hollywood trying to get our GPS unit to work with no success, so instead of geo-caching, we played tourists and drove in circles around the Hollywood sign; good times (it is a QCrew tradition to "get lost on purpose" so we see more sights, I truly love this part!)
Saturday afternoon was spent at Zuma Beach in Malibu enjoying the sand between the toes, waves, and playing tag with little Man, I think we ran a 5k on the beach!
Finally, time for the Main Event ~ Casting Crowns ~ BEST CONCERT EVER!!! I would drive to Cali anytime to see them again. My favorite part? That my girls loved it when Mark Hall (lead singer who is also a youth pastor) spoke about his faith and told about their new album coming out November 17th, titled Until the Whole World Hears and how their mission with this new cd is to share the love of Christ Jesus with the whole world through World Vision (seriously??? This was their favorite part of our Hollywood / Malibu / Beach weeked???? ). It was especially touching because we recently started sponsoring a child in Albania through World Vision and just received our first letter from his family! It really hit home that we are trying to share our faith with others as well!
Sunday came way to fast, but we decided to drive to Malibu and up the coast a little then swing over to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. It was so much more than I expected, they had a full size Air Force One there and a piece of the Berlin Wall. We spent all afternoon there because we just couldn't leave without seeing absolutely everything! Of course we got home super late, but it was so worth spending the time doing all we did!
The ride home was the icing on the cake! We had an amazing, open, honest, serious life discussion with our teenager about life, love, friends, marriage, music, God, Jesus, family....... it was amazing and I am so grateful we have the family I always prayed for.