Reggae Rise Up ~ Utah

Dude. I'm delayed in writing this but only because we are still flyin' high from all the vibes last weekend! This weekend was more than Epic, it was priceless. You can't even know how thankful we are to have these amazing experiences. It's all we could talk about our whole way home.

Gotta give the epic photo cred to Pollieography!

Saturday:

This was our first official 2 day festival and even though my back is still out a week and a half later and my voice is finally starting to come back, I would do it all over again in a heartbeat!

We arrived early Saturday morning and went to check in at our hotel but they wouldn't let us check in yet so straight to the venue we went. We crashed Pat & Hollie's cabin, changed, did my hair & make up and headed out to check out the digs. The cabins were super adorable and would totally stay in one next time we go.

We went to find the merch tent and grab our free tees with our VIP tix. And, wouldn't you know it, right next door was the Stick Figure merch tent. Heaven. Of course they have an adorable new Cocoa tank I just have to have. Got our foil poster which completes our set of 1 foil poster for every Stick show we went to this year. 4. Whoo Hoo! This last one was specifically RRU since Stick didn't do a special design for this show but we are stoked and totally love it! Can't wait to get them all framed! Probably going to have to put them into the hallway as we have pretty much no more room in the music room. lol.

The first show of the day we had to of course see was The Movement. This is only our second show for this band and they are most def. my 2nd fav band ever so we were stoked! Caught them doing sound check so I went and grabbed spots on the rail. Everyone in our group made it up there before the show so that was sweet! They were of course amazing and we got Siren. Scott wasn't in town yet so they cut his part out of the song but it was super awesome and it gives us something to look forward to the next time they play together. :D

After The Movement, we went to grab some grub at the Jamaican place. Greg had Ox Tail for the first time. So tender and delicious. Who knew there would be so much meat on an ox tail. I had Jerk Chicken which was equally as delicious.

We then ran into Gary Jackson, the drummer from The Movement. Coolest dude ever. Short and sweet but what an awesome opportunity! We then made our way back to home base at the cabin and Hollie says "You have a bunch of black stuff in your teeth." Sigh. That delicious Jerk Chicken. Then I realized I had all that stuff in my teeth when I met Gary Jackson. Big sigh. This is my life. You really have to just learn how to say "eff it" sometimes. haha Once again, gotta give big props to poliography for this epic shot!

Later that night after the Slightly Stoopid show, we ran into Scott, Cocoa, Tommy, & TJ. Oh yeah, I fan-girl'd out a bit. Got our first pic with TJ. Of course I forget to ask Tommy & Scott but I just get so excited and I loose all my words & turn into a complete moron. In my defense, I have greatly improved since I met Dave Matthews & Kendra Wilkinson. Both times all I could get out was "Oh my God, I love you. You're so awesome." No, literally, those are the only words I could figure out how to formulate. lol. At least no I can carry on 1/2 a convo. haha

BTW, this is what happens at the merch tent when Scott shows up. lol.

Sunday:

I spent most of the morning hanging in the hotel lobby and meeting new friends and eating breakfast. One dude called MOJO, I saw throughout the day and ended up front and center in one of the Stick photos. He is a dope soul for sure. I started off the day with two plates of deliciousness. There was a pancake machine that made the best pancakes ever. You just push the "Go" button and it pours out two little pancakes pour out onto this conveyor belt and they pop out the other end when they are done. Like an easy bake oven but for pancakes. NEED! & YUM!! Oh, and they had tons of bacon! noms

Then I ran into Tommy & TJ and went over to say hi. TJ said "Here, lets go over here." and I followed them along like a little puppy just not even thinking. oops. I just get too excited and then words and logic fall out of my brain. If you're reading this, sorry guys! I really didn't mean to intrude. My brain just stops working sometimes when I get too happy. lol.

Scott came out & joined us as Tommy gave me a mini guitar lesson on power chords. Turns out I'm still too new for power chords but I will get there! He even let me play his 3/4 size Martin. It was beautiful. Of course I bumped it on the table handing it back to him. You can't take me anywhere, I swear. I rambled some nonsense I'm sure. I was just lucky I could form complete sentences at that point.

We ended up heading to the venue and meeting up at Pat & Hollie's cabin. Basically, Home Base for the weekend. We didn't care much for the opening shows so it was fun to just be able to wander around and look at the sale tents and hit the food trucks. Funnel Cake Time! Whoop! Whoop! We ate at the Jamaican truck the both days. I had Jerk Chicken (totes legit) and Sunday I had the Red Snapper. I ate my first fish with a head and tail. It was delicious. Yum! Boney but worth it!

So we all met up for the family photo by the big RRU sign. Hung up the Stick Flag so fam could find us easier and even talked Brandon to be in it which Rocks! So fun! We all headed off to watch Collie Budz or do our own thing. Right after Collie Budz finished, we bum-rushed our way through to the rail for Stick. (C'mon, this is pretty much the entire reason we came.) Right in the middle of the show Brandon throws Back Stage Bracelets to Greg and we both look at each other stunned. But run back to watch the rest of the show from the side stage with all the important people. lol. OMG! What an experience!

After Stick was both Iya Terra & Scott. Huge treat! This was our first Iya Terra show and it did not disappoint! John Gray walked up to us to hang and got to hear him sing harmony standing right next to me. If that wasn't cool enough, after they were done playing, I wanted to try to stay and talk to them but they were pretty much mobbed after the show. lol. We got booted out of the side stage area we were in and Johnny followed us out and just hung out with us. Like, he could have bailed out but he hung. They played Bob Marley over the speakers and we all 3 just stood there singing Bob Marley songs with John. Dude. Priceless memories right there. That was probably the highlight of the evening! P.S., he even let me take a 2nd selfie because I had major crazy eyes in the first one. lol.

And then, we move on to Citizen Cope. Dude. Side Stage for Citizen Cope. Priceless. We really only got a couple of songs back there since they were busy tearing the stage down but...AMAZING!! Got a great view of the drummer during Let the Drummer Kick. Stoked. Plus, he played all the songs I wanted to hear! Yay! After we moved out to the front audience with the rest of the riff raff , (i'm totally kidding) we finally met up with Steve and got a quick pic. We totally lost the rest of the crew though and it turns out I was standing right next to one of them at the Stick Show. lol. Next time. :D

We pretty much booked out as Citizen Cope was closing and drove to Salt Lake to be closer to the airport since our flight was super early the next morning. Got up, flew home, drove to work and worked late. My back went out two days later and my voice was gone for almost a week but it was so worth it! I would do it all over again in a hear beat!

The cherry on top: Scott posted our Family Photo from RRU on his Instagram! Holy Balls, that's awesome! :D

Shenanigans with this motley crew made this weekend absolutely epic!