Weeks 8 & 9

Two weeks ago RH had their first house concert! House concerts are this great new phenomenon where musicians come and play an intimate acoustic show in your living room, kitchen, backyard, or wherever. The audience can be comprised of people you know, or it can be opened up to the musician's fan base. To read more about how to put on a great house concert, read here: www.danielboling.com/id29.htm
If you or anyone you know would be interested in hosting a RH house concert, just let me know (abby@ryanhoodmusic.com) and I can give you more details.

Here's a group photo of some of the people who were at the first house concert...


The following day we hung out in NYC (complements of our friend Paul Ma who let us use his condo while he was gone for the weekend)! Before and after the show in Greenwich Village, we hung out at Katie Reese's apartment (Ryan's friend from high school). Katie, her boyfriend, and her roommate all came to the VT show a few weeks back. So when we got to her apartment, she nonchalantly said that something that happened since we last saw them was that she and Steve got engaged!! So, I decided to change the "pre-party" into an engagement party! :)
Katie and Steve:


Engagement Party food and flowers:


Jackie (Katie's roommate) and Chris (Katie's building-mate)


The show at Rockwood Music Hall in NYC


That night Cameron flew to visit his girlfriend in Chicago while Ryan and I drove to Boston so that we could see friends and go to church at the Vineyard (where we used to go and got married). It was sooo great to be able to go to a church service there! Afterwards we went out to lunch with a couple (Crystal and Tim) who used to be in our Marrieds Small Group. Then that evening we went to Lisa and Stace's for dinner. Lisa and Stace were in our marriage class that we took at the Vineyard just after getting married. They are the neatest couple with some of the coolest middle school kids I've ever met (and who's names happen to be Abby and Cameron).


Monday night we hung out in Brighton Center with Jess and Tim. Tim is doing great, after having been diagnosed with cancer in October...he's already undergone surgery and chemo...and is on the upswing!

Tuesday night Ryan and I cooked dinner at Will and Orla's and also had Jill and Jana over for dinner...
Here's our family photo:


While driving through Bethel, Maine, we saw the "World's Largest Snow Woman"...note that the arms are christmas trees, the eye lashes are skis, and the buttons are tires...!!


Everyone always wants to know what our weirdest road life experiences are...and last week we got to add to our collection of stories...

We got to our hotel, and Cameron took his stuff into his room while Ryan and I went to our room. A couple of seconds later Cameron came back to announce he had totally scored with his room. Usually this means that he's gotten a king size bed, honeymoon suite with a jaccuzi, or something along those lines. This time however, this is what he found in his room:

The toilet tank in the entry way...


The bathroom sans toilet tank...


A stash of cereal, bread, and an empty beer bottle on the dresser...


A pair of trousers on the bed...


And unfortunately I didn't take a photo of the other bed b/c at the time I didn't understand that it was just as odd and random...but it was covered in hotel room towels, half folded and half unfolded...as if housekeeping had been working in there and then just stopped...It was truly the weirdest hotel experience we've had...needless to say Cameron got a different room for the night. :)

We made a trip back to Boston the following Sunday so we could go to church at the Vineyard again...it's starting to become a nice habit. :) Afterwards we went to lunch with David, Yaminette, and their new baby, Naam. (to fast forward, this is the same David that opened the show at Club Passim on 3/7/08).


We got to spend a night in Springfield with Jen and Nathan (another couple from our marriage class). Jen made us a delicious home-cooked dinner of veggie lasagne! Cameron and Nathan got to share their visual art...they are both super talented! Here we are in their cute eating nook...the table is a sweet artistic creation of Nathan's...


Finally got to drive through Belchertown (we pass signs for it on the highway all the time) and of course always have a good laugh at the name...


And the creative advertising award for this blog goes to Greenfield Community College...


For anyone who lives in or around the Grand Rapids, MI area, RH is going to be playing in the auditorium of Greenville High School on Tuesday, March 11 as a fundraiser for their student council. The show starts at 7pm and tickets at the door are $5. Please come...it'd be fun to see you!! :)

Weeks 5, 6, 7

Hello hello!

I've been slacking a little with my blogging...so here are three weeks all wrapped up into one blog post for you! :)

After we left Michigan we drove to New England for a week of shows. The first 3 shows were in Massachusetts. Some creative advertising by students at Assumption College included a "hoodie" and "hoods" ice cream cups that they passed out to students throughout the day...



Nichols College in Dudley, MA had a mannequin that Ryan used as a practical joke to scare both Cameron and I (on two separate occasions)...it seriously freaked me out for a solid 10 seconds before Ryan revealed himself behind the mannequin...and of course at that point, Ryan felt soo bad for scaring the bejeezers out of me...but still thought it would be funny to scare Cameron. :) Later on they brought it out for part of the show to ask the students why there was a mannequin hanging out in the wings of their school's stage...quite odd.


A recent highlight show for me was at The University of Vermont in Burlington. First of all, I LOVE VERMONT!! Even the gas station has a section of all local products (syrup, jam, cocoa, etc). And every small town has more thriving locally owned businesses than they do chains..it's wonderful! The student center at UVM is all "green". The elevators run on the oil from the restaurant in the student center. The plants are watered using rain water. All of the bathrooms have showers to encourage students to run, walk or bike to school.

A couple of Ryan's friends from high school came to the show...and a lot of UVM students came...it was a great night!

The next morning we drove to Killington, VT to meet up with some friends from Boston who were going on a ski weekend! Cameron went snow boarding while Ryan and I decided to cross country ski. The snow was perfect and the trails were gorgeous...



Later that night we had fun hanging out and playing games...



We played a show at Colby-Sawyer College that was quite unique in that it had indoor ice skating going on simultaneous to the show! If you look close you can see a "couples skate" happening down at the end of the 'rink'.


We had a long drive from CT to IL that was only supposed to take 17 hours, but we got hit by a lot of snow (and traffic) and ended up having to cancel a show because we just couldn't make it safely and in time.


I decided to make a snowman while we waited in traffic...


Fortunately we were able to make it to IL in time for a show at Donny and Megan's church for their Youth Groups + families. It was an incredible show with great lights, sound, stage, and yummy treats!
Here's Donny introducing Ryan and Cameron...



Megan, baby Callum, and Kerry...


Aubin and Ellen...


I stayed in Chicago with friends for a couple of days while Ryan and Cameron went to LA to listen to the new record!!

Valentine's day was celebrated with some friends from college.
I met Mira for lunch and had a great time of chatting...


And then I spent the evening with Jessie and her roommates...
(I forgot to take a photo, so here is my favorite photo of Jessie at my parent's house a couple years ago making a gingerbread house)


Our next stop was in St. Louis for a NACA (National Association of Campus Activities) conference. It's a conference for booking college shows...and dear ol' Albion came through with booking us again for September 12!
Here's a look at our booth...along the rope lights you can see neckties hanging. Everyone hands out give aways to the students...so we thought we'd hand out neckties (since Ryan and Cameron always wear ties) along with cds! People were way more excited about the ties than we could've ever guessed...it was great! Some people came back each day to trade their tie in for a new one that matched their outfit. :)


NACA is filled with all sorts of entertainment to bring to campus...including making your own music videos like this...


It was my first time in St. Louis. Our hotel was in a great location along the river near the arch...so that's where I went running in the morning...it was so refreshing to get to run on a path along the water...reminded me of life in Boston.

From St. Louis Ryan and Cameron flew to Boston for two shows, while I roadtripped to Boston with Kerry. It was a nice trip with lots of conversation...and random roadtrip experiences. One of those random experiences... The first day we planned to drive as far as Cleveland and spend the night there. We had just passed through Toledo and realized we missed all of the food exits for dinner, so we decided to look on the GPS and see where else we could stop nearby without having to turn around. There was a town called Genoa and the GPS claimed it had 5 restaurants, so we thought it would be a good stop. We got to Genoa and it was one of the smallest towns I have ever been in...and it didn't seem to have ANY restaurants! We saw a handful of cars and tried to figure out where all of the people were that drove in those cars...and we realized they were picking their kids up from karate which was going on in one of the buildings. Then, we noticed a Pharmacy that had a flashing "pizza" sign in the window...so we decided to go investigate. We entered the "Pharmacy" to find out that it was really a bar called the "Bharmacy" (later we learned it had once been a Pharmacy and it was cheaper to just name their bar "Bharmacy" so that they wouldn't have to get a whole new sign and canopy, but just change one letter). There were literally only 8 people in there, and they knew right away that we were not from Genoa... So, they asked us where we from and what in the world brought us to Genoa...it was quite clear that everyone who goes to anything in Genoa is from Genoa. They were super friendly folks. The phone rang at one point, and we heard the bar tender telling the person on the phone that there were some people visiting from out of town on their way to Boston...it was seriously straight from a movie! They asked us if we wanted to play darts while we waited for our pizza to bake, and at this point we thought "why not?"...so we played darts...I thought it would be a 5 minute game, but it was more like 20 minutes...but a lot of fun. For not being dart players, Kerry and I definitely held our ground. We got our pizza and were then on our way...here's a photo of the owner and our dart playing friends...


The next night we stayed in a motel in upstate New York. We couldn't get the deadbolt of the door to lock, so we called the front desk and they sent some one to help us. He was able to lock it so we knew it worked, but we then had to do it while he was on the outside of the door...he pulled the door really tight in order for me to be able to turn the lock...but unfortunately he was stronger than he thought b/c he pulled the entire door handle off! Needless to say we had to change rooms..


Here's Kerry and I at a reststop somewhere in PA...


Well, that is it for today...I'll update you on all of our New England fun in a few days...have a great week!

Week 4

Hellooo!

It's been a great week of visiting with family, seeing a lot of snow, and getting anxious about finding out who's going to win the primaries (we're watching the results of Super Tuesday as I write)!

Last Sunday we drove to Michigan in time to catch an evening church service at Mars Hill. Rob Bell spoke for a short period of time, and then they had communion and an extended time for prayer which was really nice.


The first show in Michigan was on Monday at Grand Valley State University. My whole family came, despite it being a 9pm show on a school night. It was fun having all of the kids there to see what it is we do when we're on "tour". The GVSU students who put on the show wore neckties to advertise the show (I think they saw Ryan's blog and stole the idea from Cameron University, but that's okay...whatever works! :), they had some extra ties, so they offered them to my nieces and me to wear. Emma asked if they had a tie that said "Abby" on it instead of Ryanhood, but since they didn't she decided she wasn't into the idea of wearing one. :)


Tuesday we had a nice short 2.5 hour drive to Adrian, MI to play at Siena Heights. My aunt and uncle who live nearby showed us the area and introduced us to a great Mexican restaurant (we've been craving GOOD Mexican food ever since we left Tucson!) and then they came to the show. My mom's friend Mickey from Ohio that we've stayed with on past tours also drove up for the show which was a fun surprise!


Wednesday we had an even shorter drive (10 minutes) to Adrian College which is where I last blogged from. Here are photos from the cute cottage we stayed in at Adrian College...






The cottage didn't have a kitchen, but I cooked dinner anyway using our hotplate and foreman grill in the living room. Foolishly, I set the foreman up right under the smoke detector and set it off at least twice before I mustered up the motivation to move my established "kitchen" from the living room into the bedroom...there we were smoke detector free! Of course each time the smoke detector went off I freaked out...opened the front door to -5 degree weather to fan it out and batted at the smoke detector to get it to turn off (this all taking place while the guys were at the venue sound checking). Luckily by the time they returned all was under control and we were able to eat our chicken, couscous and green beans. The show had a fun element, in that their student activities advisor and her husband (Katie and Pat) opened the show playing their own original acoustic music...they were fantastic!

We decided to have a bit of "normalcy" in our life and go see a movie. Juno was our film of choice...I highly recommend it...heart-warming tear-jerker.


Thursday we drove to Aquinas College in Grand Rapids and were greeted with lots of fresh snow falling rapidly to the ground. The students took us out to eat at Yesterdog, a classic hot dog joint in East Town. The show that night was in a cozy campus coffee show that was packed with students...probably my favorite show of the tour so far!


Their creative advertising...


Friday we had the day off. Cameron went to Chicago to visit a friend, while Ryan and I stayed in Grand Rapids to spend time with my family. The kids all had a snow day so we went sledding at Maranatha...the hill I always went sledding on while growing up. I have to say, it's a scary hill...my stomach jumped as we went down it...I much preferred going down with one of the kids so I could squeeze onto them and scream. :)


Nichole is about 6 months along...can't wait to meet the baby in May!


Saturday we drove to Sault Sainte Marie in the Upper Peninsula for our last Michigan show of the week. We found a great local restaurant called Abners that had live music playing as you walk in the door. Outside there were snowmobiles parked throughout the parking lot (the primary mode of transportation in the winter for some in the UP).


The room they played in at Lake Superior State University had windows facing the Canadian Border with the lit National Bridge...it was gorgeous.


The Mackinac Bridge




Sunday we drove down to Port Huron and stayed with our friend Melissa's Aunt Vickie and Uncle John...and their grandson Bryce who was over for part of the time. We had a great evening with them watching the Super Bowl and relaxing in their home that sits right on the St. Claire River.


Ryan and Bryce playing the mandolin..


Monday we drove through Canada to Albany, NY where we stayed with Chris' parents...it's been so great getting to stay with so much family and "family" on this tour!

Now, we are in Gardner, MA getting ready to embark on another week of shows and adventures.