Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Bluegrass 2009

A few highlights from our 2009 Bluegrass vacation...

Justin usually takes off the WHOLE week of Bluegrass, and then the Monday after. That is our recovery day! We were set to be down there a lot at the beginning of the week, but we hit a few road blocks.

On Tuesday, I had jury duty. Dun, dun, dunnn....You have NO IDEA how nervous I was. I've done jury duty once before, and didn't mind it a bit. I found it very interesting, and enjoyed it. I wasn't nervous to be part of a jury...I was nervous to be part of a jury on a LOOONG trial, with the possibility of missing Bluegrass! That can't be legal, right?!? Of course, out of 35+ people, I was chosen as part of the 12-person jury. What can I say, everybody wants me! My husband ask if I was sitting there with my hand in the air yelling "pick me, pick me." Not exactly, but I my nervousness subsided early in the day when the judge informed us that this would be a very quick trial, lasting no longer than noon the following day. Whew! The jury was picked within an hour and all of the witnesses were called before lunch at noon. We returned to the courtroom at 2pm, surprised to already be hearing closing arguments! Then we deliberated for about 30 minutes and we were outta there! I was proud to have served my civic duty for the year. I feel I helped to make our community a safer place by serving on that jury. God bless the system.

After we got through that little detour, we were ready to get our bluegrass on! Barrett spent Wednesday through Saturday nights with his Grandma and Grandpa, and Gigi and Papa. They loved having him, he loved being with them, and WE loved having a little vacation. We brought him down to hangout at camp during the day, and to listen to some music.

As always, it was good to be reunited with our camp "family" for the week. One of the best things about the Walnut Valley Festival is all of the people you meet. Our camp is made up of couples and families from all over. Some just happened to meet in line at Landrush several years ago, and some just happened to set up camp next to us one year. Some have been friends for many years, and some are related. We set up our campers and tents in a big square, with a community "living room" in the center. It is our gathering place for chatting, jam sessions, meals, and most importantly--shade!

Hanging out on the hill at Stage II...cheering for the Wilders







One of the girls in our "camp family" makes hula hoops! We had some fun with them one evening. Tonya showin' off her hula skills!





It was fun to have little Lincoln camp with us this year. His family is from Hays, KS. He reminded me of Mr. B...so it helped that I could love on him in the evenings when I was missing my boy. Had to get a picture of his onesie! Too funny!





Lincoln turned ONE during Bluegrass. LUCKY boy!
Of course we celebrated in style...Mexican dinner and chocolate cake!







Some of our favorite spots to catch great music...late at night
Stage 5 and the "new" Stage 4.75



My view...strollin' through the Pecan Grove



Barrett and I have taken up the washboard :)



The annual McPherson & Masem picture



This is the view of our walk back to camp from the main stages.
Our camp is down the road a bit further, along the left side of the road.
I couldn't resist the sunset!



Ahhh....WILDERS Friday night show!
We missed you last year! Great to have you back! Ike and Phil had some snazzy, shiny suits.
They played Stage 5 LATER that night. Loved it!!





We ate...Oh, did we eat!

I don't even know what the final count for our camp "compound" was. I think the first night we counted around 23 mouths fed. I am sure it grew each night! This is a view of our food tent. Everyone brought one or two dishes for each dinner, and we formed a buffet line. Tacos, Hamburger, Chili, Soup, Pork Shoulder...



On Saturday night/Sunday morning around 1am, we had POTATO SOUP!
It's an annual camp tradition.
Tonya and I both started BIG crock pots of it that evening. It was the perfect little snack on a chilly night. After the soup was gone, we all headed back out for a walk-about around the Grove. Lots of great music to hear!





We camp with so many {talented} people! I hope one of these years I can contribute.



I woke up bright and early every morning to the sound of this...
A big 'ol tractor driving around the Grove selling coffee and donuts!



Our tent was nestled in between two campers. It was very cozy.
This is the view from behind after we emptied out the tent on Sunday morning...sniffle!




I just {LOVE} hearing this as I walk around the campgrounds..."Happy WINFIELD"
If you're a local, you call it Bluegrass.
If you're not from around here, you call it "Winfield."
See ya next year! Third weekend in September 2010.

6 comments:

  1. great post! It's weird how it's so fun to see all your pictures even though so much I've seen with my own eyes. Sounds like you have a great camp...that's where we're struggling...all the friends we used to camp with don't come anymore, and we can't get any of our friends now to come. Well, we had some come down on Sat. but I don't think she liked it much. So yeah, we feel like big losers who camp by themselves but who REFUSE to camp with my parents. We keep saying one of these years, we'll get someone to come who loves it just as much as we do. We camped with our kids 2 nights..in a tent. They did AWESOME! Then we sent them home. I've gotta sort out all my pics so I can get the rest of them posted.

    We heard about 4.75 but never made it there. We were back at Fine Time Camp a lot and fell in love with Mountain Sprout. We listened to your Free State Revival...they sound fun too!

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  2. Great pictures! Love me some Bluegrass. Sounds like you guys have a great camp.

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  3. quick question...how do you get your pictures in a collage form? Sometimes I have so many pics that doing them one by one make it soo long. I've been using piknic to make a few collages...but I like the way you're doing yours.

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  4. Hey Amanda! I actually make my collages in Illustrator & Photoshop. It's time consuming...but since I consider this our "family scrapbook" and turn my blog into a book at the end of each year, I think it's worth the extra time :) If you don't have those programs, I'm sure you could find something else online to do it in. I've never used Piknic, but I bet that's a great option! Good luck, let me know if you have any other questions I can help with!

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  5. I have photoshop elements but haven't figured it out yet. I've been printing my blog each year too...I LOVED it the first year I did. It gives me such a purpose for blogging. Thanks for the tips, I'll see what I can come up with.

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  6. Thanks for being such an awesome blogger! If I only had an ounce of your talent mine would be sooo much better! I love that you took so many memories! So much of Bluegrass has become "home" to me. That sound silly? Love ya and thanks again for...everything!

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I LOVE reading comments, so thanks for stopping by :)

 
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