Winfield!

The third weekend of every September is the Wanut Valley Bluegrass Festival at Winfield, KS. And my family almost never misses. I personally have had to miss a few, living in Indiana for five years I think I only made it once or twice during that time, but since we moved back we have made every one. I wasn't sure how much we would feel up to with a small baby so I didn't buy tickets ahead of time like we normally do. We ended up deciding to go for Friday and Saturday. That way if Luke didn't do well the first night we could go home the second night with out feeling like we were missing too much, and if he did good we could stay the second night and enjoy the music a bit longer.

For anyone who has never gone to Winfield this festival is like a big family. We have four stages on the fair grounds with professional musicians playing several sets on different stages over the four days the festival runs. There are also some workshops here and there mixed in and several competitions, flat picking, finger picking, hammer dulcimer, etc. that you can watch. Many of the performers come back over and over again and we feel like we know them. There are also now five stages in the camp grounds and often you will see the professional musicians wandering around the campground or making an appearance on one of the campground stages. Nickle Creek and Dixie Chicks were both regulars here until they made it big in country music. There are jam sessions constantly all over the place. This festival grows it's own stars and we love them. Also even though the people attending are fairly diverse in terms of other interests, income levels, religion, etc. we are close during the festival and take care of each other. Lots of extended families come together and in general it feels like one big extended family get together.

This year Winfield flooded and instead of everyone camping on the fair ground like usual everyone was split up to a couple of different places. My parents and the rest of my family as well as several of my cousins camped out at the lake while my aunts and uncles and younger cousins stayed a little closer to town at some kind of animal auction place and for the first time I can ever remember the Regiers were not all together and my grandparents didn't come at all, even for one day. I think in general it was a lot smaller this year, but I actually like that because it's not so difficult to get around or find a seat, but since the lake is thirteen miles away from the fair grounds we had to bring everything we needed with us for the whole day and that was a bit of a hassle. We definitely weren't as mobile as we have been some years because we had to bring so much stuff for Luke and didn't want to move it constantly.

This was not only Luke's first Winfield but his first Camping trip! Greg was excited to see what he would do as the air mattress blew up, so he sat him down and started recording. It didn't go as well as he had hoped, I think Luke was a little tired from the long drive.

Here is the campground looking across the lake. There were campground stages on all sides of us it seemed like so it was pretty noisy and several times people set off really big fireworks and Luke didn't even wake up!

Luke did really great both with the festival and the camping! I was really impressed with him. It was great to have my parents and other family there to help out with him occasionally too. Everyone there talked to him and told me how cute/beautiful he/his curls were. I got offered beads and Stromboli to trade for him but I turned them both down. (-:

Here Luke is on our sleeping bag in the stands. I remember My mom doing the same thing for us when we were little, putting a sleeping bag on the floor between the benches in the grandstand so that we could play and nap more easily. It's great because it's shady during the day and you still get to hear most of the sets you would want to hear.

Luke loves apple sauce...

so I guess it's no stretch that he also likes gnawing on apples!

Once when he was a little fussy and we didn't have anything else to give him we let him taste our limeade and he loved it!!! He got seriously pissed off when Greg took it away for a second (he was pretty tired at the time I think) and then he spent a long time gnawing on the half a lime. (-: Everyone around us was watching him and laughing!


Here are a few of our favorite performers...Beppe Gambetta

John McCutcheon

At one of John's later sets he did a poem he had written for his oldest son about playing catch and how as he threw the ball to his son he was throwing him his heart, very sweet, and at the end of it he looked down at us and threw the baseball he had been tossing as he recited the poem to Greg! We had him sign it for us. We also got two kids CD's that I grew up listening to on tape and vinyl from him and Tom Chapin.

Luke really was fascinated by all the hats!

The Mei Tai worked out really great! Both my mom and I used it, mostly in the front position because it made it really easy for him to fall asleep when he was tired. I have absolutely no complaints. It was so comfortable and easy to use, and I tried the back position at home while getting ready and it made everything so much easier. For those of you without kids do you have any idea how long it can take to get a load of laundry into the washer when you have a fussy baby in one arm and can't set him down? I love Mei Tai Baby, and special thanks to Elisabeth who got it to me just in time!

Luke also enjoyed playing in the dirt, another Winfield tradition!

and sitting with Grandpa...

Here Luke is moving his legs to walk. He did that right when he was born, not so deliberately, more reflex, but then he stopped moving them at all when you stood him up and just recently started trying to get somewhere with them. I saw him watching other little kids walking pretty intently at Winfield!

The last night we walked around the lake campground to see our Bethel friends. I didn't get any pictures because it was almost completely dark, but we had a good time hanging out with a few people we rarely get to see. In particular Luke really seemed to love C.J. and spent a good five minutes just smiling at him and patting his face. It was also good to see Matt and Heidi, Matt and Joanna, cousin Nathan, and several others. There were definitely more than a few faces missing but maybe they will make it out next year. See you then Winfield!