MeadowGrass 2013

What a start to our Summer of Adventure 2013!

MeadowGrass was beautiful, relaxing, family-friendly camping with awesome music, yummy food, and local beer!  We arrived after dinner on Friday night and hurried to set up camp and get down to the music before the headliner.  We made it just in time to see Blitzen Trapper!  The boys were so excited to be there, they had no trouble staying up and dancing in the dark!  

The boys both slept well in their new Marmot sleeping bags (got an incredible deal from Sierra Trading Post!) and I was, again, reminded to bring more warm layers for myself!  (I always forget that when packing on a hot day...)  Saturday morning we woke early and ate oatmeal with home canned Hotchkiss peaches.  Yum!  That warmed us up!

After breakfast, we headed back to the big tent for more music and fun!  We spent the weekend with cousin Scott and a couple of his friends.  There was even a (rare) appearance by cousin John!  ;) 

Scott, Dan, John

We saw some talented musical acts - some familiar, like Hot Club of Cowtown and Dawes, and some new, like Kirstin Hersh and Joe Pug.

Hot Club of Cowtown

Aidan got really into it all and saved us a front row spot for Dawes!

Aidan tried out a little independence by checking out the vendors solo, getting sample cups of lemonade, hanging out in the bubble area, watching people get their faces painted, and finding kids his own age to play with.  (I don't think he knew we could see him in his bright tie-dyed shirt almost anywhere he went.)  It was a good experience for him - and he got to be a pretty good hula-hooper in the meantime!

Aidan's also THRILLED about his new flat-billed Broncos hat.  Dad?  Not so much.

Ryder took a much-needed nap Saturday afternoon - through an entire set of music!  Then, Sunday, fell asleep around 7 or 8 p.m. and slept a full 12 hours; sleeping through most of the headlining act, adding warm clothes as it got colder, and a bumpy stroller ride back to the tent!  He danced and played 'til he was exhausted!  One of his favorite moments was playing frisbee with Scott in the forest - the other was, probably, eating a GIGANTIC bullet pop!

So tired he would sleep anywhere!

That thing's half as big as him!

Sunday morning brought blueberry pancakes and sausage and much appreciated showers!  We also made several trips to and from our campsite - most to let the boys "try" to go to the flush potty, only to find they "couldn't go" once we got there.  They were troopers, though, and played and walked a TON throughout the weekend!  Just another beautiful sunny day in the mountains!

I was thrilled to finally be doing something as a family that I have been dreaming about since BlissFest - camping, dancing, listening to live music with two big boys who are old enough to feed themselves, go to the bathroom in a port-a-potty (or on a tree, if necessary!), and walk (mostly) unassisted!  I like being the mother of "big kids!" What an awesome weekend!  Already looking forward to MeadowGrass 2014!

How we've come to love music festival-camping weekends...

On Memorial Day weekend, the Scully fam headed south to Black Forest, Colorado (near Colorado Springs) to check out the MeadowGrass Music Festival (www.meadowgrassmusicfestival.org).  Dan's cousin Scott had been there before and told us what a great, family-friendly festival it was.  We HAD to check it out!

Our first, small camp-out music festival was BlissFest (www.blissfest.org) in Northern Michigan in the late '90s.  I'm sure it's grown since we were there last, but BlissFest set the bar high for music festivals, in my mind.  It was small enough to enjoy comfortably, yet big enough to draw great musical acts and interesting vendors.  It had a nice set-up for camping and lots of families participated.  Although Dan and I were not yet married, I secretly dreamed of the day we would camp for the weekend with our family at a small music festival.

Fast-forward several years: Dan and I are married and have moved to Colorado's western slope.  Somehow we discovered the North Fork Bluegrass Festival in Hotchkiss, Colorado.  It was PERFECT!  It definitely lived up to, and even surpassed, the beauty of Bliss!  We'd had Aidan by then, so "family-friendly" was high on our list of priorities.  This festival had an awesome, old school playground covered in shade on the same patch of Earth as the music stage AND the food/beer garden!  How awesome is THAT?!

Dan, Aidan, Liz, Sam, Vinnie, and Laura at the North Fork Bluegrass Festival 2007.

We went to North Fork for two years and even managed to get several friends to join us.  In 2008, we moved to Fort Collins and the festival moved further west, to Palisade.  I'm sure it is a great festival, but between us moving and the change in venue, we decided not to go again.  Maybe someday we'll head that way...

We have checked out a few of the other Colorado music festivals.  We love the venue in Lyons; it is nice and small, but very popular and sells out fast. Telluride has incredible acts, but is getting much too big.

Now... We've found MeadowGrass!  We'll be back!

MeadowGrass Music Festival 2013

What is this all about?

For the first time since the summer of 2004, the Scully family - Dan, Liz, Aidan, and Ryder - will have the summer off TOGETHER to spend time as a family!  This seems like a really long time, especially given that, since 2003, Dan and Liz have both been teachers.

Well, for three of those eight summers, Liz worked full-time (50+ hours/week) in her home child care.  For two of the summers, we were on maternity leave for our two boys.  Two partial summers, Liz put in many hours serving as the director of the school where she taught prior to that time - and during that second summer, we also moved our (then) family of three 8 hours across Colorado.  During two summers, we had to say our final goodbyes to our mothers, who passed away in 2005 and 2011.

Needless to say, we are quite excited about having two months off together as a family!  We will be blogging about our adventures here - mostly as a record for ourselves, but also to share with friends and family near and far!