One Day in Winfield

7:30AM Sitting here camped out (literally) in the middle of an early morning thunderstorm. We're here at the Walnut Valley Festival (music festival) and it's a little unnerving in our family sized tent. On Thursday the light rain was perfect for the late afternoon group nap we took but this morning all I can think about is all of the lightning rods surrounding us...

Otherwise it's quite lovely.

Yesterday we took the kids to Stage 2 to see The Wilders and it was misting the entire time. We sat through several songs and then made our way to Stage 1 (the grandstands) to see Tommy Emmanuel.

8:30AM Just checked the forecast again and it looks like thunderstorms most of the day. Bummer because today was supposed to be the best day of all (low 80's). Its been cold (50's) and damp since we got here and we were looking forward to some warmer weather so our bodies could stop shivering. Emi runs some key lime yogurt and cereal to our tent for us. Our lifeline...

Another thunderstorm is moving through...this must be what Woodstock was like. ;.)

9:30AM It's been 2.5 hrs since the storms started and it seems that Emi was the smartest of our bunch. She retreated to her grandparents' camper where they have food and coffee! She swung by when there was a lull in the rain and tossed some string cheese into the tent for us.

Scott is sleeping and I am trying to explain to David why we can't get up and go outside right now (who would want to?). I think he thinks that I am being mean forcing him to stay in bed when it's light out! See how they are "entertaining" each other?

10:40AM Still storming but we grabbed our toothbrushes and mad dashed it across the camp to Grandma Babe's camper to brush our teeth. It was hard enough to sleep with the thunderstorm going on but it was compounded by David's grumbling. I grabbed our mugs and creamer on the 2nd trip over.

11:00AM 4 hrs of thunderstorms later and the sun has come out. It's a little windy and our stuff is soaked through but I think we'll make it. We got Ultimate Reubens from the festival offerings and we're drying out now...some of us in more ways than one.

12:30PM David and Aubri got to ride the 'charlie' (trolley aka tractor shuttle). Me and Grandma Babe removed tails from shrimp for gumbo tonight and I cleaned the skillet of the queso/quesadilla residue from last night. We sat under the big top tent marveling at the weather and snacked on peanuts and candy corn.

2:30PM We changed into shorts and t-shirts before heading out to see Byron Berline with Sean and Emily. The weather was perfect to be sitting on the hill listening to an outdoor concert.

4:30PM 2 hours later it's a typical Winfield camp experience with lots of wind and heat (finally). Forced to watch kids wind down for nap and end up taking a nap myself.

6:00PM Wake up from late afternoon nap with the kids and it's chilly again due to the sudden cloud cover. Tornado watch until 11PM. {YIPES!!!}

Spend next hour packing up Disco with various camp items and securing the awnings, etc. It starts raining and thundering and we are all under the Big Top eating naan, hummus, salsa, guac and chips....waiting the storm out. Lots of fantastically scary lightning and then a rainbow.

8:00PM If we hadn't taken precautions we'd probably have been directly hit by a tornado. Dinner of beans and gumbo is served. Kids were acting whiny and stir crazy and are now filling their bellies. It's still raining.

9:00PM kids are both singing 'doe, a deer, a female deer' and winding themselves down. The wind is still crazy whipping the sides of our tent and there are random flashes of lightning.

10:00PM Everything is calm, kids have been asleep and I have decided to stay in for the night and listen to music from around the campsite...too muddy to walk to Pecan Grove...