Class of 1997 RETURNS!!

10 years later, Newton Class of 1997 returns for their first class reunion! We had a great weekend! Friday was a tailgate before the high school football game and Saturday was a dinner and party/dance. Dave had a blast seeing all his old friends, most of his entire group of friends made it back! Out of about 350 in the class, you can see in the picture below how many returned.















Dave with 3 of his best guy friends. Chris Tate, the one in the plaid shirt has such a fun job traveling with Blake Shelton (huge country singer) and other country music stars. For several years, he worked for CMT, and since then works individually for entertainers...he has VERY fun stories and we think he has one of the coolest jobs of anyone from the class!!! Here are sevearl of his other friends also!

But of course, I was his favorite person of the night!! heehee

So the night that we thought was ending around midnight somehow continued at our house. Everyone was looking for a place to hang out after the DJ ended at the party, and our house became the place. So we had about 40-50 people out back on our deck and went to bed at 4am!! I'm thinking it is going to be a LONG weekend recovering! Dave said it was one of the best weekends he's had in a LONG time (other than bluegrass, of course!)

Our Annual Weekend in Winfeld!-- WARNING--- THIS IS LONG!

This past weekend was the Walnut Valley Bluegrass Festival in Winfield (where I grew up), ALWAYS our favorite weekend of the year! We'll now start the countdown for next year! We had a great time and have spent most of the day today recovering! Here are some pics and some stories to help tell you about our weekend!

Some of our highlights of the festival: One of the biggest ones is the FOOD!! Big ears of corn dipped in butter, indians tacos, funnel cakes, corn dogs, cherry limeades, campground chili, ribs and much more.....we definitely came home well fed and probably a couple pounds heavier (luckily no one will be able to tell much on me!)

Here we are at Stage 1 (the big grandstands). This was a tough stage to have Taylor at because we had to stay on ground level with the stroller. This is the stage that has some of the TOP night performances. We arrived in Winfield on Thursday and it was quite warm. Friday got chilly and Saturday even cooler, but all in all, the weather was PERFECT!! The feeling of fall weather at bluegrass just makes the weekend even better! Taylor stayed nice, warm and cozy in her stroller!

This picture is from the camp my parents usually camp at, with friends from Arkansas and Minnesota that we get to see every year! They always do a birthday celebration for me, complete with my favorite zucchini cake!

One afternoon we hung out on the hill at Stage 2 listening to some great performers. Taylor got to crawl around and mess with daddy while he was snoozing away! Later that day, Taylor took a nap in Gma and Gpa's camper and Dave and I went back to this hill and both ended up taking a nap in the grass while enjoying the music! It was nice and relaxing!Stage 2 got PACKED for some of the performers!Taylor in her tie-dyed dress!Family picture in our tent!! We're thinking by next year we'd like to have a camper! We'll see if it actually happens!! Taylor didn't like the tent very much the first night. Maybe that's because it doesn't really get quiet there until about 3 or 4 in the morning, so we were expecting her to sleep with the noises or people and music all around her. But hey, there were babies EVERYWHERE so we knew it could be done. I'm sure it was just b/c it was the first night. Others told us their kids had rough first nights but were okay for the rest. Well, luckily, Gma and Gpa Dippel had a camper so we put the pack and play in there and that's where she slept the other nights....this helped us all stay "happy campers"!!! The next pics are some of the interesting things you may see at Bluegrass:

Yes, there is a joke camp....if you walk through it you can't get out till you tell a joke. It's quite fun. We luckily have avoided it the past few years.

There are hundreds of camps you can walk by and hear people jamming away at any time of the day or night!

Talk about some interesting ways to camp....you will see it ALL in Winfield! Sorry this pic is blurry, I was kind of far away. We're thinking we may do something similar with Dave's truck next year!!!

Not only do people jam in their camps, but just walking along the road you can find a crowd gathered listening to people jamming in the streets!! This group was very fun to listen to!

WHOAH, I didn't even know these existed anymore!

My favorite performer at Stage 1, John McCutcheon. He is more of a folk artist than bluegrass. I grew up with lots of his kids songs! He draws one of the biggest crowds at the festival!

And yes, these die hard fans had to bring the Nebraska/USC game to bluegrass! I was quite impressed with their setup!

So goodbye to Winfield, yet another year! Next year, Sept. 17-21 we will be at it again! Our goal is to get some friends to join us...it's hard to explain, even in pictures, exactly what it is like...but so far, anyone we've known that has gone, is hooked! Even if you're not that big of fan of the music, the atmosphere is such an experience! See you next year Winfield!!!

She can wave!!!

We just got back from a super weekend in Winfield for the Walnut Valley Bluegrass Festival. It was definitely different having someone besides ourselves this year, but Taylor was SO fun!! Okay, well, the first night she was NOT so fun, we barely slept. That was the only night we tried to have her in the tent with us. Thank goodness for grandparents with a camper, the other nights she slept in there and slept good!! She loved the people and danced to the music all weekend! She also learned to wave!!! There were times when she'd start waving to anyone who walked by! Here's a video! More bluegrass blog to come!!!

FOOTBALL IS HERE!!!

This past weekend Dave and I went to KState's opening game of the season in Manhattan! Taylor stayed at home with Grandma and Grandpa just because it was going to be such a long day. We met up with our friends from Winfield and enjoyed some yummy tailgating food! It was an evening game and although the afternoon had gotten quite hot, the weather was great once we were in the shade! KState won 34-10 (I think) but didn't look the greatest! This was the first time for both of us to see Coach Prince in action!! Definitely much more emotions than Coach Snyder! We had lots of fun!To give you an update on Taylor we'll just tell you about some of her favorite things right now:
#1. A blanket, not just this yellow blanket, any blanket will do. She sleeps with it, plays with it and won't lay down without one usually!

#2. Crawling around and getting stuck in random places. Here she is stuck in the magazine basket. I did not see her do it, I just looked up and saw her INSIDE it!! It is lots of fun watching her problem solve to get herself out of situations.

#3. Playing with her friend Ollie. Ollie (Oliver) belongs to our friends Joel and Kendall (Kendall is who I job share with). We watch each other's kids on Mondays. They don't really get to play much together in the afternoons because when Taylor is up, Ollie is napping, and when Ollie wakes up, Taylor is napping. I did catch a few pictures the last couple of weeks during the short time they do play!

Taylor loves books and is trying to show Ollie her favorite one!
#4. She loves the word "dog". In fact, that's the only word she has distinctively said so far. I would bet she says this word 30 times a day!

#5. Taylor also loves to dance, maybe we can get this on video soon. The second she hears any kind of music she starts to bounce up and down and back and forth!

#6. People food....this is all she will eat anymore. No more baby food! It's interesting trying to come up with things she can eat now, but it's much easier putting food on her tray and letting her feed herself. Strawberries, mandarin oranges, carrots and American cheese are among her favorites!

Well, that's all for now! We are headed to Winfield for the Walnut Vally Bluegrass Festival this weekend...our fav. weekend of the year! Taylor is joining us for her first camping adventure! We'll be there enjoying the awesome weather, food, people and music from Thursday till Sunday!