camping, music, family, friends, and fun

so this weekend we went camping at the 11th annual "pickers reunion" just outside of mancos, co. this is a wonderful event and folks come from all over to get together and play music.

by the end of the weekend, the girls had became known as "the watermelon girls"

the gathering took place on a lovely lake

everywhere you went, people were playing music

glenn had a great time playing with some other fiddle players and learned some new songs.

there were plenty of guitars, banjos, fiddles, basses, mandolins...

a dobro

and even an accordion (this guy, quinny, was so cool!)

glenn got to hang out with a lot of old friends

i made some great new friends.

so did hazel. (thanks, erik, you're the best!)

we pretty much couldn't keep the girls out of erik's van. (we might be in the market for one...)

there is even a stage where amateur bands sign up to play 30 minute slots.

when glenn's band played, can you guess who the #1 fans were?

they danced in the rain

until they got special backstage passes

smores for breakfast!

simon had a blast!

it was a really awesome weekend! and the truly coolest thing that happened was that i finally, for the first time ever, played music with somebody other than glenn. late last night there was just a small group of people sitting around the fire and i played "her eyes dart round" (that felice brothers song i had a video of a few weeks ago). and all of a sudden i realized that everyone had stopped talking and was listening to me and it was crazy. folks were so receptive and supportive and it felt so good that i played quite a few more. then i got all of this lovely feedback today from people who had been listening from tents and campers and it was just really cool. i've always been super-self-concious about my voice. it was very liberating to open up like that and it was such a sweet group of people to do it with.

charming gardeners. belt buckle

this just might be the coolest thing i have ever made.

i am off for a weekend full of music, family, friends, and camping! hope you have a great one too!

new pieces, new guitar

because glenn is back to work but the girls are not yet going to their respective places, i have had limited opportunities lately to get out to the shop. today i got a few hours out there and i made these two pieces.

the gentle horizon ring

with an incredible prudent man plume agate

and a new "timing of things" necklace

with a beautiful high dome piece of prehnite

and, previously around my house, this was not an uncommon sight in the morning (though usually june has clothes on).

the girls each have ukeleles that they pretend are guitars.

but today, we bought hazel her first REAL guitar.

it is, admittedly, a bit big for her, but it was recommended that we get one that she can grow into. she is so excited! though glenn is an expert and i am a beginner, we went ahead and found someone who can give her lessons. it seems the best way to do it.

what a weekend

this wednesday, august 4th, is our 9th wedding anniversary. it just so happened that the lawn chair kings, the band who played at our wedding, were playing in silverton last night. so, the dear wonderful patty took the girls for their first ever overnight at her house and glenn and i had an evening away together.

when we dropped the girls off, i got to meet zoe, patty's zorse. a zorse is half zebra, half horse. she is strikingly beautiful, and so sweet!

patty's home is in a breath-taking valley.

the lawn chair kings are such a fun band! we had a great time.

we even danced a bit.

all summer, anytime junebug saw a raft on a river she would say "us do that". so today we picked up the girls from patty's (where they had a BLAST, thank you so very much, patty!) and went on a two-hour commercial raft trip on the animas river in durango.

it was a gorgeous day for it and we had a lot of fun.

then we went out to lunch

and there was a great irish band playing. the girls got their chance to dance too.

glenn goes back to work tomorrow, so this was a great way to end the summer.