Shakin it at Shakori Grassroots Festival

So I'm a week behind on blogs. Two weekends ago we all went to the Shakori Grassroots Festival for Arden's second music festival, but her first camping experience. It's a small bluegrass festival that's outside of Pittsboro so we figured worse case scenario, we were only 45 minutes from home if she ended up not being a good camper. I'm always asked to teach yoga at this festival, in exchange for tickets. This year I had scheduled to teach two adult classes and one kids class over the course of the weekend.

We got there Friday afternoon, just in time to set up the tent before I had to teach. I had a good turn out for my first class and Dave got the campsite set up while I taught. Arden loved the tent! It was like a giant playpen for her! We decided to camp in the "quiet family camping area" not knowing how she would do sleeping outside in a tent. Friday night we wandered around a bit and listened to some music before heading the 3 mintue hike back to our "camp" to put her down. We ended up putting her down an hour later then usual but she was fine with that. She slept great in the pack & play next to us on the air mattress! Yay! We've got a camping baby!

Saturday I taught an early class with 40 people at it! It was amazing to see that many people practicing outside at a festival, I love teaching in that environment, the energy is awesome and the people are always so receptive. Then we packed up the stroller and Arden and walked around to various stages to listen to all the assorted music, and ran into some friends. Arden was great, falling asleep in the stroller when she was tired, dancing and singing when she wasn't. Of course we have video!

Saturday evening brought some darker clouds an ominous weather forecast, but we got back to camp just in time to put Arden down and make some Smores before it really started to rain. Being in a tent nice and dry during a rain storm is one of mine and Dave's favorite things, and Arden didn't seem to mind because she slept through the whole thing. Sunday morning we woke up to a damp festival but it wasn't too muddy and the sun actually started to come out mid day a bit. We watched the Apple Chill Cloggers which Arden got a kick out of and tried to crawl out on the dance floor with. We also listened to some storytelling. Then right after my kids class, (and of course before we had packed up our tent) the sky opened up and unloaded a thunderstorm complete with lightning and hail. Thank goodness we already under a tent and it ended quickly. We stuck around until 5:30 to see Chatham County Line and then headed out. All in all it was a great weekend. We've learned that festivals are a lot different with a baby and you miss a lot of the good late night music, but it was still a lot of fun! We're looking forward to more!