Eli's Inaugural Memorial Day Weekend

Eli had a lot of firsts this weekend... he took his first nap with his grandma Crain, he went to the Florida Folk Festival in White Springs, he skipped a whole afternoon nap, he took the baby jogger out for a spin, he slept in until 8:30A and he got busted by Johnny Law for illegal activities.

His weekend started in Interlachen (Florida, that is) at his granma and grandpa Crain's. He loaded up bright and early Saturday morning for the 1.5 or so hour drive there with Jordan, Bonzo, mom and dad. He slept most the way there and missed out on much of the scenery. Dad was pretty afraid the first time mom took him to Interlachen to meet her parents.... after a drive down the bumpy dirt road to get to there, dad was sure mom had plans to leave him out in the woods.

Eli woke up on the ride down the dirt road out to grandma and grandpa's. Grandpa and the dogs (Joy, Brenna, Bridget and Brandy) were there to greet him... grandma was asleep since she had worked all Friday night.

Eli took a long nap with his grandma... mom and dad checked on him a few times to make sure he was actually sleeping since he was out so long. I think we probably woke grandma.



He missed watching Heavy - The History of Metal. Dad really wanted to share his love of Eddie (http://www.maiden-world.com/articles/history-of-eddie.html) and recollections of concert shirts of yesteryear with him. Instead, Eli got to watch the last of 'National Treasure' on the biggest, loudest big screen TV ever (keep in mind his TV is 19" and he's caught a glimpse or two of it). Needless to say, he was pretty engrossed.

The next day, he loaded up with granma and gampy Orth, mom and dad and headed to White Springs to Stephen Foster State Park for the 56th Annual Florida Folk Festival (http://www.floridastateparks.org/folkfest/). If you've never heard dad describe it, ask him about it. He's convinced it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. Eli seemed to have a good time and even found himself singing along with grandma's help:

Eli had a good time, though the corna (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corna) really didn't fit in this crowd like it would have the day before. Somehow we doubt Ronnie James Dio was on the musician list in White Springs...

He had such a good time that he didn't take his afternoon nap, even though Gampy tried pretty hard to convince him to on a pallet under the shade of trees near the main stage. It doesn't take much for gampy to drift off to sleep. Eli had to keep peeking to see what was going on around him.


Since he wouldn't nap on the pallet, mom and dad walked him around the festival and took him to meet the livestock. This year's festival theme was cattle ranching. He really enjoyed sitting on Bessie, though he wished he could have tossed the lasoe a time or two at the cracker horse or cows. The cows in the pictureo on the right are about the same age as Eli, though thankfully, he's not quite a big.

Eli got to meet the Sims and Dolly Day at the festival.... dad's told him alot about them so he was happy to finally put a name with a face.

He also got to swim in the Suwannee... illegally. Not sure why, but DEP kept coming around telling people they couldn't swim in the Suwannee. Eli got a chance to dip a two or two, splashed dad and loved every minute of it!

The trip home was peaceful... Eli slept most of the way though Uncle John (who rode with us back to Jacksonville) was warned that if Eli started getting upset, he would need to sing.

Monday was a day to recover... for Eli at least so he could get prepared for this week's adventures!