String Break, camping, & family!

So... after barely surviving the Medieval Festival we looked at the calendar and considered the possibility of camping at String Break (music festival thrown by Alex's cousins down near Dade City, FL) being held the last weekend of April & continuing on to Disney World. Then about a week prior we decided yes, bought 10 days of no expiring tickets, booked a room, contacted friends & family and I packed like a crazy woman - yes, I had to pack for 9 nights for a family of five - camping gear, food, clothing, Disney items, multiple locations... and we did it! I started by packing each of the boy's outfits in Ziploc bags so I could just hand them an outfit and they could get dressed - including socks, shorts, shirts, underwear/diaper/pull-up. I also packed lots of snacks for everyone and lunch meat for sandwiches and made a pasta salad with cheese & salami. I also packed bags for each location for which we would be staying so we didn't have to totally unpack the car at each location. So we left around noon on Thursday and got to Marsha's in time for dinner - we met at a Japanese restaurant and ate - yum! Thank you again so much Marsha & John for dinner! I think the boys thoroughly entertained Marsha's entire family - ha! The boys just loved their cousins Abbee & Noah. We then proceeded on to their home where we got to catch up a bit - much to short of a visit - but very nice! We look forward to doing it again sooner than 3 years ;o) The next morning we proceeded on down to String Break. We arrived, set up our tent, got something to eat, acquainted ourselves with the new festival layout, and started listening to music after tasting the beer selection! I must mention that as soon as we were out of the car Avery was amazed by the sand/dirt - he kept picking it up and pouring it over himself. He even laid in it face down and made snow-angels. Evan immediately found the ice cream vendor. He walked right up to him and asked for ice cream! The man asked what flavor and he replied "strawberry". They did not have strawberry but we did buy a dish of chocolate and vanilla for the boys to share. Who needs to be able to read? HA! The music was great, we especially enjoyed The Stone Family and The New 76'ers! We got to meet and hang out with them some too which we really enjoyed. Evan made a new friend staying in the camper next to our tent - a 5 year old little boy, Dillon - he didn't want to go anywhere without him. He loved Dillon's "blue juice" AKA blue sugar water... Evan proceeded to have a crazy break-down. (That started my investigation of man-made petroleum food colorings when we returned home.) Saturday morning after breakfast and playing in the playground we went on a hayride throughout the camp then did some craft projects. Evan & Avery loved playing in the sand pile - unfortunately Evan threw it in Avery's face and it got in his eyes. So I got Owen and Avery in the double stroller and quickly got them across the festival to find Alex in the food tent where we poured water into Avery's eyes to flush out the sand - thankfully that worked! Alex went back to the sand pile and he and Evan decided Evan could paint a robot. We each went and checked on him, but when Alex went again - Evan was gone! Alex came back to the tent to inform me - I quickly went and checked out the playground, back to the kids area - I asked if they had seen him, she was surprised he still hadn't been found and immediately sent out several young girls to look for the little boy in the bright yellow boots. My next stop was to the ice cream vendor - he said he had been there about 10 minutes prior - so I took this as good news that someone did not have him, I then proceeded on to the food tent where he was with Alex, Avery & Owen - whew! So Alex rushed over to tell the kids tent that Evan had been found - we then discovered we had the ENTIRE festival in search of him - gees! Sunday morning we had breakfast at our tent then went to the playground again. Mitch was really sweet and hadn't signed us up to work any shifts thinking for some reason we would have our hands full - ha! I did end up helping out and working the front gate Sunday morning with Karen (girlfriend of one of Mitch's long-time friends) while brave Alex took on the challenge of watching the boys on his own! The boys all really loved hanging out with their cousins - Mitch, Deb, Garrett & Ryon. Mitch had hired Jeremy to prepare food for the musicians - it was amazing! There was a porta-potty right there by the food and the boys could not get enough of it - in and out, in and out - I guess they thought it was a smelly play house - lovely (and the reason we believe the entire family was attacked by parasites after returning home - what a lovely week that was! NOT!)! Boys! Getting everyone to sleep an entire night in a tent - not easy so we were exhausted and filthy by the end of the weekend but had a great time and would attempt it again in the future... crazy  probably!