First Trip!

This weekend we took North on his first trip!
On Friday we drove to Bushnell, IL to attend a music festival (Cornerstone Festival) that Alan was playing at!
For the past couple of months Alan has been playing with a band called "Blaster the Rocketman" in preparation for this weekend. The band rarely plays because the singer lives in Scotland, however, he was planning to be in town for Cornerstone and so they assembled a group to play for the 2 shows during the festival and Alan was asked by a friend to play second guitar.
I think that Alan had fun playing with them and North and I certainly had fun getting to go and see the band play.
It was a long drive but North was fantastic. He's always so good in the car but had never gone on a drive that lasted more than a couple of hours prior to this. He slept, looked out the window, and looked up at us in his mirror the entire time. He was great!

North looking at us in his mirror

Alan driving

While most people that attend Cornerstone camp-out at the festival site, with North in tow I was WAY too nervous to try camping. Instead we got a hotel room in Macomb, IL which wasn't far from Bushnell.
Perhaps some year when North is older we will go back and attempt camping. This year I was happy to have a hotel room to go back to at the end of the day though.

North and me snuggling in the hotel

We did get to visit with the other members of Blaster the Rocketman each day and hang out at their campsite. North loved it--in the evening he was mesmerized by the camping fire and during the days he loved to lay on our laps and stare up into the treetops.

North laying on Alan's lap, staring up at the sky

North's favorite view

We spent much of our time, walking around the festival grounds.
When we got warm, we cooled off in the jeep.
I was of course scared that the loud music would hurt North's ears and so we purchased some earplugs that fit around the outside of his ears. They seemed to work great as he slept through Alan's first show.

Alan carrying North around Cornerstone

Cooling off in the jeep

Another picture of Alan carrying North around--this was after Blaster's first show of the weekend

We of course also went and saw "Blaster the Rocketman" play. The first show of the weekend was at midnight Friday night/Saturday morning. I carried North in his front carrier and with his earplugs on and pacifier handy, he never even woke up to see his daddy play.

North snoozing in the front carrier while Alan was playing

The second show of the weekend was early evening on Saturday. For that one he was awake but again, I don't know that he heard a thing.

The crowd during the second show, which was held on a smaller stage than the midnight show

My view of Alan during the second show.-- I got to stand behind him for a bit while a friend held North.

We had a really nice time--it was exciting to head out of town.
It was also of course, nice to get home though.
We didn't get much sleep on our trip and so now that we are home, are a bit tired. Here's a photo from today of sleepy daddy and North lying around in the living room.