The Jamboree of '13 Day 1 -

Do y'all realize how many Barberville photos take up room on my computer? It's a huge amount. I was just realizing it, because I had to back up all my files onto an EHD, which was great, but also took about 8 hours. Yes, 8 hours of thousands of photos. And many many many of those are from Barberville! Why? Because it is our twice a year - shoot-everything-in-sight-because-we-are-making- memories-together event. It's no wonder it needs its own label there on my sidebar. 

And let me tell you - I left just two days after the Jamboree for a GA trip with my family, which was wonderful and lovely and cold and full of exploring. Including some exploring we don't ever want to do again at night in the mountains stuck in our car...but that's another story. So that's where I've been! 

And then I came home, and was like "Yay! Time to edit Barberville photos!" So I put on some Christmas music, and set about to edit the....some....150 pictures. Yes. I really mean that. I was skimming along on Thursday and Friday, when all of a sudden I realized with a maddening knowledge - that Lightroom had zoomed my bar along the bottom AHEAD of where I was supposed to be. So I wasn't really on Day 2 and finishing up.....I was just finishing up Day 2, without being done with Day 1. So then I ranted and stomped and whined. And then I started on Day 1. And then yesterday I realized that not even all of Day 2 was imported into LR. Then I cried real tears of frustration, and imported the rest and finished them up. 

Somewhere in there I thought - "I should combine these into collages, and it wouldn't take up as much space....people love collages.". But you know what I don't have time for? Collages. Because I have to re-import the edited photos, put into a collage, export it, then import it again to resize it, export it again, and make sure I don't upload multiple files because I can't remember what I did and didn't put into a collage. I just don't have time for that. And I'm sure if you've read this entire thing, you are just agreeing with me and nodding your head because you sense that this is the tipping point of my sanity, and if you had seen me glaring at Blogger and sending overly-dramatic e-mails to Becs and Lauren this morning....then really you'd be about right. 

Ok. Down to the real post subject. Day 1 of the 2013 Fall Jamboree! 

It was a rainy, cold, fall day, to begin with. (Dickens, baby)

And I DO mean rainy and cold. It was the coldest it has been in FL since last winter. I brought a light jacket and flip flops in case it rained (I'm laughing), because I didn't want my brand new boots to get wet. I got there and it did the normal "Oh, I'm sprinkling daintily....lalalalala...oh, you are getting out of your automobile? *SWOOSH*" It starts pouring. So I'm drenched, cold, hopping from one foot to the other ... I call Joseph and tell Lauren: "Bring a jacket. A heavy one. And flip flops, it is raining and won't stop!". Someone has to be prepared. 

I walked in and found BroNathan and Shannon and so we walked around in the rain and cold, and took some pictures (Shannon got some amazing ones, let me tell you). 

The wood yard. 

Fishies. 

Shannon among all the works of wool.  

Le Tourists among the walking sticks and gourd birdhouses. 

Sunflowers for sale. They were so perfect, we couldn't believe they were real! 

The Hit-N-Miss engine at the Ice Cream Truck. 

The Sugarcane Syrup Shed is back!!! How I missed it. The smell of boiling syrup makes you instantly hungry. It smells sooo amazing.  

Gabe, Bradford (hidden) and Cody discuss manly topics...

...while we die laughing in the corner of the shed, taking photos of Tori, Tricia & Baby C-Monkey.

Yep. 

So sweet!  

My old adage still stands true: "There cannot be a bad Bowen picture.". 

Bradford grilling up hamburgers for the hungry visitors. 

I'm not usually allowed near the grills, so I took full advantage of being there by taking lots of photos.  

Fiiiiiiyyyyaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!

Baby King Julian Charles Lowan James Maurice. Sadly, Cody turned down our great name choice. 

The sweetest little David. 

His eyes are so calm, like Cody and Tricia's. 

People stayed more under shelter, and in the buildings....dashing through puddles and sticky sand in the meantime. And of course there are those lucky few that got to drive around the Courtesy Carts. haha. 

Raindrops keep fallin' on my head.... 

It rained pretty much the entire day, off and on, until the last hour or so. 

Concerts inside the Schoolhouse.  

The Sparling Family Band (plus one soon to be Sparling). ;) Abby took this one with my camera.  

That family can sang. 

The Awesome Possum Band. Good old bluegrass. Love it.   

In case you missed the other mentions.....it was rainy. Look at the floor. 

The light that streams into the kitchen is always pure white. 

Loner's Junction. Albeit, a little more wet than usual. 

Dearest, sweetest G.  

Those pigtails get me every time. :)  

Starting to walk!  

SO cute. And look at those toddler legs! So grown up.  

Love this girl so much. I don't know many people that are sweet as they are cute. Shannon is. 

... and if this one moves away, I'll be crying for months. I'm happily living in a state of denial. 

Somehow I always end up with a photo of Lauren taking a photo. ;)  

and I always end up with a photo of BroNathan making this face. Always. It's tradition I suppose. 

She's so precious and gorgeous and more amazing than I was at 18.  

Buddies.  

Yes. Represent, brother, represent. GOTR.  

Shannon's lovely necklace.  

Ohhh, my favorite people. I love them.  

My new cowboy boots!! I LOOOOOVE them. They are Ariats. :)
 I love that they look like a mix between Victorian and Cowboy. And now they are almost broken in, too!! 

Happy girl.  

I feel like if I don't remember to take a few photos of myself at an event, I won't end up with any. haha. 

Shopping .... those wood trains and cars and airplanes were amazing. 

Barberville at its best. 

Hahaha. Cody and Tori were hugging a little bit before, and we didn't catch it, so Lauren says "Do it again!" and takes this photo and Cody says "Just so you know, this is completely fake now." HAHHAHAA. In-laws. *tsk tsk* 

Lauren took this one too....Georgia playing with David's sunflower.  

Laughter is common when family and friends get together. :)  

Um. And then there is me. I wanted a picture with Tricia and C-Monkey, right? Well. Poor Lauren. I tried to get a picture, like I had taken of Tori & Tricia earlier, right? Well someone said something about that, and I was gooonnnneeee. I couldn't stop laughing. 

Lauren says "We didn't get any!!!".... but I love them all, because this is just how our friendship is. :) 

Losing it. 

Hahahahahhahaa. 

Poor Tricia. I was laughing hysterically, and people were walking by like "Whaaaat?".

I eventually pulled it together. Sort of. Gosh, I love her.  

Yep. That's what Root Beer Floats do to ya'. 

Blurry and downright cute.  

Emily, Georgia and Uncle John. Georgia was holding the radio.....

... but then a call came in. haha. 

Root beer floats are delicious on a rainy day (or any day, who am I kidding). 

Best.Pregnancy.Photo.Ever. By the way, Cody was wearing his granddad's hat and outfit....

and he looked just like a very young version of him. It was uncanny. We kept talking about it. 

I said "Ok, root beer float!" (in the above photo) and then I said "Now no root beer float!".....

and Cody cracked up laughing.  

She loves him deeply. And he loves her back just as much. So it all works out.  

Sweet Georgia with her stuffed cat. (it's not a real cat, I feel like I should just clarify that)

Emily getting lovin's from David. 

She is so cute I can barely stand it sometimes. 

Thinking about something Ben was saying.  

And then she sees me.  

"Train Mouse!!" - There are many reasons we are best friends. This is one. Golly, she's great. 

And as the day winds down, we find Xander looking dapper and contemplative on the schoolhouse steps.

and videos from the day....

And that was Day 1!! Phew!! :D It was rainy, yes, but also wonderful. We love Barberville so much, I'm pretty sure we'd be here through anything. Rain or shine, snow or sleet, mudslide or hail, flood or fire....we are devoted....and also slightly over-dramatic. But we wouldn't have it any other way. ;) 

With love always,

~ Jean Marie ~