Town Festival Time!

Even though Remington is a small town, they planned some pretty good activities for the annual town festival.  It started off Friday night with free tethered hot air balloon rides.  Both kids (and maybe their parents too:) ) were excited about the prospect of a ride in a hot air balloon since this was a totally new experience.

We got to the balloon site a few minutes before the rides were supposed to start, but it was a bit breezy so they couldn't take the balloon up.  However, they were still hopeful that the wind would die down and they could eventually get off the ground.  About an hour later, that was the case.  Since this was a small town event, there were plenty of people that we knew also waiting for the balloon rides, so the kids found friends to play with while waiting and John and I also had people to visit with.  Eventually, they started blowing up the balloon.  The kids got a front row seat for this entertainment.  Blaine was beyond excited watching this process - it was fun just to watch him in all of his excitement:)

During the wait, the balloon pilot let the kids come up and check out the basket that they would be riding in and even fire up the burners.  My kids weren't into firing the burners, but liked checking out the basket.

 We finally got our chance to go up in the balloon!  John's parents had come over as well and Nancy was excited to go up with us.  Roger wasn't so keen on the idea and watched from the comfort of his pickup.

The kids enjoyed the clear door on this balloon so that they could easily see out.  Ava was just tall enough to see over the edge of the basket but Blaine could not.  This was a fun experience for us all and worth the wait.

 Saturday brought another busy day with the festival as well as a t-ball game.  The kids enjoyed the petting zoo with all kinds of animals to see and pet.  This petting zoo even had a large tortoise and a pet groundhog!

 And you can't miss the small town parade!  They found a spot along the parade route with some friends, ready to scramble for candy.  The part that I like about watching the parade with so many friends was that many of the friends were also quick candy picker-uppers and we didn't come home with quite as much candy as we have from some parades!

 After a trip home to rest for a while in the afternoon, we headed back to town for supper.  The kids enjoyed a camel ride on the library lawn then:)

 And, of course, no festival is complete with ice cream!  We had to walk down to Pizza King to find some, but we got some ice cream cones none the less.  We found a bench to sit and eat our cones and the kids hammed it up for a picture.  Of course, the 3 year old happened to have the fattest ice cream cone that not only ended up all over his face, but melted all down his hands.  What else would you expect though?!

 A very busy Saturday to end a busy week.  So for Father's Day on Sunday, John got his request - a nap Sunday afternoon!