Fiesta Days

Fiesta Days keeps the city of Spanish Fork pretty busy!  Between the fair, fireworks, parades, the Speedy Spaniard 10k, fireworks, the rodeo, and more fireworks, the boys think this is the best time of year!  Friday night we went to the fair for dinner and rides.  We told the boys they could each pick out two rides at the fair.  Max remembered the airplanes and motorcycles from last year, and was excited to ride them.    

After the airplanes Pace wanted to do the Crazy House, not the motorcycles, so Max rode the motorcycle ride, and then Max and I waited for Pace and David to go through the Crazy House.  Max was watching another ride and said it was " 'Cary" {scary}

The next morning the boys had a children's parade they got to participate in.  They rode on the trailer and waved and smiled to all the crowds cheering for them.

After the parade there was a children's fair with all sorts of free games and prizes for the kids!  The boys were in heaven!

Pace was even brave enough to try out the blow-up slide!

There were a bunch of trashcans labeled "Dead Fish Trash" all over the park.  We had no idea what that was about and thought it was the oddest thing!  Then we saw a bunch of kids walking around with fish in ziplock bags with some water.  THEN we saw a sign for fish rodeo.  For $5 your kid could run around in a pool of water and catch a fish in a bag!  And throw it away if it dies later, I guess...

Monday morning I ran the Speedy Spaniard 10k, and I met my two goals: 1.  Finishing under an hour so I could still have enough time to run home so David could get to work, and 2.  Beating my time from last year.  I PR'd!  I averaged 8:40 miles!  That was pretty exciting!  That night we headed to the rodeo.  The boys loved it--motorcycles, children riding sheep (mutton' bustin'), barrel racing, and bull riding! 

Summer Goings-On Part II

The boys set up a movie theater game:  they set up tickets (the green and blue tickets were for nature shows, the yellow ones were for gold shows, orange were for volcanoes (I think), and the pink ones were for love.  Pace was the ticketmaster and Max would walk up, pick out a show, drop it into the bucket, and then go and sit on Pace's bed and "watch" the show.  Max treated me to a show, he picked one ticket, and I picked one ticket, we walked into the "theater", sat down on Pace's bed, and he started listing facts about the topic he picked.  When he was done he looked over at me and said, "Your turn, Mommy."  Then looked at the wall across from us, waiting for me to start listing facts.  Cutest game ever!

Pace picked out this experiment the other day, finding the onion DNA!  It was crazy--we soaked chopped onion in soap and water then poured it into rubbing alcohol, then waited for a while, then the DNA strands appeared!  Next time we'll have to do it and look at it under a microscope!

I picked up this cute fabric map at the fabric store ages ago and finally took the time to sew it into a wall hanging!  Now I just need to find a longer dowel.

Pace has been asking about a dream catcher lately, and when we found this storm trooper helmet he desperately had to have, I told him that could be his dream catcher, and it could catch all the bad dreams and burn them up.  (It was a kit to color your storm trooper helmet any way you'd like, and Pace loved the flame design--I drew the flames and he colored the rest black.)  He thought that was great, for one night, then was begging for a dream catcher again.

So for project day the other day we made dream catchers for the boys!  They each picked the colors, the string, the beads and feathers (or no feathers, in Max's case).  Pace says it works so well, it catches his bad dreams AND good dreams, and he sleeps so well, without any dreams at all!

We had a couple late nights with fireworks, and then we were heading out for another late night at the rodeo (Pioneer Day/Fiesta Days), so I told the boys they needed a nap if they wanted to stay up and watch more fireworks.  They promptly complied, snuggled up, and their dream catchers helped them have a great nap!

David did a couple cycling competitions through a local bike shop.  One week was distance and the next week was elevation.  The distance week David hit it really hard, riding a total of 441 miles in 6 days.  He was in first place, and was confident he'd place first, as he had more miles than anyone else.  Then, at 11:59pm, a guy uploaded a ride that placed him 1 mile more than David, and he took first.  The bike shop called David and said they wanted to interview him for their newsletter, and they gave him a t-shirt, in place of the first place bike jersey.

Paddleboats

We had a ward activity at a small pond; the boys had fun on the paddleboat and catching water bugs.