Ronan Pioneer Days 2010

We headed up to Pioneer Days in Ronan for the afternoon. Since they were having a car show at the park and Israel was with us, that's where we started. I need to find someone who restores cars & loan him out an as apprentice. He's a little obsessed. It would be nice if I knew anyone who knew anything about all that to send him to to put him to work.

This was Azia's favorite because it even had "White. Leather. Seats." She was so impressed. 

and i always like the mustangs...60s ones...I like black best, but red isn't bad either

After the car show we headed over the to the Kiddie/ City Slicker Rodeo

Zoran doing some stick horse racing

And Lex getting a little racing help from him big brother

Lex trying to get his dad's attention in the stands to show him his ice cream certificate he won. He was pretty excited. It was ice cream after all.

Azia hesitantly getting lined up to chase some cows. She said she wanted to do this, but stinky, wild cows aren't really her thing. 

She did take off in the general direction of the cows.  I don't think she actually wanted to catch one even if she said she did.

Lex and his chicken.  He had a little help catching him (from an older boy who retrieved it when it escaped under the fence) but he thought it was kind of cool. Of course after I sent Israel to help him get a box to take it home in about five minutes later Lex wandered into the area while they were getting things ready for the next age group with Israel's shoes (but no Israel or chicken). A while later I found Israel, also with no chicken. He did have three dollars. He told us someone offered him a couple dollars for the chicken and his dad told him to sell it. At some point in the transaction he lost Lex. The rest of the afternoon Lex kept asking "Hey, where my chicken at? Hey where my chicken at?" Israel told him it flew away, but Lex doesn't acknowledge answers unless they are the ones he wants to hear. He just keeps repeating his question. At one point Israel told him he could use his money to buy some ice cream. Then his new question was "Hey where the ice cream truck at?"

Azia & Zoran trying to catch a chicken. They're in there somewhere. It's sort of like one of those Where's Waldo pictures.  There were millions of kids. Zoran was very upset he didn't get a chicken of his own. Luckily he was distracted by the next game where he got a new t-shirt & hat and a armload of candy.

Israel lined up to catch a pig with his great footwear. No cowboy boots for him. I think he maybe closer to Redneck Hillbilly than cowboy. He was pretty excited to throw off his shoes & try to wrestle down a greased pig. 

Kids lining up to try to catch the pig.

Israel making his way to he front of the pack. Kyle is in there somewhere, too. 

starting to pull kids off the pile up

And somehow Israel ended up with the pig! He was slimy and stinky and did indeed look like he'd been wrestling with a pig, but he had a pile of cash to show for it! Kyle caught the other one. They did a stinky, celebratory cousin hug at the end.

We stopped to get food and the kids' free ice cream after all the festivities. We all came home but Israel & Dev headed back up to the races & demo derby in Pablo. It's been storming all evening. I think they might get stuck in the rain!

You Capture: Play

Azia-Rain playing with bubbles...

Lex & Sage playing some ball in the yard

Azia playing around at Good Old Days

Good Ol' Days 2010

We had a lot of fun at Good Ol' Days this year. Usually we are hectically finishing the float Friday, but since we didn't have a trailer to build one on this year, it was actually kind of relaxing not having all sorts of last minute stuff to get finished.  The kids all spent the day hanging out and cooling off in the yard. We did wash up the ambulance. Or started at least. I got a call before we actually finished and I'm not sure how well nine children can clean a big vehicle anyway, but spraying it down kept them cool at least.



































Dev and I wanted to go eat the once-a-month seafood boil at the 44, but wanted to support the Good Ol' Days stuff going on so we we took the kids down to eat at the BBQ first. And then none of them would eat. They thought we were punishing them by buying them food when there were all sorts of gigantic bouncy toys to play on. They spent an hour playing on all the toys.

Lex kept going in the wrong direction and getting lost in them so we'd have to send in these two to find him.  

 Israel & Tyler battling it out. 

Azia and Zoran decided to go a few rounds in the ring & they liked these better than the giant gloves. They are actually pretty evenly matched. Azia is a little bigger and probably a little stronger but Zoran has more determination. And more rage. He just saw me downloading these from the camera to the computer and told me to erase all the ones where it looks like he got knocked down! He pushed Azia off the first two times and then she got him down twice. After the second time he was about to loose it so they had to stop. He wants no photographic evidence of Azia beating him. 

Azia bouncing

We were only planning to stay an hour and a half or so because we were supposed to meet a whole group of people to eat. Then on our way out Dev was feeling nice and gave the kids a couple dollars to try out this cool contraption. He did this before looking at the line or realizing that it was going to take a half hour or so till the kids finished their turn. 


It was pretty cool though.

Israel trying out some flips. 

The little boys kept busy rolling down the hill (or in Lex's case, across it) while they were waiting. 

After the bouncing and flipping, we dropped the kids off and home and went to 44 for a few hours before heading back down to the field to catch the second half of the music and the fireworks show. I went home & picked up the kids and glow-in-the-dark bracelets since they now think they are a necessity for the dancing and fireworks. 

Lex continued to glow for some time after he fell asleep and I brought him home. 

After I brought the kids home Dev and I had a lot of fun catching up with people for quite a few hours downtown. And there are no photos of all this fun because I've been repeatedly telling everyone I only post flattering and non-incriminating photos so I'll keep my word!

Alyssa and Mom about half way done!

After a couple hours of sleep I got up to take the ambulance to the Buffalo Run. One of these years I should actually run it instead of driving around and watching everyone else run, but Saturday morning always seems too early with how hectic the weekend usually is. 

But it was a nice morning for a run. Or a walk.

Gottfrieds have done this this the last few years. I love it! And I recognize a bunch of those old shirts. I am really old!

Because of all the construction going on at the school and the current lack of high school parking lot, they had to find a new line up location for all the floats.

After the Buffalo Run we got ready for the Parade. Since we didn't do a float all the kids kind of spread out among different other entries. Azia and Lex rode with Dev in the Fire Prevention ATV,  Zoran rode with Gwen and me and a handful of other cousins in MA3, and Israel grabbed Gage and rode with Gary on his new tow truck because he wanted a kid to throw candy for him. (And Mia got to ride up front with him because once again when we got up to the line I discovered the kids had smuggled her in the car with us again.)

My candy crew. We're going to have do some throwing lessons before next year. Ahni and Lettie and Maysa's little friend kept throwing it at our bumper. So, if it made it past the bumper it would land right in the middle of the road. They also usually would only throw it when there was no one anywhere near us. If I'd remind them to throw it at kids or at least groups of people they'd hit me in the side of the head with it. It would then fall right in the middle of the road. It didn't seem like this was purposeful, but I'm not so sure. Maysa may not have had this problem, but we'll never know because she hoarded all her candy. She didn't even throw one piece. She just took it home with her after the parade. Good thing we had Kenzie throwing some from the front seat!

 Since we were at the beginning of the parade at the end of the route we pulled over and let all the kids jump out so we could watch the rest of the parade. Zoran was fond of these "army guys" or maybe it was just the excitement of them almost taking down the powerlines with their flag poles. 

One of my favorite float details this year... The whole float was awesome, too, even if the running chainsaws strapped to the top scared me a little!

Gwen was encouraging my son to run in front of giant trucks to get piles of dropped candy. She was rationalizing this by saying she thought he was probably the only one in the little group that really was fast enough to get it quickly. 

Luckily he is pretty speedy. Because that is one big truck behind him. 

Azia & Lex helping out their dad in the parade. 

After the parade we headed down to the field again. The dog and the kids all got in on the fun. In addition to more giant bouncy toy fun and the games the boys won some money doing the races. 

Mia was the fastest little dog in town. She got a big blue ribbon and a big bag of dog food. She is pretty speedy. It annoys me every time I try to catch her! ( I rarely ever actually catch her.)

Zoran about to win the sack race! He won all the races in his age group except the sprinting one (where like a quarter of the little kids just started running when someone said they were going to start rather than when someone actually said go) and he didn't even have a break down when that one clearly wasn't fair. So that seems like progress with his temper. He won $15! Too bad next year he has to be the youngest one in his age group instead of on the old end.

Azia's age group lining up for the egg race.

Azia & Addison doing the water balloon toss. They were the runner up team. And they didn't even drop their balloon--it broke when they caught it!

Israel ready for the egg race with his own unique technique. It must have been effective because he won this and the sack race, too. His age group didn't have a whole lot of competition, but he was pretty excited about winning some cash.

Zoran took some of the money he won and used it to go win this fire truck for Lex. He's such a good big brother!

Zoran was pretty excited to find out Saturday that you only had to weigh 30 pounds to do this! He even had a couple pounds to spare! He hardly had enough weight to pull the bands down but he liked doing flips & having them slingshot him into the air.

and of course Israel had to try it again

 After a few hot hours doing all the activities we split up into a few different groups and went swimming. When we got home I spent all evening...like hours and hours...on an ambulance call on the river over by Moiese. I had been planning to take a nap all day but somehow never fit it in. I was actually asleep before midnight and up again by 8:00 for the fly in. 

Israel and Azia signing up for their flight. Zoran had kind of a rough morning once he discovered you had to be 8 to go on the plane. He hates being left out.

The boys in line for the yummy breakfast: huckleberry pancakes, ham, scrambled eggs, biscuits & gravy.

Boarding their plane!

Flying away...

Israel waiting to win a door prize. I think he was sending a lot of strong mental vibes toward those drawing the tickets, but it didn't work. They had dozens of prizes and we had six tickets among us and the only person who won was Zoran. And he lost his ticket immediately after getting it...somewhere in between getting in the food line and sitting down after his plate was full...so he didn't actually win. We only know it was Zoran's number because we had all the tickets on either side. So not only did he not get to fly, he was then upset when he realized he lost his ticket and then again when he realized he could've won a cheeseburger and fries with that missing ticket.

The whole weekend was a lot of fun. Thanks to everyone who put so much time into making it happen! We have a great community.