12 July 2011

Just Grin and Bear Paw It

This past week was Eagle River's Bear Paw Festival. And since Josh got home on Thursday, we wasted no time in taking part in the activities.

It all started Wednesday, when I took the boys to the park next to where they set up the carnival. The little roller coaster was closest to our picnic table so Zeke spent the next few days talking about the caterpillar ride (it was designed to look like a caterpillar and a garden) and asking when could he go on it. So when Daddy showed up on Thursday, and since we were going down by the festival to return library books on Friday, I figured Friday morning would be the perfect time to go down there and try out the caterpillar ride.

When we first got down there, it didn't look like any of the rides were moving yet, and the boys really wanted to stay at the library for story time, so stay we did. (And while the boys and I were at story time, Josh went and found an ATM.) After story time, Josh said the rides still weren't going, so we decided to look around the food booths, and let the boys go on a pony ride. All the food was pretty overpriced, and Zeke chickened out as we walked up to the ponies, but Deacon gladly got up there and had a blast.




After Deacon finished his ride, I decided to walk back to the carnival rides to see if they were going yet, and they were! So Josh went to the ticket booth while the boys and I waited by the caterpillar ride. Once we had tickets, we got the boys on the ride and watched them go. Deacon absolutely LOVED it. He laughed and smiled a huge smile the whole time. Zeke, on the other hand, started out okay, but once the ride really started going he only made this face.




That, in case you are wondering, is NOT a happy face. That is a very concerned face. When they got off Deacon cheered and asked to do it again. As Zeke came down the stairs I asked him if he liked the ride and he said, "No. It was too scary." Sweet boy.

After that the boys each popped a balloon with a dart (no pictures of this as Josh was trying to keep them and their darts facing the right way, and I was trying to keep Finn safe from any stray darts that might have headed his way) and won a bouncy ball. The Deacon went on the elephant ride while Josh took Zeke down the giant slide.

While Deacon was going around on the elephants I looks up at the slide and saw Zeke clinging to the railing, quite clearly freaking out. Josh said Zeke was doing fine until he told Zeke to look down at me. This caused Zeke to realize how high up he was, which led to his little panic attack. However, once they started going down the slide, Zeke relaxed and enjoyed the "ride". In fact, he enjoyed it so much that he went down it again a second time, but this time he went down all by himself while Deacon rode down with Josh. Then it was off to home for lunch and much needed naps.

The next morning was the Bear Paw parade, so we went to that too. We had a good time, especially since we hung out with some friends (Liam was in Zeke's class this past school year.)




Obviously this was taken before the parade started. But we had a lot of fun, and I'm really glad we did as much Bear Pawing as we did. Oh Alaska, you and your Bear Paw Festival will be truly missed.

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