Turkey Fest!

We had a great weekend at the Turkey Festival...but first, a couple of pics from last week:

Our strawberries kept us busy...

I think this picking ended up being 44 cups!

Max being cheesy

A self-portrait of Aunt Katy and Max

Katy came over Thursday morning and helped me with Max and another set of strawberries so we could go up town to Merchant's Day for lunch.

We met Mom Beutel and Greg in town and wandered the streets for a while after eating lunch. I had parked behind Greg's office, so Max and I went back to hang out there for a while as Merchant's Day was winding down. Here's the kind of thing that goes on when Max visits his daddy at work...

The next Beutel accountant?

Wheee!

Thursday night was the Miss Tremont Pageant, so Greg figured that the rides wouldn't be as crowded as some other times. We decided to take Max on his first carnival rides. :) Greg really really wanted to take him on the Alpine Slide, even though I was hesitant. The problem was that the slide was one of the first rides on the side we walked in, so Max hadn't really processed everything around him yet. Also, one of those noisy go-in-circles-flip-you-upside-down-make-you-puke rides was right next to the slide and had to have the loudest music in the whole park. Max just plain wasn't sure about the whole thing. You can't really see his face in this video, but he was pretty stone-faced the whole way down. I'm sure that deep down inside, he loved it. :)

At least Greg had fun. :)

I took Max on the carousel next, which I knew he would like. Once we got to the other end of the park where the more 'kid friendly' rides were, the music was less raucous and things were more calm. As soon as I lifted him to put him on his horse, Max got a HUGE grin on his face and started getting excited. :) He loved the whole ride and cried when I took him off at the end. I think he would have sat on that horse even though the thing wasn't moving! We don't have any pictures of it, but I think it was his favorite.

Right behind the carousel was a little train that looked like Max might enjoy it, so Greg took him on that. It was a pretty sloooooow moving train, and I think by the end Max was getting sleepy! I think he liked it anyway, though.

Getting ready to go! Sit down, Max!

Awww, cuties.

Well, tickets were expensive to buy the night of, so we only got enough for three rides for Max (we figured that would be enough anyway). We headed back up through the park, up the street, and back to the van. As soon as Max noticed we were leaving the park (and all the rides) he started pitching a fit. Oh, boy. I think we're in trouble when our one-year-old doesn't like leaving the Turkey Festival! He especially didn't like getting strapped into his carseat...tears abounded. I was too slow with the camera, of course, but here's how he looked after he lost the struggle...

Poor, tired guy. And we still had to make a Wal-Mart run! He did great, though.

On Friday evening, I had a girls' night planned with some of my good friends from high school. Greg came home and said that Aunt Sheila wanted to take Max on some rides, so they headed up to the Turkey Festival. This time, the carousel pictures turned out. :)

Aww, riding a rooster...I bet his daddy was so proud!

Not sure, but maybe Max is waving?

I don't remember what all rides they took him on that night, but it sounded like he enjoyed everything just as much as Thursday. On Saturday morning, Greg got up to go watch his dad run the 5K race at the Festival. Max and I opted to stay home and sleep in. :) Greg's parents and siblings came back to our house for breakfast after the race, and then they all headed back home to do the last (I think) chicken butchering for the year. I did laundry and cleaned up the kitchen while Max napped, and eventually we headed up to the Turkey Festival to watch the bed races. Max loved watching the actual races, but he got antsy in between, waiting for the competitors to get back to the starting line. We ate lunch with Mom Rassi and Caleb (I got my turkey sandwich and strawberry smoothie...it was so good!) and then walked around the tents with them for a bit. I was going to take Max through the petting zoo, but it was 'animal nap time' from 2-3. Greg had gone running with Tim but had to work at 4:00 so when he got back, we came home. Once again, Max took a nap while I finished the laundry. (Except this time I took a nap, too!) We ate a little bit of supper and then went back up to the Festival to meet Greg. He said there was a pole vaulting competition going on in that was really fun to watch. We got there near the end, and there were really only two guys left that were competing. The highest they put the bar was 17' 4", and neither one made it on that one. Still, it was very fun to watch! Max liked running around in the ball diamond and playing in the dirt. No surprise there. :) I still had one thing left to complete my Turkey Festival experience for the year: a lemonade shake-up. With one in hand, Greg and I headed home for the last time. :)

Sunday afternoon was the parade. It started at 4:00 which unfortunately right when Max was in need of a nap in the worst way. However, I figured there would be enough stuff to look at that he'd be okay until we got home. We had Caleb with us and met up with the rest of the Rassi clan to stake out a good place to get candy. (The secret...be at the beginning of the parade...and have about 14 really cute kids in your group!) Here's the whole crowd watching as the fire engines go by:

Caleb had to 'clean up the street' when the candy went too far for the little kids...I think Greg helped, too. :)

Like I had said earlier, Max was pretty tired at this point. But, when he heard the bagpipes start to play, he had a pretty big grin on his face! My camera batteries were dying so I didn't have it ready in time, but I tried to get him to smile for them again...but to no avail. Here's what Max's expression looked like for pretty much the rest of the parade.

We went to Dad and Mom Beutel's for supper and Max took 1.5 hour nap as soon as we got there. (Thankfully!) We had a good time and a relaxing ending to a great weekend! :D