Summerfest!

The most wonderful time of the year here in Orem, Utah - Summerfest! Each year in mid-June all of Orem gathers a block from our house in City Center Park for all of the excitement that carnival rides, a parade, and a fireworks spectacular can offer. It may sound silly, but our whole summer basically revolves around two dates - the Fourth of July (hooray for incendiaries!) and Summerfest. Oh, and Ben's birthday comes a distant third :)

We missed Summerfest last year - I don't like to talk about it, the memory is simply too painful - because I was in Asia and Steve and the boys were in Maryland, so this year's Summerfest was all the more poignant. Absence truly does make the heart grow fonder. They had all of the same rides - the Indiana Jones fun house (except that it's not named Indiana Jones because that would infringe on the copyright so it's something like "Raiders" with an airbrushed picture on the side that looks suspiciously like Harrison Ford) and ferris wheel were especially popular with our boys this year. I have to say that I'm grateful that Sam still enjoys the cheesy little rides - it's really fun to share in the boys' enthusiasm and I'm sure that someday soon Sam won't be caught dead on little motorcycles riding in a circle so I'm determined to enjoy our "little" boys for as long as they'll stay little!

Ben also discovered a new passion this year - cotton candy! Given Ben's natural affinity for anything sweet, I suppose we should be grateful that he has taken this long to get hooked on colored spun sugar. In the two days of Summerfest, he purchased and consumed three giant cones of cotton candy, always blue (what self respecting five-year-old boy would even choose pink cotton candy?!?). To be honest, pink would have shown up less boldly on his face and clothing... but that was not a choice that I was given to make.

Sam and Ben also found their pockets lightened considerably by the "throw the dart at the balloon" game. We now have several new treasures at home thanks to that cursed game, including framed portraits of Spiderman, "I Love Mom" and "#1 Grandma" plaques, and an 8x10 of Iron Man. They are each sure to be prized posessions for a long, long time.

And, as usual, Summerfest ended with the finale party watching the fireworks from our front yard. I tell ya, Orem may seem like a dinky suburban town, but the city really does put on a heck of a fireworks display every June! All of the traditional elements of the celebration were honored - home made ice cream in the front yard, kids bouncing around like mad in the excitement of every "boom" and the youngest child present scared out of his shorts by the sound (this year it was Grady). This year's extravaganza was made even more comfortable as Ben dragged every pillow and blanket in the house into the front yard. The kid's a sweetie, you have to admit. And we rounded it all out with a couple of hours of Rock Band! Yep, summer has officially begun.