Barnwell Pioneer Day

Friday morning we were supposed to meet Derek and his family and head to Waterton and then go to Tad's reception in the evening.  But it was cold and rainy. Tad was going to have his wedding at his parents' house, but they had to move it indoors too.  Anyway, we cancelled.  I didn't think my kids would be up for it.  We had a nice breakfast at Aunt Melodie's and then went to Devonee's (my cousin) and chatted with her a bit.  And then we went to Derek's.  We were planning on Leo and I driving back that evening to go to the reception but the kids wanted to swim and it was too many kids to leave with Derek and Brooke, and I had a headache by the time we got there (although I took some advil and it was better by that evening), anyway, we were lame and didn't go to the reception. I really wanted to go too.  And I felt bad because Aunt Melodie had asked me to see the decorations, but I didn't stop on the way out because we planned on coming back, and then we didn't.  We did go swimming in Taber and the kids had a blast.  And then in true Derek style, we watched a movie and ate huge bowls of ice-cream with chips and Oreos.

The next morning everyone got up early, except me and Jubal, and went and ran--Derek a 5 k, and everyone else did a 2k, although Leo ran carrying Nicolas the whole way.  Derek came in second.  Sweet!  And I was impressed that Elena, Isabel and even Sebastian ran really well and pretty much the whole way.  Ana stayed with Sebastian I think though.

Elena and Gideon

I love that in Barnwell, you can see the edge of town no matter where you are.  :)

Then we went and had a delicious breakfast with the best breakfast sausage I've ever eaten at the community kitchen area by the library.  Ana went and had her hair braided by Josie into cornrows.  I ate Brooke's cookies. And that afternoon we went out to watch the parade.  There were a lot of floats with corn on them.

We basically joined the Erikson family for the day.

I don't think a kid that young would be allowed to drive in a parade here.

And then we headed back over to the library park area and had cotton candy, Italian sodas, Freaky Fries (the best fries ever with cheese and gravy and fry sauce and cheese sauce and bacon), sno-cones, and churros. And these deep fried potato things.  Yum!  And the kids jumped in the bounce houses and had their picture taken at the photo booth, and we sat in the shade and ate and never even looked for our kids once.

And because of that, we did lose Jubal and they had to annouce that they had found a baby and could the parents come get him.  Oops.  All I can say is Leo was supposed to be watching him then while I went and got three kids plates of food.  Oh and they had delicious dinner too.  So good.  I love Barnwell.  They have yummy food.  And at church the next day two ladies were talking to me and one was Dad's cousin, and one said I looked just like Lorie, and I didn't know either of them in the slightest, but it was nice.  And plus I got complements on my hair and Isabel's dress, so really, what's not to love?

Tyson joined a ice-cream banana split eating contest.  6 feet of banana split and 8 people on a team.  I think it was about 2 mins and half that their team took, and they smoked everyone else.  Not surprising considering it was all teenagers.

The banana split was made in a rain gutter.  Love.

This is what Sebastian and Nicolas did the whole time.

This is what Jubal did the whole time.

And then there was a family dance and ice-cream cones.

It was pretty much the best day I've had in over a year.  So much fun, and so relaxing.  I want to move to Barnwell now, and our family voted on it and we were all in favor of moving into Derek's basement.  ;)