Good Old-Fashioned Fun

This last Friday was the 4th of July, (for those of you who haven't looked at a calendar lately, or might not have noticed due to being in, say, India). We had oodles of fun over the weekend, starting with the annual picnic out at Skywalker Ranch. It's huge fun, totally old-fashioned and wonderful. I usually describe it as the small town 4th of July picnic that we all wish had really existed. Barbecue, swimming (in the pond or in the pool), carriage rides, face painting, live bluegrass, potluck salads, volleyball, bocce ball, visiting the farm animals, kayaking in the pond, a gelato truck, air-conditioned porta-potties (okay, they probably didn't have those in the 1850s!). And, of course, the games: three-legged race, peanut race, old clothes race, Australian trolley, water balloon (for little kids) or egg toss (for big kids and grownups), tug of war... we came home with a passel of silk ribbons.


I had forgotten my camera, but my old friend Kate was there and loaned me hers - which meant some serious sprinting, because Carson and Reed were still doing races while Geoff and Satchel did the egg toss, and two of her daughters also did the egg toss on the far end of the field. Run, aim, click, run, aim, click - but I got some great photos!


The highlight of my day was Geoff and Satchel in the egg toss. From a field of about 60 pairs, they made it to the top 8, which was pretty darn good. By that time the distance had grown far enough that they turned the contestants and made them throw the length of the field instead of across (this photo is still early on and across the field). They didn't get a ribbon for that one, but it was sure fun to watch. It was also fun to watch Satchel catch the egg the time it didn't survive the impact!


But I have to share the funniest thing about the whole day. It was quite cold when we got there - the fog hadn't burned off yet - so we left the swim stuff in the car and told the kids we'd swim later, if it warmed up. I was wishing I had a jacket, and we weren't sure how long we'd last before bailing on account of the cold. (Luckily, it did warm up and we stayed to the end of the party.) So somewhere around noon, when we've been there about an hour, but we're still freezing, Carson gets really whiny. It turns out he wants to go swim, NOW. We say no, he gets whinier. This continues for a while - then, he sits down on a chair and tells me his tummy hurts. I offer him a glass of water and, very dramatically, he tells me it helps a little. Then he says, straight-faced, and I quote, "I think my tummy would feel a lot better if I could go swimming!" Nice try, buster!

(For those of you feeling sorry for poor Carson, after the egg toss I DID take the kids to the pool, missing out on Geoff and Satchel in the tug of war (3rd place ribbon). Geoff and Satch also got a white ribbon for the Australian Trolley, which they did with Kate and family. How it works: 8 people have to stand together on two long boards, and hold onto ropes attached to the boards. Then, they have to walk in unison and beat the other teams. If someone steps off, that person has to continue facing backwards. At first, I didn't think their team would move at all - nothing was happening, except for increasingly louder cries of "left! Left! LEFT!". But somehow, they pulled it together and started to move. Then the guy in front fell off, and I've seldom seen anything funnier than the look on his face as he was completely and utterly unable to figure out which foot to move in order to walk backwards. Luckily he fell off again, and got to turn back around, and they got third place. Here's a movie.

After the fun of the picnic, we went home and crashed for a bit. Then we went to my mom's and had dessert, and walked down to the civic center to watch the fireworks at the county fair.

Saturday we rested, and Geoff hobbled around the house saying, "I KNEW the tug of war would hurt! But it was worth it!"

Then on Sunday I took Carson & Reed to the county fair, where we watched the sheepdog trials, rode the ferris wheel, looked at alternative fuel cars, ate junk food, and crashed into each other in bumper cars. Fun was had by all!