St. Andrew's Parish Festival

We had a great time at last year's parish festival at nearby St. Andrew's! We were even more excited for this year's festival! Friday afternoon, we had several storms pass through the last of which started right as we were heading out the door to head to the church. We kept checking the radar on-line and headed out when it looked like the last of the storms had passed by. The rain brought slightly cooler temps and kept some of the crowd at home watching the still cloudy skies.

Last year, we bought ride bands for Darren & Kyrie, and this year we bought one for Degen, too. We also bought some game tickets. We were glad we got there early enough that we didn't have to wait in line for our ride bands & tickets because in about an hour the line would be more than 50 deep. We started off with the kiddie rides to get everybody warmed up for the big rides ahead.

 Last year, the Fun Slide was a family favorite, but this year Kyrie had her eye on the Star Trooper ride nearby. Loud music blasts from this fast spinning ride, and I think that Kyrie was a little nervous as we waited in line surrounded by tweens & teens. I was nervous as I watched from the sidelines, waiting for my little girl to come back down to earth. No need to worry about fear or dizziness because she had a great time and wanted to try some of the other big rides!

While Darren & Kyrie took on the big rides, I took Degen back to try out some of the kiddie rides solo. Once again any nerves I might have had about him riding without his sister went right out the window as he showed the kiddos how to do it! The mini-Ferris Wheel was one of his favorites! He went on it (with & without Kyrie) at least a dozen times. The operator would just smile when he opened the gate and Degen went running up the steps to take his seat. Sometimes Degen went straight from disembarking to walking back through the gate for another ride.

Love this photo!

 After a few more rides, we sat down for some dinner. Then we took our game tickets to the kiddie tent where the kids played some carnival favorite, kid-sized games for candy & prizes. Of course, the rides beckoned. Darren & Kyrie headed for the large ferris wheel while I took Degen back to his favorite kiddie rides. I couldn't believe Kyrie wanted to get into a squirrel cage with Darren. Not only did she want to, but she loved that Darren spun their cage upside down multiple times during the ride! I am grateful that neither kid seems to have inherited my inner ear/motion sickness issues!

We stayed at the festival until it was dark, the ride lines grew long and crowds of teenagers grouped. We used the last of our game tickets playing games to earn tickets for prizes before heading home! It was even better than we had remembered, and we're already looking forward to next summer's festival!