Maple Valley Days

We were so excited to have Grandpa and Grandma "Sparky" (Tate's keeps track of the grandparents by the names of their dog) come over for a visit.  Now that John's parents live in Utah, we don't get to see them nearly as much as we'd like.  They were on a bit of a road trip (Orem, UT to Cannon Beach, OR to Us, and then on to Portland to see the newest grandchild), and they made it to our place Friday night.  Tate was a little unsure about seeing them, even though he talks about them a lot.  He was sure about Sparky (who was waiting in the car), and wanting to take him for a walk!  John was happy to check out their new car.  I loved getting a chance to visit with John's mom while the boys were outside. 

The next day they came back over for more fun:)  I thought it would be fun to head over to Maple Valley Days down the road.  I went last year with a neighbor and it was a get time.  It is set-up at one of Tate's favorite parks with carnival rides, food vendors like you only get at a fair or carnival, and booths set-up selling cute crafty things.   

Enjoying lunch!

 *For the past few weeks I have been without my camera.  It has been such a pain because I never loose things.  I'm an organized person, and I just don't misplace things (especially not my camera).  For the life of me, I couldn't find it.  Tate had no idea where it was, but we looked and looked.  It has made life hard not being able to really document properly all the things going on.  I had to use Paige's at the goats and today I was using my phone.  If I had one of those really cool phones that takes great pictures, I maybe wouldn't have cared as much, but I don't.  Because my phone is just average, it takes average to poor pictures.  I was trying to be happy that I could get a few to remember Grandma and Grandpa's visit.*

 Tate was a bit overwhelmed at first by all the people and loud noises.  I told him we'd go find a balloon and that seemed to perk him up.  Blake was having fun swinging while Tate and I found this tractor display on our hunt for a balloon.  Tate wanted to ride it and was too shy to ask the guy standing by them.  So he told me to ask.  I asked.  Of course he said yes.  No one can say no to Tate.

Did we ever find balloons?!  Some church had this balloon pit of sorts set up that kids could go in and look for a prize under all the balloons.  Holy cow was Blake in heaven!  He just loved being sat down in the middle of all those balloons.  *If I had a real camera you would have seen all the excitement on his face.  Instead, you get the top of his head.

You would never believe who we ran into!  Who would have thought Elmo would make a special appearance all the way over in our neck of the woods.  Tate caught a glimpse of Elmo and grabbed his balloon from the other place and just walked up to Elmo like they were best buddies.  Blake who is also a huge Elmo fan, wasn't too sure about having a super-huge Elmo looking right at him and standing that close.

A great afternoon.

Nice weather.  No rain.

A free shuttle to take us right to the entrance.

A couple of new crafty things for me (including something for a baby girl . . . just in case).

Wonderful company to enjoy it with.