Nautical Festival

We were only at the campground with our friends through Friday, and then we spent the rest of the weekend with Nana and Poppy (who got off the boat on Saturday).  We spent the weekend enjoying all of the fun activities that are part of Nautical Festival.

Saturday, once Poppy arrived, we enjoyed the carnival rides.  Or, rather, we enjoyed watching the twins enjoy the rides.

This ride was popular because of the loose association with Cars (notice the logo and the picture of Lightning McQueen peeking out from behind them).

 The flying canoes were an adult favorite (we were jealous we couldn't ride it ourselves).

 The roller coaster is always a favorite.

 The twins weren't big enough to go on the giant slide themselves, so Lucas and I had to go with them.  I thought it would be no big deal, but the higher we climbed the more I realized that the slide was a lot higher up than I thought.  And once I was sitting at the top, getting ready to push us over the edge, I realized that it was a lot higher than it looked.  As a result, I held onto Lucas and screamed all the way down the first time.  The second time I didn't scream...but if you look closely, you can see me holding the sides to slow us down.  The kids did not love going on this ride with me...

 The carousel was the fastest, longest carousel ride I have ever been on.  There was a group of high school girls sitting on this sleigh (they were told they couldn't ride the horses), so Allie joined them.  She was so excited to be "on of the guyls" (girls).

We ended our time with a ride on the Ferris Wheel...of which we have no picture because we were all riding.  But it was the favorite ride of the day.

Sunday, there was a parade.  We've been before, but the twins don't remember.  They were so excited to see the parade...and get lots of candy.  We joined up with some friends of Lucas' from his high school days and their families.  It was so much fun to catch up in the spare moments when our kids didn't need our attention.

Waiting for the start.

Collecting candy.

 The coolest float - an air craft carrier with miniature planes and a t-shirt cannon.  So cool.

Another favorite were the Budweiser Clydesdales.  Ryan clapped as they walked by.

We saw more than one band on a flatbed.  Here is Allie dancing to the music.

 My favorite part of the parade, hands down, was watching Ryan.  His excitement and enthusiasm over everything was contagious.  He cheered and clapped and jumped up and down.  Everything was amazing and he was thrilled to experience it all.  And so, now I will include a segment called: "The enthusiasm of Ryan"

 You might not be able to tell, but here he is mid-air because he is jumping up and down at the arrival of the fire trucks!

Sunday evening we went to see the fireworks that cap off the Nautical Festival.

A beautiful sunset over the marina.

 Waiting for the fireworks with our glow sticks (if you can't tell by the blankets, it was fairly cold).

 I'm always thrilled to see fireworks, and there were many amazing blasts.  It was a great end to a wonderful weekend.

The twins were sad when it was time to leave.  I told them we needed to return to normal life and they whined, "Isn't this normal life?  This is our life, what makes it not normal? Can't this just be our normal life?"  I wasn't expecting such deep questions, so I told them we just needed to go home and changed the subject.  Thankfully, now that we are home, they seem to be happy with "normal."

And you would think that our summer has been packed so full of adventures that we must be done now.  But you would be wrong.  We still have a few weeks of summer left and we are squeezing every last possible adventure out of them!