The Ostrich Festival...

Yesterday we were able to attend Chandler's annual Ostrich Festival.  Thanks Anita for the tickets.  We had a wonderful day enjoying the warm Arizona sunshine as well as the festivities provided at the festival.

The first thing we did was attend the jousting event.  Dad was very excited about this aspect.  We were running a few minutes late getting out of the house but Jarrett made up for it when we arrived at the park.  I haven't seen dad walk that fast to get somewhere in a very long time.

Here are some photos from that show...

After watching the "Lords" fight until their death, or until they loaded up the loser on a golf cart and hauled him out of the ring, we moved on to visit the stars of the festival... the Ostriches.

We told the boys they were going to be having ostrich races where people would ride on them but it wasn't of too much interest to the boys.    In fact, after I asked the boys if they wanted to go to the ostrich races they said, "No Mom, you can go ride an ostrich, we'll go ride the Ferris wheel with dad."  Guess you can see where I rate huh?

As we moved through the festival we came to the main stage area, where we found the VIP tent (thanks again Anita for the tickets) as well as the wide open grass that the boys LOVED to run around in.  And when I say boys, I don't just mean Michael and Gabriel.

There was also some great music.  Here the boys are dancing to a Led Zeppelin cover band.  I had no idea they were such big fans.  Okay maybe this was the first time they had heard the music and were just getting into the moment.

Here's a short video of Michael dancing and singing along. Wait, maybe he's singing something else... could it be the famous Beber song?

And then there was the ride we did take on the Ferris wheel.  They actually let me go with them.  Gabriel was really excited, can you tell what Michael thought of it?

Then there was the "princess" Michael just had to have his picture with.  Originally he thought she was Princess Jasmine but I explained that she was Ms. Chandler.  Michael insisted and said, "No Mom, she's Princess Chandler" and I just went with it...

I'm not sure if that's his "Mom, I'm picking up this girl, please leave me alone" look or exactly what he was trying to say with that smirk.

As the sun started going down we found a great spot to sit inside the fenced-in tent area and waited for the Eddie Money concert to begin. I guess you could say we are fans of this 80's band and Eddie Money.  He holds a special spot in Jarrett and my heart because 10 years ago we went to his concert at the Casino in Tama before Jarrett left for a long semester abroad in Europe. At the time, 10 years ago, we laughed about going to the concert as Jarrett had won free tickets, but once getting there, we found ourselves enjoying the 80's music and the fun people watching.  There were so many people who had not left 1989and stilll had the black leather pants, the poofy hair and the mullets. It was a fun evening then and last night was the same. While Jarrett and I reminisced about our "concert date" now 10 years ago, we also talked about our life today and the journey we've taken so far to get here. While we sat back and enjoyed the world passing around us, the boys were in having a ball running around, making pretend camp fires out of sticks and leaves, making grass angels and doing gymnastics in the leaves. At one point after running around for 2 hours, they sat down to watch and listen to the music.

Oh and another funny story I just have to share. It seemed other parents had the same idea we did. Sitting inside the fenced-in area was the perfect way to sit and enjoy the day, but also make sure the kids couldn't get too far away. Jarrett described it as a giant play pen. At one point the boys had about 10 other kids running around with them, and then there was this one little boy. His dad seemed to be pretty busy drinking the free beer, so we watched as he tried to play with the boys. Jarrett and I were talking and then we looked over to see this...

The little boy started to take his clothes off.  Given that we've had the "naked" talk and how we don't get naked in front of others, Gabriel must have figured this was too much for Michael's innocent eyes to see. 

All in all, we had a wonderful day at the Ostrich Festival. I'll conclude with a shot of dad.  His look pretty much sums up how we all felt as we got in the car and went home.

We all slept like babies!

Until next time,

angie