The Last Hurrah...

It's normal to want to end summer with an exclamation point, right?

We headed to Wayne to celebrate at the World's Fair.  The boys were so excited to participate in the small fry rodeo and to watch the parade -- a.k.a. catch gobs of candy.

Kael and Dax were all about riding a sheep again this year.  Ace was not.  Remember the great bloody nose of 2015?  Yeah - so does he.

Anyway, I packed the boys' bike helmets and we were sitting in the grand stands eating snow cones and nachos when the owner of the livestock came by to shoot the breeze with my Dad.  My Dad jokingly said, "You know, those are some gnarly sheep for mutton bustin' in a small fry rodeo."  To which the guy responded with a laugh and then a, "Oh yeah, they've been on straight barley for three weeks and they're so hopped up for breeding they're one giant exclamation point."

Ummm what?  Not the exclamation point I was referring to at the start of this post.  But alas, the boys were gung ho and committed and I, like a champion mom, lifted their little bodies atop the world's largest and horniest sheep and let them take off into the horizon, praying they would come back in one piece.  They did.  Sort of.

Dax took a hoof to the back of his calve muscle and Kael got one right in the gut.  They were both fighting back the tears and limping out of the arena like true cowboys.  But dangit - they're noggins were safe and sound.  Maybe we'll hang up our boots for next year.  :)  Likely not.

Ace won the stick horse race in the four-year-old division.  The kid is a speed demon and won a box of candy and a $2 bill so just color him happy.

And Boone - well he got fed one red snow cone by Grandpa - some nacho cheese by Grandma - and some dirt and rocks by his own hand.  He was one happy little dude per usual.

We hiked to check some wildlife cameras.  We tried to catch some crawdads but were getting skunked -- the delay naturally led to the world's best mud fight of all time.  We swam at the Wayne pool and rode the little red four-wheeler.

The last day was the parade.  The boys were in the zone.  We have more candy than I think we've ever had in this house and that's saying something because I have a strict "say yes to sugar" policy.  :)

 

They also caught Ping Pong balls that were numbered and one lucky ball would win a new bike.  You guys... they were convinced it would be one of them.  But alas, we won two packages of otter pops and two bats full baseball gum balls... which may have actually been better than a bike in the grand scheme of things.  You know, quantity over quality is sometimes A-OK with little dudes.

All in all, it was a fantastic way to send off summer.

And I will miss my spontaneous days of adventure with my little groms...

Until next summer, dudes.

XO