Sequim Irrigation Festival

Every year my brother Ryan has to work the "car show" at the Irrigation Festival for his employer, Randy's Ring and Pinion. It had been a few years since we'd been to the festival so this year we made plans to head out there with them and hang out. Stevie ended up making a last minute trip to Utah with her Dad, so she and Marlowe didn't come, but Jack came with Ryan and my parents also came out on Saturday.

We got to my grandma's house in Sequim Friday evening, and spent the night there as planned. We had a leisurely morning that included a frog hunt. Every time we go to great-grandma's house, the kids have a frog hunt, and they are usually successful - this time it was two little green frogs found on the deck AND a dark brown salamander. My parents arrived about 11 a.m., and then we headed down to town to see the parade. While there, I realized I was pretty sure my kids had never been to a parade (how sad is that?) I blame their father. He hates going anywhere where he has to hassle with crowds, and of course it's not like I'm going to drag little kids by myself to a parade, so there you have it. The Mang children's first-ever parade. It started off a bit b-o-r-i-n-g, i.e. the "Sewer Inspection Team" truck and trailer, and the kids kept asking, "Where's the candy?"

They did have a few marching bands that were fun and Anne Elyse enjoyed all the princesses on floats. We eventually got candy thrown at us. At the parade... (attempting to get a picture of all the kids, but Tori was not having it).

After the parade, we headed over to the logging show. There's nothing like a good logging show to make you feel like a Washingtonian, especially when it's the second week of May, it's about 50 degrees, and light rain! The weather wasn't the greatest, but we had a good time. Keith loves to look at the old tractors and watch the truck pull. My favorite part was eating the fried pancake with strawberries and whipped cream. :) We didn't do the rides this year - it was $20 per kid, so it would've cost $60, and when you're unemployed you just don't get luxuries like that. The kids didn't seem to care too much, thankfully.

Grandma made everyone a big pot roast dinner and strawberry shortcake for dessert. What a good host she is! :) After dinner everyone left to go home, and literally, just as we were walking out her door, it started pouring rain and it rained hard the whole way home, so I'd say we got pretty lucky on the weather. The kids slept most of the 2 1/2 hour drive home, quite possibly the best part of the trip!