Old Settler's Week!

Old Settler's Day is in town!!!!

 

You know, when I was in grade school and even high school, Old Settler's Week was always the best week of the year. We would basically live up at Old Settler's Days from Wednesday to Saturday. Rides, food, friends....what more do you need during a Midwest summer????  I've spent so many birthdays up at Old Settler's Days celebrating. It's the perfect way to celebrate in my book.

 

Now that I have kids and have moved back, I now see Old Settler's Days as a parent. Hot. Chaotic. Money. :) I get it now :) But we still went to feel the magic of Old Settler's Days. We went during Friday's wrist band day. I was smart enough not to spend a million dollars on a wrist band for my kids but I did buy a few tickets. We met my fabulous friend Jenni and her beautiful baby girl Ivy. We started our first ride on the carousel.

 

A picture before the ride starts!!!

He was so proud of sitting on this horse.

It all went downhill after the carousel started turning. Charlotte started screaming hysterically. HYSTERICALLY.  She didn't even make it one lap. She was clawing at me. It was just so bad. So, she vetoed any other rides.

 

The next ride we did was the Amtrak, choo choo train ride. Sawyer LOVED IT.

He was the smallest guy on it. See him? Third one from the back?

Charlotte's stance during the train ride.

 

So we headed over to something they could both enjoy. The germ infested blow up jumper.

They LOVED it and even made friends inside.

We had a pretty successful trip to Old Settler's Days.

Ivy is just beautiful and we had so much fun with her and Miss Jenni!

On Saturday morning, my birthday morning, I got up early and headed to do the Lincoln-Douglas 3 mile race. No better way to turn 32 than running 3 miles at 7 am. I walked it last year with Dad, Dale, and Mary. This year it was just me. So, I ran it. I ended up running with my friend Maegen. We finished together so that was nice. We were like 6th from last but we still finished.

 

Then, I came home to surprises from my kids and my babies' daddy. They were so sweet. The house was decorated and everything. I am just so lucky.

 

After that we met Mary and we headed to the parade route to enjoy the parade!!!

Charlotte hates parades. She hates humans dressed as animals or weird things. She clung to Mary quite a bit during the parade.

 

Lydia's first parade!!!!

It's my birthday!!!!!

See where Charlotte stood????

Sawyer loved it. Tractors, trucks, lawn mowers, random people throwing him candy.

 

What more could a boy want???

She would run out and grab candy and glare at people then run back behind Mary again.

The dancing people. We see them everytime. How cute are they? They don't advertise or represent anything other than dancing older people. They are a crowd favorite.

Who are those dancing people?

 

The redbird. The man that made my child fear parades.

Our favorite....Salon Seven. They handed out popsicles.

Brilliant girls.

Sneaking in some candy...

A quick picture with his favorite twins.

The parade was a success and Charlotte came out at the end and watched all of the random tractors. We then ate lunch and headed over to Aunt Bare's baby shower/Lydia's meet the baby shower.

Courtney did a great job. It was perfect.

For that night, Grandma and Katie came up to watch the kids so we could go out for my birthday. I am so lucky to have a grandma that would drive almost five hours round trip to do that for me. Grandma, Katie, and Melissa came up after Mallory's baby shower. We ate pizza and got ready. Alex got home from work. He bought me a car for my birthday. Yes, a car. What a guy....

 

We met up with Jodi and Derrick and headed up to the square to hear Jake Maurer play and to hang out outside on a beautiful summer night.

We took our own drinks :)

Party girls!

When the crowds cleared, we posed for pictures.

 

So appropriate at a family event.

Love these two and the fun we had on my birthday.

We had planned to be back around 11 and didn't get home until 2 am. It was a bit rough. We all felt pretty terrible the next day. We cancelled our plans to go sit in the heat at an STL game. It was 90 in St Louis that day. Sawyer spent the morning with Papa. Charlotte spent the day with Ella. Grandma, Katie, Alex, Mary, Liddy, Melissa, Katie, Sawyer, John, and I all went to lunch at Bernardi's for my birthday. It's just the thing I needed to ease my stomach after a night of fun.

Our sweet girl. She had a rough while at the restaurant but once she settled down, she was perfect.

Mary. Taking it all in with a colicky baby :)

 

 

It was a perfect week of Old Settler's fun! Our goal for the next one, Charlotte to make it half of the ride before freaking out. Weirder things have happened :)