Art City Days 2015

I never thought I would enjoy living in a little town but Springville has won me over. It is close enough to some bigger cities that you still get the benefits of that but also enjoy small town benefits.  Like, for example, Art City Days. Each year Springville hosts Art City Days to celebrate the town.  This year was the 50th Anniversary.
Some events included a Fun-a-Rama carnival for kids at Art City Park.  For $5 kids could go in bounce houses, inflatable slides, swings, watch a magic show, ride a train, etc. The first stop for us was a inflatable tunnel kids could crawl through.  As I was waiting for Brooklyn to go through it I looked at the guy manning the station and thought he looked familiar.  Turned out he was an Elder I served with on my mission! It was fun to chat for a bit and catch up. Brooklyn really liked the magic show and when we got home wanted me to check her hair for coins because the magician had done a trick where he pulled coins out of a kids head.
 Another day we were up early and grabbed some donuts at a local bakery and headed to a park to see the hot air balloons lift off.  I didn't expect to go because it started at 6:30am but Brooklyn has all of the sudden been having accidents in her bed which wakes her up early.  I figured we'd take advantage of the early wake up call and attend the event. When the balloons would lift off they would through little balls and candy out of their basket.  If you caught a ball you got some kind of prize.  The adults were all going for the balls and the kids wanted the candy.  It was a free for all. I was happy just sitting on our blanket watching but Brooklyn was insistent on doing what the other kids were doing. I ended up getting hit in the head with hard candy and Brooklyn got knocked over by some over enthusiastic adults.  I grabbed her a few pieces of candy and for the remaining lift offs we steared clear of the madness. The pig balloon was her favorite. Lately she has really been into the show "Peppa Pig" so I'm guessing it stems from that. Because it started so early Brooklyn went in her pajamas, with rain boots (cause they are the only shoes that fit over pj's, and with bed head. She was excited to get her face painted and requested a green snake.
After the balloons I wanted to take her to the kid scooter and bike parade.  We decorated her scooter with streamers and a couple of balloons.  Unfortunately due to the early wake up she only lasted literally three minutes of scootering down the street before I threw in the towel.  Instead of going to the children's art festival like planned we turned in for an early nap.
Sometimes life can look so good through the lens of a camera but the moments in between the smiles can be rough!
On the last day there was a parade in the morning and fireworks at night.  We biked to Main Street and found a nice shady spot on the curb to watch from.  Brooklyn was the cutest waving at all the participants in the parade.  Her and Thomas collected candy.
We put Brooklyn down for a late nap that day so that she could enjoy the fireworks with us. Before going to see the fireworks we stopped by the carnival to use some tickets a neighbor gave to us. Everytime we passed the carnival that week Brooklyn had begged to go on some rides so this was her chance. She chose a little car ride and the carousel.  We headed to a park that was nearby where they were setting them off.  It was the perfect location because Brooklyn could play on the toys while we waited for show time. We enjoyed the fireworks sitting on our blankets chowing on some kettle corn from the carnival.  This particular Saturday was a pretty great day as a family.