summer in the city

So Steinbach, like many towns I am sure, have a weekend long party/festival type deal called "Summer in the City".  We heard a lot of hype about this event and it lived up to the hype….. if you are a carnival ride, crowds kind of person.  Which none of us Ackermanns are.  Well, except for Lucy, the mold-breaker, and she was gone to Tinker Town (a permanent party/festival type deal with carnival rides) for a birthday party.  But we participated nonetheless.  Cause that's who we are… the party people.

First up was the "go round and round and round swing" ride (I'm sure that is the name of it… I can see it all sparkly in lights).  Our first mistake.  Pretty much everyone felt sick after.  So that put maybe a little bit of a damper on the rest of our time.  See if you can notice the progression of facial expressions in these pictures:

(Cade is in the navy and his cousin Riley is beside him in multicolour)

(Mia is in yellow and her cousin Timaya is beside her in the white)

(other cousins Cole, in white and Shandy, in green)

Hmmmm.  The smiles are disappearing….

"I think I need to get off soon"

"When is this ride over?  I'm going to be sick"

I really should have kept taking pictures right to end to get the full effect, but I was faking being a good mother and aunt and decided to look concerned instead.

After a little respite, we headed off to the bumper cars.  Other than a few of them unable to get out of their little corners, they had a much better time.

Pretty much everyone bumped into a bunch of people they knew.  Well, maybe everyone but Eric and I.  We are somewhat social losers still.  We are working on it.  Give us time.

Then a few of us took on the ferris wheel.  That is about the only ride I like - and I actually love it.  I love being up high.  I love the views and the feeling of being able to look down on everything.  Maybe I just like looking down on people.  Perhaps it is just part of my desire for unbridled power and dominance.  Or not.

Fabulous views from up there.  I love it.

Our audience, while we were ferris-wheeling (yes, it is a verb).

Considering how cool and very very rainy it has been most of the summer, this was a great day - almost too hot.  Okay, not almost.  It was too hot.  Not a hot fan, at least not without shade.  And maybe a pool, complete with a pool boy.  Kidding!!  I'm just kidding!  Eric is all the pool boy I need.

Moving on….

We had a little snack break - for mini donuts, of course, and cold, refreshing glasses of everyone's favourite, lemonade (I'm pretty sure that is a movie quote but I can't place the movie.  Of course it is a movie quote, because I can hardly have a conversation without quoting some dumb movie.  Oh - I remember now…. The Santa Clause - although he is talking about milk, not lemonade.  Phew.  Bet you're glad I didn't leave you hanging with that one!).

Mia got rather burned.

Okay, I'm just joking.  We were sitting on and near some red plastic chairs so the sun was reflecting a lot of red on her.  She came out unscathed (which is surprising.  She comes out of few things without some sort of scrap, bruise or something of the sort).

Grandma came and joined us for a while, but most everyone was pretty pooped by then.  We still did a few mild activities, but not a lot.

We stopped at the "grand stand" and watched a few minutes of a kid's entertainer.  A few minutes was about all we could handle.  We needed to get inside.  We needed some water.  We needed some space.

But after a bit of a break, we ventured out again.  We did buy all those tickets after all, and we were not about to waste that cash, no-siree-bob.  So it was back to the only thing that was really safe and fun.  The bumper cars.  What says joy more than smashing into your cousins?  And they doubled up this time.  Much more enjoyable.

At the end of the day, they ended up having to shut down the rides for a while due to a thunderstorm.  But no worries - buy that time we were all snug in our homes, exhausted from our day on the town.