Tuesday, March 8, 2011

The Festival

Every year, it is tradition for us to attend the Spring festival at St. Vincent Ferrer, our parish. Once again, it was a fun-filled weekend of over-eating and little sleep.

It is so wild to watch Madi's sense of adventure evolve every year. In her first couple of years, the rides were more of a spectator sport for her. Last year was mostly about accompanying her little brother Daniel on rides than immersing herself in them. We are thankful for that, by the way. I still have fond memories of Daniel's face hanging over the side of the ferris wheel. It sent me into heart palpitations at the time, but I am so glad he was able to experience so much fun. He loved every minute of being a "big boy" and trying to keep up with his sister.

This year, Madi was simply unstoppable. Jimmy agreed to get a wristband too, so they could be buddies on all the rides. That worked for half of the weekend. The other half was spent with her little friends, sprinting as fast as they could from one big ride to another. They would run up to the height marker with excitement, hoping that they were tall enough to make it on. The funny part was that they would do this almost every time they approached the rides!  They just enjoyed knowing that they passed the test.

We promised Madi this year that she could stay until closing Saturday night, as long as she could "hang" without a meltdown or passing out. We stayed true to our word and they actually shut the rides down before she was ready to leave!  It was a great time for all of us.

We are tremendously blessed by our community at St. Vincent Ferrer.  We connected with many great friends this weekend--some old, some new. It was an extra bonus being able to share our exciting news of travel to get Charlie. We can hardly wait for next year to get him to the festival too.

No comments: