Weekend Festivities

I'm finally getting around to blogging about the weekend! On Saturday, my nephew Stephen and I took Abby down to the Farmer's Market in downtown Olympia. My mom and my niece Hannah met us there.

After wandering around the market, we hopped on the "Dash" - a free shuttle bus that goes between the Capitol and the Farmer's Market. Abby seemed to get a kick out riding in a vehicle without having to be in her carseat. She had lots of fun looking out the window and squirming around.

Later in the evening, Stephen, Abby and I went to Josiah's 16th birthday party. Josiah is Kevin's brother's son. It's been fun that Kevin and I both have nephews the same age and they have become good friends over the years since Kevin and I got married. We've joked that they are cousin-in-laws. Anyway, the birthday party was at an indoor go-karting track. Apparently, these weren't just any go-karts - they were "high performance" karts that required helmets to be worn and a safety course to go through beforehand! The boys tell me that they indeed were much faster and exciting than the average go-kart, but the only differences I could see were the higher price tag and the level of noise they created (I guess that second one was a difference I "heard" rather than "saw"!). Amazingly, Abby was not phased by the sound of the karts, but she didn't know what to make of Stephen with that helmet on:

During the eating time after the go-karting, Abby had fun playing with the boys and her Grandma Marks:

She also did her best to entertain the crowd!

Sunday was the last day of Lakefair, a four-day carnival/festival in downtown Olympia that culminates with a huge fireworks display over the lake in front of the State Capitol building Sunday night. Our house is not far from the lake and the fireworks can be seen from my front yard - well, at least the top half of the display since there are some tall evergreen trees in the way! With all the sleep issues Abby had been having lately, I decided not to keep her up for the show. I also was pretty tired myself, so after tucking Abby and Kevin into their beds (Kevin has to get up at 3:00am), I suggested to Stephen that we just walk a few blocks away to see if we could get a better view instead of driving down to the lake. Well, we walked a few blocks and decided the view wouldn't be any better...so we walked a few more blocks...and a few more...until we went all the way down to the 4th Avenue bridge by the lake! Had I known we would do that I could have just driven us a lot closer or at least put on tennis shoes instead of flip-flops! But we had fun watching the fireworks with all the other thousands of people. It's always kind of fun to see everyone turn out for the event and to be part of the moving throng of people trying to race back to their cars as soon as the show ends. Although, Olympia is full of some strange people (a lot of that due to the presence of the Evergreen State College), and we definitely saw some strange ones that night. Anyway, the fireworks display was nice and I mostly enjoyed it. The reason I say "mostly" is because I realized after we made it to the bridge that the fireworks could possibly wake Abby up...and then I wouldn't have a very happy husband who would have to get up with a crying baby and wait until mommy trudged a mile uphill back to the house. So, while I "oooh-ed" and "ahhh-ed" I also worried that my cell phone would ring at any moment! But everything turned out fine - Abby (and Kevin!) was peacefully sleeping upon our return.

Waiting for the show to begin/To give you perspective, the Capitol is the small blurry spot on the left.

The grand finale