3 Rivers Festival Fun in the Fort

Ok, so you're probably asking, What the flip is a 3 River's Festival. Well, HELLO!!! There are 3 rivers in Fort Wayne and every year, there is a week long festival...DUH!? Ok, Ok, I know, I know, you don't live in Fort Wayne so how would you know. Evidently, this festival is a big deal. A few weeks before the festival, we received a book on the daily events. Yes, I said a book. Not a pamphlet, not a mailing, not a newspaper article, but indeed, a B-O-O-K.

Well, this is our first chance to experience the festival, so I went through "the book" and highlighted everything I wanted to try to see. Here's some pictures of what we've experienced so far....

On Saturday, July 10, the festival kicked off with a parade. Mind you, we thought it would be like 30 minutes long. Umm, NO. Try over 2 hours long. It was fun though. Crowded, yes. If we are still living here next year, we'll need to spend the night downtown on the sidewalk just to get a good spot. All in all, it was fun. Chris took these pictures with his blackberry so hopefully they came out good.

Blow up Icy the mascot for the Fort Wayne Komet's Ice Hockey team.

What parade is complete without Johnny TinCap from the Fort Wayne baseball team.





Anyone who knows Matthew knows that THIS was his favorite part of the parade!!!

Ok, these are actually Colts players. At this time, we do not know who they are but as you can see, NONE of them are Peyton Manning. I have to say, I was slightly disheartened that Peyton couldn't make the trip. I mean seriously, didn't he know I was going to be there????? Honestly....


This was pretty neat. It's one of those Chinese Dragons...different....


Yeah, I don't think my legs would be long enough to pedal this bike.

NO- it's not an elephant...it's a Mastadon!!!!!

After the parade, we headed over to Freimann Square for some Arts in the Park and a Crafters' Market...as you can see, Matthew was a bit overwhelmed with the amount of tents and knowing that his parents probably wanted to walk past each one! Sorry Dude, parents RULE and sometimes Kids DROOL! Water Fountain at Freimann's Square.

Crafter's Market at Freimann Square


Art in the Park. Seriously, people were just painting, drawing, whatever right there in the road. It was really cool.

Another view of Art in the Park and all the artists working.

We ended Saturday by going to the Firefighter's Museum for a Hog Roast. I'll be honest, we expected more from the Hog Roast but since we were left to fend for ourselves for seating, we ate, and headed into the Allen County Public Library. We were hot and had to pee! But while we were there, we went ahead and signed up for our libray cards AND Matthew checked out his first book in the Children's Area.

Cozy spot in the children's area for kids to sit and read. I think at this point, Matthew was just happy to "sit".

Sunday, we decided to head back downtown to Headwater's Park to check out the carnival fun. Yep, just as we thought, lots of carnies and rusted rides. Matthew did a few games and won a few animals but the most fun he had was on this big trampoline thing with a harness. He figured out how to do backflips...hence, the booty shots!

We attempted to see the Bed Races on Wednesday evening but it was a bust. They started the races early, we got there late...it was crowded...been there, saw it, won't bother next year!

This weekend is the final events. My folks are coming in a day early just to see the Shriner's Parade down Main Street and then Saturday, we'll take the kids to the Children's Festival at the local college, a DeBrand Chocolate tour possibly, and we'll end Saturday night with Fireworks downtown. For a small town, there sure is a lot crammed into one week! All in all, I'm glad we were here to check it out.

4th of July Weekend in the Midwest

Last summer for the 4th of July, we headed up to the shore, also known as Cape May, NJ. This year, well, that would have been quite a trek so we opted to head west to Clinton, Iowa (my hometown).

It was so much fun to spend the weekend with my Grandparents. As many of you know, my Grandpa gave us quite a scare earlier this year and I'm happy to announce, he's bounced back. What a delight to walk into the kitchen when we arrived to a big, happy smile. Yep, Grandpa is back. He may short circuit at times but for the most part, he's the same. He's been blessed by God and is a true treasure to our family.

Friday morning the men hit the river for some fishing. One problem, they didn't get any bites. Bummer but it didn't ruin their good time. Friday afternoon brought a fun trip to the Niabi Zoo in Illinois. We were joined by both my Aunt and Uncle, and my cousin's daughter, Addison. What a cutie!!! Matthew likes being the "big brother" to the little people. I don't know who was more fun to watch, Addison or Grandpa. They were both especially fun to watch when we were feeding the japanese carp and ducks.

Walking through the zoo was fun. It's a little bit smaller than our zoo here in Fort Wayne, but overall, it was a great afternoon. Matthew and I had visited this zoo last summer on our trip to Iowa but it was still just as fun to see all the animals this time around.

At one point, Matthew went inside one of the bird cages to feed the birds. Evidently, one of the birds wasn't happy that he wasn't getting a sweet treat, so he decided to leave Matthew with a little present on his arm. YUCK!

And of course, no trip to the zoo is complete without Matthew feeding the goats. He loves it. Chris and I swear, if we wanted to run some errands, we could drop Matthew off at the goat area of the zoo, come back in a few hours, he'd still be there, feeding them.

The weekend ended with a old fashioned family picnic at Grandma's on Sunday, the 4th. It was great to have so much of the family there. Cousins, their children, their spouses. Just fun fun fun, and hot hot hot. It was so humid outside, the "ladies" were hanging out inside the house until we were alerted that the a/c had not been working properly. HOT HOT HOT is an understatement but we managed to survive! Matthew played several games of cornhole and beat Joel and John just about each game he played them. He also talked a lot of smack, so it was really good that he won!!!!

Sunday ended with a trip down towards the river for some fireworks. Again, it was so fun to watch Matthew and Grandpa OOOOooooo and AAAAAHHhhhhhhh over each explosion.

I'm glad we were able to take some family time and make the trip to Iowa. I think Chris, Matthew, and I all needed a little break together. None of us can wait to go back. Maybe this fall??? Only time will tell. Until then, we'll just continue to "monkey around" the Fort....ha ha ha