Venetian

Last weekend (yes I'm just posting...can you say long week?) we went to Charlevoix, MI for their Venetian festival.  We made it a pretty big deal and I even asked for Friday off of work making it only my second day off in 4 months.

Friday's festivities began by waiting in a vicious line of people to set up our chairs in a prime location for that night's shows.  We had to fight off a crazy private golf club old lady.  No Joke!  She threw a chair at me! We ended up finding perfect spots somewhere else.

Waiting in line to get into the park

Then we got picked up from the park and headed straight for the Flywheelers.  For those of you who don't have that term in your dictionary, it's this place where they have music, tractor shows, food stands, and a flea market you can buy many cool things at.  It's hard to describe but fun to attend.

The boys' first stop upon arrival...food

Our next stop was back to those perfect chairs we had set up.  Unfortunately it started to downpour so we had to pack up those chairs that we fought an old lady for and ended up going out to eat...INSIDE.

The "old" couple at dinner

So even though Friday was a little bit of a bust we kept our hopes up.  Saturday was quite the day.  It began with Matthew and Patrick running the the 5K tribute race.  It's pretty crazy because this race ended up being all over the news because of an awesome story.  CHECK IT OUT! http://www.fox4beaumont.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/photo-shows-marine-helping-young-boy-671.shtml

Cheer team even though it was chilly!

Off to get their numbers

More of the cheer team...we split up on the race course for more encouragement

That would be beautiful lake Michigan they were running next to

These girls were so cute I HAD to snap a pic...a bride and her bridesmaids. 

They made it!

Patrick's post race reward

After the race was the parade

Yes, I may have only been there for the candy. Perhaps this is where dear Lakin gets her parade candy obsession...I taught her well!

After the parade we headed down to the park and set up camp for the rest of the day!

Patrick attempting to eat ribs in his lab

Patrick and I took some time, as promised, to take some one year shots.  Has much changed?  Don't think so, but I bet these will look a lot different at year 25!

Matthew's post race nap

Grandma and her beautiful sisters

Uncle Gordon felt left out

Want to take a guess?  If you guessed deep fried oreos you would be right.  If you guess exactly 6 deep fried oreos you would be even more right.

This is what 6 deep fried oreos do to you

Crowning the queen since they got rained out the night before

These girls were soooo good and they had only been performing together for one month...you would never know!

The Kids from Wisconsin

After the Kids from Wisconsin finished, we watched the boat parade and fireworks.  My mom and I spent from 8am to almost 11pm in the park with all of the day's activities.  Yes, I was tired!

Sunday morning we saw a second performance by one of the musicians from Venetian at my grandma's church and before we knew it, it was the afternoon and we were back in the car headed for Chicago.

We had so much fun and already have scheduled plans to be back next year because the boys are determined to get better times in the race.  As I sign off from this very long blog, I leave you with one last video.  Some of you may already have seen this on my facebook, but it's so funny it doesn't hurt to watch again.  I love my dad and am thankful to have a piece of his goofy side...no matter how embarrassing he is!