A Place to Belong

I never had a chance to post about our big community-wide celebration in late June. It was for the whole town, but hosted by our church, so we were involved on several different levels. They brought in lots of inflatables, a mechanical bull, climbing wall, dunk tank and several booths. Then we had a "singin'" in the evening with some "local talent" and a guest singer.




Everyone had lots of fun. I watched the bungee inflatable for a while, so I was able to take some great pictures of my husband, my father-in-law, (Spanish has just one word for each of the in-law relationships. Why can't we do that?) my brother-in-law and some cousins. Included in the above photo is my father-in-law, trying to beat the system, which is quite typical. He simply muscled his way up the middle row, instead of trying to jump for it. He's been farming and welding and building metal buildings for some thirty years, so he certainly had the strength for it. It was great fun to watch, anyway. His opponent in this picture is my brother-in-law, who ran for it, and is in the process of being flung backwards.



Zaya played cowboy on the mechanical bull, which his Uncle helped him face. Of course the man who controlled it was very gentle for the little ones, but it was fun to watch him crank the power up for the big, tough cowboys in the area. The kids also enjoyed jumping in the big inflatable jumper thingy, and Mommy even climbed the climbing wall. Nerve-wracking, but fun.

Grandma took them around to the rest of it, because I was still in the middle of un-packing. (It was the day after we had officially moved.) She kept them through the barbeque supper and then brought them back, dirty, stained and excited, to change into clean clothes for the singin'. I sang one song in a quartet with my brother and two of hubby's cousins, and then went home and put two exhausted little ones to bed.

All in all, a great time. I hope we can do it again someday when the kids are a little older and able to be more involved or at least remember their involvement.