Carnivals and Races and Parades...

As I gently layed Abby into bed Saturday night she hugged me tight and whispered in a tired but content voice "Mom, this was the best day ever, when will it be Strawberry Day again..." and drifted off into dream land filled with carnivals, races, parades, BBQ's, cousins...

Strawberry Day's in Pleasant Grove sadly only comes around once a year, but we take full advantage of it!! Here is the recap of our event filled weekend:

Friday night we went to the Carnival with Cory and Jill and clan. We had a great time riding the rides:Liv HAD to go on the Farris Wheel this year and she wouldn't be left behind on the Roller Coaster either!! I couldn't believe how brave she was, coming off smiling and giggling, we may have a dare devil after all!! Eva loved going on the marry-go-round and driving the cars, her smiles and excitement and waves were precious.

Of course cotton candy was passed around and we initiated Lily into the sugar lovers group!! Sorry Jill!!! We went home tired but excited for our early rise on Saturday morning for the big race!

My family hit the pavement strong at 8:00am and cruised our way to the finish line. Once again we cleaned up at the awards ceremony with Cory, Jill and Kobe taking 2nd in their age groups. Alex coming in 3rd in his. My dad, continueing in his long tradition of domination, took 1st place once again by crushing his record and coming in at 19:30!!!! Holy crap he is fast!! Way to go Dad!!I love this picture because not only is it a great action shot of his determination, but look at his competition- can you say 18 years old at the most and my Dad is totally passing him!!!!
I didn't finish in ribbon contentions, but at a little over 25 minutes I was happy with it, placing me 10th out of 41 in my age group!

Next up was the kid run and Abby was beyond excited to participate in her first race ever. We had practiced several times and she was ready! Asher was also running and they took their places at the starting line. They were a little unprepared for the race madness and soon found themselves casualties of the group getting tripped up and hitting the pavement, but I was so proud that they both jumped right up and kept on running as fast as they could go!At the awards Abby was thrilled upon measure to find that she had taken 3rd place!!!! She got to go up and receive her ribbon and join in the Griffiths family tradition of Strawberry Days champions!!!Next we went to the parade and had a grand time, with it being overcast with some sporadic drizzles of rain it was actually quite nice.
Abby and Liv's favorite entry was this float with the Royalty atop a majestic elephant:Eva love the "tiny ponies" drawing this stage:and I loved the Lehi city float, very unique and fun, I loved that they had the Royalty in Safari dresses!
After that we went to my moms for a Father's day BBQ and the girls played with their cousins for hours and we all got to hold the new babies and eat good food. That evening we got home, bathed the girls and let them sit on the couch to unwind and found them falling asleep at 7:00pm so we scooped up our little darlings and layed them in their beds. It really is too bad that Strawberry Days only comes once a year!!!