Fiesta Days!

If you have been following my blog for a couple of years, you know that Fiesta Days is one of my favorite things about living in Spanish Fork. (For those of you that do not live in Spanish Fork, or Utah for that matter... quick summary. In Utah we celebrate the 24th of July as Pioneer Day, the day the Mormon pioneers came into the valley of Salt Lake to settle. It is huge for the state, almost like a second 4th of July. Fireworks are allowed, there are parades and decorations and Spanish Fork throws the biggest party in Utah County... Fiesta Days. Complete with a world-class rodeo)

While there are activities that start at the beginning of the month, the official Fiesta Days celebration starts the night before the rodeo begins This year that meant Wednesday the 19th. We started our festivities with the Baby Contest. Seriously... why do I put myself through that?!  Katelyn wore her cowboy outfit from her birthday and was so exited for it, but as soon as it was our turn to approach the judges, she immediately looked down, put a sad look on her face and didn't want anything to do with it. As we were waiting in line for her picture, she got happy again and attracted the attention of the local news channel covering the event. The producer asked me if it was okay to film her and as soon as the camera came up she immediately got sad again.... The only good thing that came out of it was that by some miracle we actually got a good picture out of it (although she refused to wear the hat, even though she had refused to take it off earlier)

The theme for Fiesta Days this year was "We are SF" which is why she has the SF on her cheek... which she loved that I put on her by the way

That night, Julie and I took the kids to the Heritage Parade where the cowboys and horses make their way to the fairgrounds for the rodeo. We also took the kids to Cold Stone after

Back in February, Julie got tickets for her, Mark and the Little Guy to got to the Rodeo but Mark wasn't able to make it so I got to go on Friday instead. Oh my goodness, such a blast!

It got long for the Little Guy and he was very tired long before it was over but he hung in there because he was really exited for the bull riding at the end. Julie and I loved it so much, we decided that we are going every year from now on and whoever wants to come with us can.

Saturday, we went to the activities they have at the park and to see the results for the baby contest (Katelyn didn't win her division and we hadn't expected her to). The contest is judged by Spanish Fork Royalty and their moms so we got to meet them and take pictures after. The kids didn't care for that

Monday was the big day! We stared our day at the parade. I may be biased, but this is seriously the best parade! Everyone in Utah County comes and there are so many floats!

Julianna and Aubry were in the Maple Mountain High color Guard. Of course, we made a ridiculous amount of noise when they went by... Also, we teased Julianna for this picture because she is not supposed to break from standing in attention like she did to smile at us

"A llama?! He's supposed to be dead!"

After the parade we went to Mi Rancherito for lunch... another one of those things that you are missing out if you have never been... so yummy!

As I mentioned in my Sidewalk of Fire post, Julianna and Spencer were in a band called Day Job Junkies this year. Not only did they perform at our party, but they also got to perform at the library park as part of the "Entertainment at the Park" schedule. 

Again, I may be a little biased but they were seriously so good! People were freaking out over Julianna's singing (mostly boys and I didn't like that)

Spencer had scheduled to go to One Man Band for scones with his old band buddies from high school (as he does every year) and I decided to take the kids to the carnival instead. This was the only bad thing on the day, and it was really bad thing. First thing that happened was that Katelyn really wanted to get her face painted... She was so exited seeing people with their faces painted and kept saying she wanted to be a butterfly, so we waited in line for 30 mins and when it was her turn, she stared freaking out and wouldn't let them come near her (remember the baby contest? I don't know why I don't learn). So... her face did not get painted. Then both kids only wanted one thing... to go on the merry-go-round (in case you are new to the this blog, my kids and I have an unhealthy obsession with merry-go-rounds) Well, as it turns out the merry-go-round was 3 token per person, so we went to get tokens and they were $1 a piece! I know right?! $3 for one ride is absolutely ridiculous! But of course, the kids have already seen the it and were super exited to ride and not going on it at this point would have resulted in melt-downs. So I bought the $6 worth of tokens and we waited in line for the ride. Of course the nightmare didn't end there... when it was our turn to ride, they wouldn't let me on without paying the tokens as well and the kids couldn't ride by themselves! Are you kidding me?! Also, tokens are non refundable so my choices were by 3 more dollars worth of tokes of waste the ones I had already bought... So if you are keeping track, it cost us $9 to ride the merry-go-round. NEVER AGAIN!

but look at that happy face!

After that was all over we went and found Daddy to watch the steel drum band show but we had already missed after taking so long waiting for face painting. The Little Guy then got a nose bleed from the heat (it was seriously so hot) so I decided it was time for us to go home. I know that last section sounded like it was just a terrible nightmare but it really wasn't that bad. We had so much fun and so did the kids

That after noon (after naps and a shower) we met up with the Tita's for a delicious BBQ and games. Canasta is our favorite game to play and Spencer and/or my dad always dominate... I still like it though

We contemplated taking the kids to see the fireworks, but we were all so tired, it had really been a super long but super fun day. Maybe next year

Seriously, if you live in or near Utah County come to Spanish Fork for Fiesta Days! You will not be disappointed!