Babies Make Four: Apple Festivities

Growing up, the middle of September always meant one thing for our small town in Virginia, the Apple Festival! As a child, there was always a sense of freedom as we rode on the floats in the parade and were allowed to run free through the craft tents without (much) parental supervision. Gyros, blooming onions and funnel cakes filled our tummies and we walked or rode in the parade with our churches, little league football teams or as we grew into middle and high school, marched with the band. It really was an exciting weekend for our little town.

On Thursday night, my mom told me that the *Fall Festival* (as it's now known, due to the fact that the apple orchards are no longer in existence) was taking place this weekend. They were going to go on Friday afternoon and get hot dogs for lunch at the band boosters booth. I immediately imagined us at the parade with Luke watching the bands march with the drum cadence playing, catching candy from the floats and perusing the hand made crafts (and maybe testing out one of those blooming onions!)

I asked Dillon if he may want to go to VA this weekend, and he wasn't convinced. There are lots of things to get done at our house, plus some relaxation sounded nice. On Friday morning, I called again to ask and he said if it meant that much we could go. So I got home Friday afternoon, finished up some work and packed our bags.

We made our way up I-26 and remembered that we had left Luke's pack n play at our house. We stopped and bought a cheap one to keep at my mom and dad's and didn't get home until almost 9:00. Once we got there, Luke didn't want to sleep and fussed until 10:30 (3 1/2 hours past his bedtime). We woke up the next morning and headed to the parade.

We stood outside in the cool, September air and waited for the parade to make it's way to our spot. There was a chill in the air, so it slipped my mind for hats and sunscreen. That hour in the sun provided a pretty awful sunburn on little Luke's cheeks. The air quickly lost it's chill, the high school bands have shrunk to a handful of students and once the parade was over, it seemed like the crowd took over. I went to get a lemonade and stood in line for 20 minutes only to have a bee fished out of my drink stinging the gentleman making the drink. Luke started to get fussy and wanted to nap.

Unfortunately, my idyllic ideas of my childhood Apple Festival didn't quite live up to the grown up ideas of what it's actually like. We had a good time remembering when Dillon and I rode on the same float in elementary school, but didn't really know each other and it was nice catching up with people that we haven't seen in forever, but it wasn't the same as when we were younger. I guess things change and it's hard to go back to your childhood. It was still a good weekend seeing family, I'm just not sure it still lives up to my expectations. Even though it wasn't the same, it was still fun to see Luke get his first sucker and dance to the music going down the street!

*These pictures uploaded in the wrong order, my apologies :) *