McCall Winter Carnival

This past weekend we headed up to McCall again for the winter carnival. The trip started out great...Owen and Emmie slept almost the entire way there and Ains only whined a little bit. The only unfortunate moment happened when we first got to the cabin...my dad's 4 wheel drive went out and he couldn't get his truck up the driveway. It's a pretty steep hill, and after several tries, he gave up and the truck spent the weekend immobile at the bottom of the hill. We are super lucky that Kort married into a family that has a cabin up there. Unfortunately it is going up for sale. Deep down I hope it doesn't sell so that we can keep using it every year or two. (I know, I'm mean.)
We got there Friday afternoon and headed out that evening for the fireworks. We had never gone to the fireworks before and they were amazing! I don't know if our expectations were low, seeing as how McCall is such a small town, but seriously it was the best fireworks show I've been to in a while. We thought it was the finale 3 different times. The crowd would clap thinking it was over, and then they'd start up again.

The crowd was standing close to where they were shooting them off. You can see a little flame in the distance in the above picture...that's where they were lighting them. The ash was dropping on us, it was awesome! Owen laid down on his back to watch most of the show, until he got ash in his eye, then he stood up.

That night the kids ate their first twinkie. I feel that I have failed them as a mother! How have I not introduced twinkies to my children yet? Good thing I thought to bring some up with us. Owen loves them, and Ains (my daughter with the weirdest taste buds on the planet) thought they were disgusting. In her words they were, "doughy". Whatever!
The next day we headed into town again for a parade and to look at all the ice sculptures. Once again, McCall didn't disappoint. I can't think of the last parade that I went to that was actually a good parade. This one was great. They kind of have a Mardi Gras theme and everyone collects beads from year to year and the people on the floats throw beads to the kids as well as candy. Everyone was dressed crazy and having a fun time.

This is Ainsley crying because they weren't throwing candy she liked....but she is a little hard to please, the girl doesn't like twinkies for heaven's sake!

The BSU band and cheerleaders even made an appearance.

If you look closely at this horse you can see all the paint on him...the animals even got dressed up.

Notice this dogs beads!
After the parade and a freakishly long walk to a restaurant we could sit down at we headed out again to see the sculptures. They were pretty cool, like every year.

And here's proof that Emmie was with us the entire time. I put her in a snuggli in my coat and she loved it. As soon as I put her in she would fall asleep. She slept through the loud fireworks, sirens, and drums during the parade. Granted I was plugging her ears, but still. She did amazing. She was a great little traveler and super happy! She only cried in the car, cause she hates the car, and got a little fussy on Saturday night. What a good little girl!
After sculptures we took the kids home and they went sledding down the driveway at the cabin (the driveway my dad couldn't get up). Owen was soaking wet by this point because he had walked through EVERY puddle we walked by, and there were lots! He still wouldn't come inside and went sledding for about an hour. When I finally got him to come inside I took off his boots and they were soaking wet. I literally could have wrung out his socks. How that kid was happy outside in the freezing cold I'll never know!

Other than that we just hung out at the cabin and played games. This year it was nine's and hand and foot. Good times!

And now I will share my 2 favorite moments of the trip. The first happened here...

after fireworks the first night. Some guy came up to my dad and asked if he knew where a liquor store was. My dad looked back at him confused and said, "The licorice store?" The man was a little confused until someone else jumped in to answer his question. Maybe you had to be there...but the interaction was hilarious.

And my very favorite thing of the entire trip was that John forgot to pack his coat and had to borrow this one from Dan's grandpa that was left at the cabin.

He looked awesome walking around town in that get-up! I offered a cash prize for anyone that could spot a worse coat...no one could.

But what really made the coat hilarious was when a girl on a float in the parade pointed at John and said, "Look at that guys coat!" And then on Friday night after the fireworks, a woman trying to get John's attention called him "mam". Yes, John was referred to as a woman in that coat. I still giggle thinking about it. And now I like to call him mam just for fun. You should try it too! He loves it, I promise!