Our Fall Festival

It was a beautiful morning for a run. The clear dawn air was 63 degrees cool and a fine mist hovered above the river one hundred feet below the bluff where we set up our registration and hospitality tables. Today was the bazillionth annual Oswegofest, but only the FIRST annual Oswegofest 5k Run/Walk, which my friend Sheri organized and at which my family (as well as several others) helped.

Carl loved telling everyone that his job was to stop traffic (he did, indeed, stop traffic so the runners could cross a specific intersection safely); Katie, Hailey and Jenna (Sheri's daughter and the girls' friend) sat at another intersection to ensure the runners turned the right direction; and Hannah and I worked the registration table and tabulated the final results. It was a roaring success, if I do say so myself. I'm already excited for our second annual 5k.


Hannah earned a gold medal--I think just for being so darn cute:

I'm particularly proud of our community. People are friendly. The park is beautiful, especially today with the extra mums and fall decorations arranged neatly throughout. On days like today living in a small town feels idyllic.

One vendor boiled eggs, drained them, then refilled them with confetti and taped them closed. Kids purchased the confetti eggs for a quarter each (yes--PER EGG) and had a ball smashing them on each other and throwing them at just about anyone. Katie got nailed--I wish you could see all of the confetti in her hair.



In addition to the first annual 5k we watched the first annual, absolutely hilarious wiener dog race. Sheri and I were concerned that more wiener dogs entered their race than we had in the 5k. Since we had twenty walkers and runners and they had eighteen dogs, our dignity remained intact. Even though the wiener dog race organizers shortened the track from 100 feet to 75 feet, the dogs ran about halfway, then became confused. Some pups returned to the starting line, some sniffed the spectators and one feisty pooch barked at and intimidated his fellow racers. What a RIOT! This picture of the starting line of heat #1 was taken about twenty seconds after the beginning of the race. Remember, this is NOT the finish line.



Hannah spent over an hour at the petting zoo while Katie and Hailey jumped on an enormous inflated thingy. Because the boys very young men operating it didn't appear to have any rules or guidelines, I'm surprised no one suffered broken bones or other injuries. The girls have a couple of burns, but otherwise they clearly enjoyed themselves.



I'm not complaining by any means. I could have--and did--have the girls quit playing on it when the bouncing-children population exceeded the population throughout the entire park.

These are a few of my petting zoo pictures. Thank you to Robin for providing this chicken picture from her camera phone. I wish my camera phone took pictures like this.



Two of my favorite people in the world....




Is there anything cuter than kids and bunnies?





Now this is one ugly chicken....

We had a "sanctioned" kiddy tractor pull. I don't know anyone in the picture, but look at all those trophies in the background!

You could take a ride around the park in this antique fire engine.






The library sponsored a pumpkin decorating contest. I love the library.



We even had a Guitar Hero contest. Rock on! I don't have pics of that because no one in my family knows how to play Guitar Hero. Yet.


We were all tuckered out, so I took some final pictures at the park's entrance. I wish I could better-describe what an all-around beautiful day we had. Life is good.