Saturday, March 12, 2011

The Ostrich Festival

Every year the Chandler Ostrich Festival comes to town. Our family loves it. It can be pricey but we figure it is a once in a year event close to our house that our children love and it saves us from having to drive into Phoenix to go to an expensive amusement park.

This year was cool cause Ryen was actually old enough and tall enough to go on rides with us, versus last year when she was pretty much still in the stroller :) Still though we don't get to do some of the cooler stuff at the event, like ride ponies or watch the Ostrich races etc, cause we spend most of our time on rides. So next year we might go in the morning for a while and then go home for a break or for naps and then come back again and stay all night :)

And let the rides begin! First up was the hot air balloons.





I love the Swings! My favorite.




It was unusually hot for this March day, so the kids loved putting their hands in the water more than they liked the actual boat ride, I think. :)




Poor Daddy had to pretty much watch us go on rides all day and take pics. And ROAST in the heat.



Roller coaster time!



Ryen's first time on a lot of these rides and I just love her faces below. She wasn't scared of anything! :)




Hands up girls!!



Then they went on a smaller miniature roller coaster just for kids, and poor Ryen was getting flung around so much over the bumps I thought she was going to have whip lash.



The ride I hate most at the carnival is the Ferris Wheel. And it just happens to be the one my kids love most and want to go on so bad. Probably cause of how large it is.



We wait in line for SO long to get on. Then getting on it takes forever cause it's let one off, let one on, and that takes about 10 minutes before the ride even gets turned on.



And the kids got bored fast and kept asking when is this over...? So we tried to improvise and make it seem more fun than it was by pretending we were on a roller coaster. There was only so many times we could wave and scream hi daddy as we went around and around ;)



But the thing I hate more than the Ferris wheel at the carnival is the games. My kids beg, scream and giggle with anticipation to play them. And they are the biggest rip off there. For $40 in games I can win a $2 Oriental Trading Company stuffed animal that my dog could eat in two seconds. I would rather get them two build a bear stuffed animals instead. Next year, much to their sadness we will be skipping ALL GAMES.



I went on this spinning tea cup style ride with the kids and was getting so nauseous I actually started to worry about Ryen. I even asked the kids we were with to stop spinning, but not sure if that was for her sake or mine? lol



The kids went into this maze-like crazy obstacle course play structure type thing, and Ryen was able to climb all the way up by herself. We were shocked.





Ryen then got scared and climbed all the way down the rope rather then go down the slide, which was the much easier and fun way to go. But while Ella played and played inside, she chased after bubbles on the ground :)



Next we headed into a fun-house and the girls loved the crazy mirrors.




And a carousel ride to end the night before going home.



See you next year :)

1 comment:

  1. Ryen is getting way too big. I can't believe she could do the climbing net and her hands up on the rollercoaster. You girls really know how to have a good time.

    ReplyDelete