Boat Race Weekend

We made it to the boat races this year, after my brother came through with 2 free general admission tickets. We picked up free kids tickets at the mall, sneaking Shelby in as a 12 year old. She was nervous about it, but they never even looked at her.

It was a great time. Very mellow. We found a great spot along the bank where we could swim and watch the air show and the boats. I was afraid the kids would get bored, because there's not really that much to it, but swimming in the river was all they needed to stay entertained. Rhiannon liked walking around to look at the vendors, even though it was mostly food vendors. We bought each of the girls a huge snow cone; they came with vanilla ice cream in the bottom of the cup...sounds gross, but it was delicious!

Our spot happened to be right in front of an almost deserted beer garden, so Clint and I hopped over for a quick $4 Budwiser or two. It was great because we could see the girls the whole time. In my opinion though, the beer gardens are overrated. I had a better time swimming and hanging out with the kids.

I was nervous about the whole event, because Clint has always discouraged us from going. Of course, he denies that, but his past experiences with the wild and crazy earlier years of boat races, along with his reluctance to take the girls to anything if it might be difficult or complicated(which is just about any public event that involves taking four kids), have a tendency to make him less than enthusiastic. I get nervous because if I insist on doing an activity, and it IS hard, he will be tense, and I will be frustrated, both of which make the whole event even harder.

I decided to go on this one, whether he wanted to or not. Of course, once I make the definite decision, he goes along with it, but even then, I am nervous, and almost wish I could go without him, so if things get tough I can just work it out on my own(which is a lot easier than having to also argue with him about how to handle things).

Anyway, there was nothing tough about it. The biggest challenge was the heat, but we were on top of that one. I just kept slathering the sunscreen on the girls and me (Clint didn't, and got burned), and we brought hats, sunglasses, and a beach umbrella.

We wanted to go back on Sunday, too, but felt that deserting my Dad for one day of his visit was already pushing it. So we passed our tickets along to Mary Ellen and Pat, so that they could check it out too! I hope we can finagle free tickets again next year. It makes for a fun an affordable family event!