Carnival!

$40.



12 Rides.

35 Minutes.

Welcome to the Annual Homer Carnival.

Because of the rain, I did not have the population to draw from to conduct a thorough study of individual families carnival spending habits.

Because of the rain I was very concerned about my children being electrocuted. I kept telling myself that we were all wearing rubber soled shoes and that we would be OK because of that. This is a safety point I was taught by my mother who told me this same thing when I would ask her why we would not be hurt by the lightning striking our car a far off summer ago in Southern Illinois.

Fortunately, two capable friends were there, Karen (super capable) and Giulia (an er doc) and when I witnessed them willingly put their children on the rides I figured it would be OK. Sure enough there were no close encounters with electricity.

Or maybe the shoes were doing their jobs...
This year Marina learned about the Midway. She had learn about the disappointment that goes along with getting the insignificant consolation prize instead of the big stuffed animal. She was shocked, albeit relieved, to hear about the tricks that carnivals use to take a lot of money from kids while giving away very few prizes. She took great relief in hearing this not only from Willie and I, but from her Dad, who explained about all the times he'd not won the big tiger.


This year Falcom felt ready to tackle the big ride. The Hurricane. Willie had just gone on the ride with his friend Naomi and he agreed to go with Falcom only after warning him that it was pretty scary. These shots are of the boys on the ride; Willie convincing Falcom that he is going to be alright and to please not puke the entire time.

DeeJay is not in these pictures because he was not with us. He decided that he would rather go to the library, see some friends, and walk around town instead. Was it the rain or the fact that 18 year olds don't really want to be seen hanging out with little kids that kept him from joining the group that was bleeding my wallet dry? Probably both.

He and I are celebrating. He passed another of his High School Qualifying Exams this quarter. We are going on a date to the movies tonight to celebrate.