The Carnival is in Town

So there was a "Back to School" carnival in town this weekend. Dad and I decided to take Riley up and check it out. There weren't many people there and our adventure at the carnival was rather like a roller coaster ride with highs and lows but all in all it was a nice afternoon. For Riley at any rate.
Here are Grandpa and Riley, we had just gotten our wristbands which were an unlimited pass to any of the rides and now we were all off.
The first ride that Riley wanted to do which was the first ride that he saw when we pulled up to the park was this giagantic slide where you climb a set of stairs all the way to the top and you can pick one of three tracks to slide down on an old potato sack. Here Grandpa is getting Riley's sack all set up for him.

It's a long way down but one thing I learned about Riley is that he really doesn't seem to have much fear of heights, or speed, or spinning. But more on that later. We went on this ride a few times. The first time I went down I was surprised at how fast you hit the bottom and skid on your bum across the sack they have stretched out there, so the second time I thought I could put my feet down and use the momentum to stand me up and run off the speed. Yeah. Big mistake. The second I hit the bottom and my feet planted down I proceeded to flip up over myself and smash forward on all fours. So in hindsight, skidding across on your bottom is a much better way to stop.

Next we headed to the ferris wheel. Grandpa and Riley got in one bucket, then the guy whirled them up to the top while I got in another bucket about 5 rows behind them. Or in front of them. I'm not exactly sure when it comes to Ferris Wheels. Anyway, after I got in he quickly whirled my bucket up to the top and stopped while some other kids got on.

While I was up at the top I snapped a few pictures overlooking the park and the carnival. It sure was pretty up there.

After the Ferris Wheel we headed over to this other slide looking contraption. I didn't think it looked that fun for an adult but Grandpa was adventurous enough to go in with Riley.

Riley ran through it and it wasn't long before Grandpa was lagging behind in this weird little maze world.

But they both made it down eventually. Next we headed over to do some of the little kid rides. Here Riley is riding in a pirate ship. Note the strawberries in the background. That ride was fast approaching and would be the beginning of our downfall to our so-far pleasant afternoon.

After the pirate ship we headed into the twirling strawberries. Imagine the teacups at Disneyland but with a clausterphobic feeling because you are encased in a little room inside. It sent Grandpa and my stomachs on a whirl but Riley had a great time spinning around and around and around.

After the strawberries, Riley rode on a motorcycle.

Every time he came around he tried to have another pose.

The next ride was very similar to the one before it. Small cars that go around in a circle. Here Riley is riding on a quad motorcycle trying to steer three of the handles at once. His own, the one next to him and the one behind him.

After that Riley wanted to ride on "The Tornado" dun-dun-duuuuuun!

Grandpa doesn't look to happy about it, and had we known the outcome we should have just skipped the ride. That's right. I am sad to say that "The Tornado" made Grandpa throw up for the first time in many years. But at least it wasn't a violent spew. As the ride was coming to an end he simply leaned over and tossed his cookies, so to speak, in a nice little spot on the grass. While Grandpa was in the bathroom cleaning himself up, Riley rode on the Merry-go-round. Being the little daredevil he is he was letting go of his hands, kicking his feet up, he even tried to stand on his horse but one frown from mom had him quickly sitting back down.

At this point Grandpa decided that he had had enough of the carnival and was going to walk home. No bouncy car rides for him, thank you very much. Fortunately he only lives like two blocks away. So after Grandpa left, Riley and I headed back to the slides and rode them about a dozen times. He was able to figure out which one was the fastest and which one was the slowest. He tried to stand up like I did and was also flipped forward onto his knees and hands. But he had a great time.

Then he wanted a corndog and to play some games. We stopped at a rubber duck game where he picked a rubber duck out of a floating pond and got a prize that corresponded to a number on the bottom. Luck must have been on his side because his prize was a policeman's gun and badge. It's like the Carni who was running the game knew just what my son would love. After that, he headed over to the little train ride. The only other rider was a little boy who just so happened to be in Riley's kindergarten class, Isaiah. Once they got on the train together I think they became friends because they proceeded to ride it again and again and again, switching back and forth from all the cars for each new ride. The carni running that ride told them they could both ride as often as they wanted because they both had wrist bands and so they did.

After we got off the train, Riley wanted to try to win a fish because he heard Isaiah's mom asking him if he wanted to go get his fish now. Apparently Isaiah had already won a fish. So we headed over to a game where you had to throw a little ping pong ball into one of the many dishes of water and if you did, you won a little goldfish to take home in a plastic bag. Alas, Riley's luck was not so good at this game and after throwing about 20 balls we decided that it was time to give up and go home.

All in all, the carnival started off well, hit a rather low point but ended with my little boy hopefully making a new friend. I'd call it a good day. For Riley at any rate.

Riley's First Day of Kindergarten

Here Riley is posing with our tree in the front yard, holding up a sign that says First Day of School 2009. Nothing like the "it's bright outside" squint to make a picture more memorable. haha. Also, you think I would have thought about cutting my grass yesterday to make the picture look a little nicer but.. no. That's not how I roll.




After he got all dressed and ready, we had some errands to run. First we stopped off at the Santaquin Post Office to visit Grandpa.

Where he showed Grandpa his cool new backpack.

And of course, to pose for some pictures.

Then, being the big helper he is, he made sure Grandpa's desk calendar was on the right day.

After stopping in to see Grandpa, we had to run to Annie's bank to get some money for Dad's school. Here Andrea is checking out the awesome new backpack.

And his pouch to hold all his pencils and erasers and crayons and essential kindergarten stuff like that.

Casey was visiting Andrea when we stopped by so we snapped a quick picture of the three of them together. (Look how cute you guys would look with your own kid. hint hint.) Casey told Riley he wanted him to be very good and try real hard in school to which Riley replied "You can come with me Case." Joking around with him, Casey said "Nah. I think your teacher might try to hit on me." The best part is that Riley looks at Casey very seriously and says "Oh, no. She is real nice." (I think he thought Casey meant that his teacher would literally hit him. But we all know that teachers don't do that so Casey should be safe.)

Next Riley and I were going to go get some McDonalds for lunch before his school started and I had the brilliant idea to talk Andrea and Casey into getting lunch with us and bringing it back to the Post Office to eat with Grandpa. A little nostalgia since Dad used to take Andrea to McDonalds for lunch almost every day when she was in Kindergarten.

After eating, the time had arrived. We headed up to the elementary school for Riley's first day. Here he is just outside of the main doors. He was very proud of the fact that he tied his backpack straps into a knot around his waist "in case it falls off."

We headed inside and I made him stop to take a picture with the schools mascot. So early in life and he's already a cougar. His dad and Grandpa Ned will be so proud.

Then we headed off down those big halls to his class.

Here is the wall just outside his classroom! Kindergarten is the place to BEE!

And here is the little bumblebee with Riley's name on it. There is another Riley in his class, spelled Rylee which I think just might be a girl. Oops. Well that should be fun.

After finding his class, we made a pre-emptive potty break and then it was time to enter...

The first thing we did was go find his cubby space with his name on it and put his backpack in.

Then we found his desk. He had his name on a little tag telling him what seat was his.

After we found his seat, we went to over to the other side of the classroom get his little box of crayons from another cubby space.

He was very excited by the FAT red pencil he found inside. I am going to have to make sure that it doesn't end up coming home with him.

We took it back to his seat and then found his space on the floor mat.

Here he is with his teacher, Miss Rowley. She is a native Santaquin-ite as well. I don't know why but that makes me so happy.

Then it was back to his seat to color, while Mom slowly backed out of the classroom.

And when I mean slow...

It was really slow.

He was fine of course. No tears, no "Mom, don't go." He just sat down and started coloring like the good boy he is.

Oh dear. I had finally made it to the door. I guess that means that it really was time to cut those strings and let my little boy start his journey on his own.

I maybe sat outside in the hallway for 10 minutes sort of hoping that he would miss me or at least show some kind of recognition of this milestone. But he was perfectly fine and so with mixed emotions I walked myself out to my car and headed home.

But in all honesty, piteous feelings of abandonment from my 5 year old aside, haha, I am so happy that he seems like he is going to transition into school life just fine. I am so proud of him and I hope that he will just fall in love with school. I hope that he will make friends easily, something I am worried about. With him being an only child, I have noticed that he tends to gravitate towards adults, simply because that is what he is surrounded by most of the time. I hope that he finds it easy to be in such a kid-rich environment. When he came out of the bathroom before we went into his class, one of the older classes was coming in from recess and the hallways were streaming with kids. When he saw them, he stops and goes "Woah." Like he seemed surprised to see so many kids at one time. I am sure that he will do wonderfully well and I am excited to pick him up so that I can find out just how his first day went.

I can't believe my baby is in school.