Art City Days: Stay-cation

Every year during the first week of June, Springville celebrates Art City Days.  When we first moved here, I thought it was a bit presumptuous for Springville to call itself Art City.  It's not a very big city after all, but after spending more time here and learning a lot more about the history of Springville, it seems like a more appropriate nickname for the city.  Springville has one of the best small town art museums in the nation.  It was built as a public works project during the Great Depression, and even before the museum was built the town held a yearly Art Salon.  There have always been a lot of patrons of the arts in the city, and several acclaimed artists come from Springville.  Although Springville might not have a Van Gogh or a Picasso in its hall of fame, the city does a phenomenal job of bringing art to the people.  That's something I appreciate.  Most of the Art City Days events have nothing to do with Art, but I thought it was worth explaining the name.

On June 3rd, we participated in the Nestle Family Fun Run 5K.  We were very proud of the girls for walking/running the whole time and never once asking to be carried.  They both did a great job, and we are so proud of them.  Let's face it, I'm also proud of myself for getting up early with a three month old baby to do a 5K.  Since we were going Reagan's pace, it wasn't physically taxing, but it's always tough to get up in the morning.  I'm glad I did though because we had so much fun.

At the finish line

Children 6 and under got a medal.  Reagan slept with hers for several nights.  She was so proud of herself.

That night we went to the Springville Rodeo with my brother Michael.  It was fun to get some time with him, and I also enjoyed seeing the horses and the bulls.  One of the bulls was extremely stubborn.  After he knocked off his rider, it took several minutes for the wranglers to get him to the gate.  Then just as they were about to close the gate, the bull bucked it back open, and he threw himself to the ground over and over again.  It was fascinating to watch, and I thought that if the cowboy who rode that bull had gotten another bull, he might not have gotten thrown quite so soon.

On Monday I took the girls to the library for the Kindy 500.  The girls got to decorate cardboard boxes like cars, and then we went inside for story time and a puppet show.

They were so pleased.

 Madelyn turned officially 3 months on that day.  I have no idea why this picture won't rotate, but I still think it's super cute because everything about Madelyn is super cute.

On Wednesday we went to the Carnival on Main Street.  We rode the Ferris Wheel and the Merry-Go-Round with the girls, and then the girls rode all the rest of the kid rides.  They loved it, of course.

We even met up with their friend Gracie, and they rode rides together.

Reagan riding a motorcycle.

 On Thursday we went to the Funarama.  There were a bunch of bounce houses set up at the Arts Park.  I was underwhelmed by the event since there were only seven bounce houses and hundreds of children, but even though we spend most of the two hours standing in line, the girls still liked it.

Reagan coming down the slide

 On Friday we went to the Children's Art Festival at the Art Museum.  They had tons of booths set up with different crafts for children to do.  They made a crocodile hat, an American flag, sunglasses, drew various pictures, painted various pictures, made bookmarks, colored sunglasses, etc.

These balloon buddies were a favorite from the Art Festival

 On Saturday morning we went to the Fire Station breakfast, which was yummy, and then we walked over to Main Street for the parade.  Our friends, the Christiansens, had saved a spot right next the library in the shade, and we joined them.  Little Gracie is such a sweetie, and I'm glad our girls are friends with her.

Waiting for the parade to start

 In the afternoon we went to the Motorcycle Show at Legends.  The girls liked these falcons who were walking around.  The cars and motorcycles were interesting, too.

Then we went over to my parents' to say goodbye to Michael before he left to return to Fargo.

I snapped this picture of Will holding Madelyn.

 That evening we went to my favorite of all the Art City Days events.  An 80s revival band called Radical Revolution played a concert at the Arts Park.  It was so much fun.  We danced a ton and really enjoyed ourselves.  I was so grateful that my mom watched Madelyn because she would have hated it, but the rest of us loved the fun, danceable music.  Reagan and Kirsten were exhausted by the end, but it was totally worth entirely wearing them out.  After the concert, we watched the fireworks, and then Art City Days was over.

Reagan would not let go of Matt's neck.

Kirsten jammed on his shoulders.

The week was full of fun and excitement.  I'm so grateful to live in such a family-friendly place with so many interesting things to do.