Oak City Days

Towards the end of Summer, we decided to head down to Oak City for Oak City Days.  Every year we think about taking the kids down to Oak City for their celebration, but every year we end up changing our minds.  I'm sure after this year our girls will insist we make it a family tradition.

The fun part about our trip, is that one of our very favorite cousins came all the way from Philadelphia to visit, so she was able to come to Oak City with us.  We headed down Friday after Sadie got out of school, and arrived just in time for the parade.  Every parade has something special about it, and I think what makes Oak City's Parade special/original is that they didn't have 1 float in their parade, not one...unless you count all the tractors, and kids wearing cowboy hats riding around in cars, or the very old man riding around on a motorized scooter with the words "One Cool Pop" embroidered to his back (by far that was my favorite).  But the kids don't care as long as they get candy, and boy did they get candy.  Here are the girls showing off their loot (if you can't tell they weren't happy posing for pictures)

Kylee, Samantha and Hallie with their candy

 This picture is before the parade.  Hallie and Samantha were too cool to sit by us, so they moved farther down the street to be on their own.  Don't tell my brother, he wouldn't appreciate me allowing his daughter to be without proper adult supervision...but that's what small towns are good for. 

Here we have some of the teenagers.  Apparently they are too cool to even TRY to get candy, even for their mother who gave them life!

The Next day we spent some time at the park where they sold Oak City t-shirts, home made pies, and jewelry.  They also had some fun bounce houses and slides that the kids were able to play on.  Plus, for only $1 each, Hallie and Samantha could ride the train...which consists of water barrels that are attached to dolly's and pulled by a four wheeler.  This guy was making a fortune.  By far this ride had the longest wait and a constant line.  I wish I was that creative.

Later that afternoon the kids all wanted to participate in the "fish catch".  This activity is awesome!  Basically it's exactly what it sounds like, they have 50 kids waiting around a huge pool of water, and they bring in about 15 fish, and all the kids jump in the water and try to be one of the lucky kids that actually catches a fish.  Samantha and her age group were by far the biggest.  And as you can see from the following pictures, Samantha came up empty handed.  We had coached her to work in the corners, because frightened fish would swim along the edge of the pool, and if she was quick, she would be able to flip a fish out of the pool and pick it up once it hit the ground.  Unfortunately, the stress of fighting 50 other kids, caused her to forget our instructions.

 

Poor Samantha with no fish :(.  Thankfully she was a good sport, and handled her disappointment well.

Kylee was in the next group, and she didn't have a problem following the instructions.  She caught her fish in the first 15 seconds!

Here she is working the corner, trying to knock a fish out of the pool.

And here she is below, putting her fish in a bag.

As you can tell, the sadness she felt about the fish dying, quickly passed. 

Below she is posing for a picture with her cousin Bryce.  Notice the size of their fish.  That's me not bragging about my daughter catching a bigger fish than Brenda and Ty's son.  Ha! Also, notice cute Samantha standing next to Kylee...don't feel bad for her, all the kids who didn't catch a fish were given a second chance, and thankfully ALL the kids were able to leave with their very own fish.

 Samantha and her cousins watching the fish, and thankfully they all came away with a fish of their very own.

 Caden, Samantha, Aubrey and Brianna with their fish.  Yay!

Then I got to teach my girls how to clean their fish.  Who knew I'd remember how to gut a fish.  It's been years since I'd been fishing.  When I was younger, my brother Adam and I would go fishing with my dad...and Adam would get a little queasy when it came time to clean the fish, so I was always the one doing it.  After I showed the girls how to do it, Kylee cleaned her fish almost entirely by herself...meaning, she cut the fish open and let me do the rest.

Later that night, Bret faked sick, and the rest of us went to the Oak City dance, where we danced terribly to very old music no one had ever heard before.  The nice thing about dancing terribly in Oak City, is that not one person even noticed.

We had a great time playing games, laughing, eating and spending time with family.  And that's what Oak City Days is all about.