Fishers Freedom Festival 2009

2009-06-28
For a week of "down time" between two family visits, we managed to stay pretty busy. This weekend had a lot of fun activities to keep us occupied, between the Fishers Freedom Festival and a visit to the Royer's farm. 
Yep. It's still really tough to be Beansprout
Sublime sunset over Suburbia
Just a sliver of the new moon was peeking out the other night
Saturday morning, Chris ran (fast) and Emily pushed David (who incidentally did not. shut. up the entire time) in the Fishers Freedom Festival 5K race. It was luckily not as humid, so it was a pretty decent run. Afterwards, they staged a Kid's Run. David understood the "On your mark, get set, go!" part of it...
...and here he is totally <i>smoking</i> all the other kids running in his age division...
...and here he is careening past the Finish Line and the nice man with the medals...
...and heading into the outfield
...and being chased down by the guy with the medals, at which point David just falls down in the grass and starts laughing
Because he wasn't yet tired enough after His Big Race, he decided to take a few laps around the infield, too
So much dust, so little time
Later that day at the Freedom Festival, we watched a Police Dog demonstration. Here, the guy who drew the short straw got to be mauled by one of the K9 units
My guess is that the bloodhound smelled Team Hansen (who had not yet showered after their race) and wanted to keep moving
This job stinks for several reasons. One, it was almost 90 degrees out, and he gets to wear the padded suit (patched in a few too many places with duct tape, by the way)...
Two, once you're on the ground, the dog is shaking and grabbing the ever-loving stuffing out of your sleeves. Then, the police man runs up and says funny stuff like, "Suspect! Put your hands up or I will not release my dog!"
Not afraid of heights, either
Also not afriad of letting go
Note to potential "suspects": police dogs will tear you right out of the car and <i>then</i> bite you. Your beater Oldsmobile will not protect you
Try as we might, we were unable to resist the deep-fried smell of a classic Indiana giant tenderloin
What frisbee dog competition? All he cares about is trying to eat more tenderloin than Daddy
We're going to encourage Rita to enroll Bernie in Frisbee Dog school in time for next year's competition
The first of our summer bounty: two peppers. The one on the right came from David's pizza garden, but we forgot to actually put it on the pizza Saturday night
Funny, that he's running away from the chickens running away from him
Inside the ewe and lamb barn at the Royer's farm, where the ladies are very interested in the bucket of feed coming towards them
Scott becomes a bit of a Pied Piper as he feeds the ewes and lambs
After being head-butted by one sheep, David dutifully helped spread some straw in the barn
Cale shows him how to properly kick the straw (for better and more even distribution, of course)
Sigh. <i>Boys</i>
The hens were offended (and let us know it) by our intrusion into their laying box, but David was good about collecting eggs. They were so fresh, they were still warm!
Yell "suey!" in a high-pitched voice, and the pigs come running
There is nothing better than a mud puddle on a sunny summer morning
We brought some tasty snacks for the pigs: melon rind, eggshells, and leftover stale pastries from Emily's work
David helps Scott hose down a pig. Cale kept saying, "Gee, it sure would be nice to be able to play in the mud..."
David and Knic running in dirt
A farmer's water fountain
Another pasture of lambs and ewes started out bucolic and peaceful
Then Scott yelled at them in a high-pitced voice, too
Soon we were surrounded by sheep searching for special snacks
Scott was very nice to take David for a spin on the four-wheeler. Apparently, "they went fast"
Checking out the cows at another pasture (and seeing some caves for the first time, too)
The highlight of the day was playing in the creek after our picnic lunch
Oh, yeah. Classic boys, again. It was impossible to tell these three apart (especially since Knic and Cale are twins as it is), so to say, "Hey, you! Muddy blonde kid with the blue shirt!" seemed to work
He started grinning and kicking, so you <i>know</i> what was coming down the road at the Freedom Festival Parade Sunday afternoon...
That kid...so predictable
As many parades as we go to, we almost never see Shriners and their little cars. Today, though, there were about six or seven groups of them
A <i>real</i> minivan
What a lineup! The John Deere portion of the parade was undoubtedly his favorite
Tall enough to fit over cornstalks
What was great about the Rotary Club people is that half of them weren't even pedaling