It seems every little community in Utah has a city celebration. Pleasant Grove has Strawberry days, Payson has Onion days, Spanish Fork has Fiesta days, American Fork has Steel Days and Springville has Art City days...just to name a few. When we were in American Fork the city celebration came to us. The grande parade marched past our apartments the firemen's breakfast woke us with their sirens, we even saw the smoke from the burn out a couple streets over. The carnival was down at the end of the block we saw the fireworks from our porch, we were in the middle of it all. Then we moved to Springville. One day these cute cub scouts stopped by our house and sold us tickets for a car wash and breakfast at a church on Main street one Saturday. We went to get our cars washed and discovered that the grande parade was about to make it's way down the same main street we were on. The last day of Art City days and we just stumble upon it. This year I was determined to experience it as full as I could. So when the booklet came I poured over it and decided on what we'd do.

First up was the children's parade. Hyrum wanted to ride his tricycle so I set off to figure out how to decorate it. I started my pursuit on a windy day before the big event. I tried long trails attached to his seat but one circle around the back yard and they were entirely wrapped around the axles of the rear wheels. We were back to the drawing board and I wasn't able to get back to working on it until the next morning...P-day! We had suppose to go to a Teddy bear picnic earlier in the week that I'd forgotten about, and Hyrum had been so excited to go to it so I put a teddy bear on the back of his bike to make him think we were going to the Teddy bear picnic after all.


I have to say that I was pretty impressed how it turned out


The chariot ( stroller ) that Noah rode in was not as grand. But in my defense if there were any streamers within his reach they would be on the ground in seconds.


I can't tell you how excited we all were to be in the parade. As we started around the block I realized that this way probably the longest that Hyrum had ever been on a tricycle. He was such a trooper!

He even rang his bell and waved to the 9 or 10 people who lined the parade route.


Most of the time he walked his bike but sometimes he pedaled and when he did went really fast but it took a lot out of him

( for some reason they won't let me upload the video)

Once there was a puddle in the road and when he saw it he said "HOT WHEELS!!" and took off pedaling as fast as he could go splashing through the puddle fantasticly. I didn't get my camera out fast enough. To make it even better after it was all done they gave snow cones, a participation ribbon and a candy bar to everyone who was in the parade. It was great!



Noah didn't notice the streamers until we got to the car afterwards...then he made short work of them.


We thought we'd go down to the children's art festival but when we got down there it was insanely crowded and the art projects were a bit beyond Hyrum's ability to do alone. So we walked around a bit and then decided to hit the school playground behind the festival. On the way out we saw a work of art that Hyrum noticed. I asked him what it was and he said " a fish " I said " You're right Hyrum, it does kind of look like a fish" then he said "It looks like the earth when it's broken"


Wow...yeah it kinda looks like that too. The art festival was not a waste. Hyrum experienced art.

The park was fun though.
Hyrum was trying to make his way across this and kept saying "minute to win it!" He likes a challenge.


The next day I wanted to take Hyrum to the hot air balloon launch like my dad took me to when I was young. I'd tried the day before but they'd launched before Hyrum was even awake. It started at 6:30 and they were serving hot chocolate and donuts then when each of the balloons launched they would throw out colored balls that could be redeemed for prizes. We got there at 7:30 and they'd all launched...FAIL. They were blowing up the balloon they were going to use to do the free balloon rides during the day so we watched that go up.



When it launched Hyrum said "Where are the balls?" Fail. He also asked about the hot chocolate and donuts ( he had been SOOO excited for the donuts)...FAIL. Next year...Next year.

After that we went home and got everything ready to drive to main street to watch the parade. We got there about an hour early so we walked around while we waited for things to begin. Hyrum and Derek walked to the store to get donuts. Noah sat with me for awhile


but then he was off to explore


I decided to explore myself. Take in this place nicknamed "Art City"


There are a lot of things around town to make this nickname appropriate. Statues line the street and of course there is the Springville Museum of Art which is really the best kept secret in Springville. There is a building in town that I've always thought was beautiful, it was renovated not too long ago and a year or two ago was made into a restaurant ( Magleby's ). As I walked past it I noticed it's door handles.


Beautiful. In the window was the statue that the door handles were patterned after. It was entitled "Statue of Responsibility" (My dad will not be surprised that I noted it was a study) This week has made me feel more like a Springvillian.

The parade began with the motorcycle policemen ( behind them is the new library being built...we're so excited)


There was plenty of candy thrown and acquired by my little men. Noah always wanted to be walking the sidewalks. One time he sat down on the sidewalk because I wouldn't pick him up and a piece of candy fell in his lap. No wonder he wanted to keep going back.


That night we were tricked into going to the carnival by a coupon and we ended up spending way too much money but it was a night Hyrum continues to talk about. Memories made. Check!

As soon as we saw the Carnival Hyrum wanted to ride the "dragon ride" It was the very first ride he went on and he LOVED it.



Dad had fun too


The next thing Hyrum wanted to do was this...well I'm not really sure what you'd call it...a fun house maybe. We were worried that Hyrum would be too scared to do it but he was soo brave!



At one point we thought that he'd changed his mind and started the reverse track. It was horrible just to have to sit there and watch him with his little apprehensive face and body language and not be able to go and help him.


As it turned out he thought he'd gone the wrong way but he was headed the right direction and being the ring leader in no time "come on guys, let's go this way!"


We wondered if he would have his dad's fear of high swing bridges like the ones he would cross


We found out that he did not.

He loved the final slide.

Then it was off to the space ships



and the super slide ( that he had to do with Mom AND Dad )


Then ended the night at the cars


He's the ultimate back seat driver


This ride reminded me of a ride at Great America that we have a picture of me "driving" when I was about Hyrum's age.


This was a great Art City days! We can't wait till it comes again. We don't even really care that it doesn't come to us. Except for the Hot air balloon launch...but we're going to make it next time.


This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 15, 2011 and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 comments:

    Autumn said...

    My kids love Art City Days! We only live 4 blocks from the junior high and can sit in our front yard and watch the balloons. It was so much nicer (for us) when they use to have the carnival where the fire house on Center/Main is. We could just walk. :) We avoid the parade but all the floats come up our street afterwards, so again, we get a prime view from the front window.

  1. ... on July 8, 2011 at 6:45 PM