carnival

I decided I would go to South Ogden Days to help my mom with her grandkids, not because I'm a good daughter or aunt, but because I knew I could get some cotton candy out of it.  

I was excited,

 we took a cute picture,

but no one (but me) wanted much to do with the cotton candy.  I had to bribe them into taking a few bites with tickets to the rides, and, once they shoveled in a few bites, they remembered how much they love cotton candy.

starving children would be so grateful for that cotton candy

We took the Pepsi challenge and found out that after a lifetime of drinking Diet Pepsi, my mom prefers Diet Coke.  Thanks, Pepsi!  We actually found out that we all like the taste of Coke more.  Well, except for Ethan.  He likes sodapop.

The girls rode a spinning berry ride and Ethan raced through the Raiders obstacle course in 50 seconds flat.

Ginny and Joanna wanted to ride the motorcycles, but I made Joanna do what I wanted her to do.  

Ginny can do anything she wants.

This is what I made Jo do, instead.  She thanked me afterwards.

Although, this face was thanks enough.

On their own, WITH NO ENCOURAGING FROM ME, Ethan and Joanna decided the hammer was their next ride choice.

There's a safety sign and stuff.  It's probably safe.

In hindsight, I don't think Joanna had seen the ride in action.  As I took a picture and they were locked in their cages, I started thinking things through.  What was I thinking?  These aren't even my children.  My mom (who had been trusting me with these kids and wasn't there during the decision) and I stood back, avoiding the puddle of vomit, and they began spinning in circles.  Ethan screamed gleefully the first few times around, but the silence coming from Jo's side of the cage was disconcerting.  Then, at the top of the fourth turn, an involuntary high pitched wail came out of that little girl.  If it was terror or joy I can't say, but the operator was watching us carefully and asked if we wanted to stop the ride.  They got their thrill and it wouldn't kill them if they had a short ride (can't make that promise for a longer one!), so (don't tell Ethan!) we cut it short.  Then, once the ride slowed down, it was clear that Joanna was laughing.  All's well.

We decided to use the last of the tickets on something they could all do together- the fun slide.  They all took their gunny sacks to the top of all those stairs and Joanna promptly turned around and came down.  She had spent all her courage on the last ride.   Tickets are not refundable so Ginny graciously went twice for her.