Fairs, Festivals, and FUN!

It has been a very crazy last couple of weeks. Needless to say, the blog is often the thing that gets bumped down the priority list. The good news is that I finished two more classes toward my PhD. The great news is that I earned As in both of them! I wish I still got paid for my As!

This is a fun time of year with the Greek Festival and State Fair. The Greek Festival was last Thursday through Sunday. Thursday night we had Pack Meeting, Friday I worked all day, and then Ryan had soccer from 4:00 to 5:00. As we were looking at our weekend last Friday afternoon, we realized that we had a full day on Saturday. If we wanted to make it to the Greek Festival, we’d have to go right after Ryan’s soccer practice. I can’t remember a year since we moved back to Utah that we’ve missed the Greek Festival. We knew we had to go.

We had a great time. We enjoyed our dinner – I got “the usual” – spanakopitakia (spinach, feta, phyllo), dolmathes (stuffed grape leaves) and stefatho (beef and onion stew). We watched the dancers for a while, and Ryan played a couple of games, winning a couple of stuffed animals. Then we got our dessert to go in order to make it all last a few days. Again, “the usual” – galatoboureko (custard and phyllo), pasta flora (raspberry tart), an almond tort, and my favorite – kataifi (kind of like baklava, but with shredded phyllo on top). As always, we were glad that we squeezed this great event into our schedule.

Bright & early Saturday morning, Ryan had a soccer game. He scored his first goal of the season! (I bribed him with 5 “Mom Money”).We came home & Ryan changed his clothes, and we took Copper to DOG-a-POOL-ooza at the Rec Center. Every year at this time, they drain all of the pools (Ryan doesn’t have swim team for 2 weeks). They do the outdoor pool and splash pad last. Right before they drain it, they invite people to bring their dogs to play in the pool. It was hilarious! Copper was one of the smallest dogs there, and was very intimidated by the bigger doggies. He also WOULD NOT get into the pool at all. Ryan finally dragged him (quite literally, as you can see from the pictures) through the splash pad part.Kristin & Abby invited us to go to Orchard Elementary’s carnival tonight. Since my classes officially ended at 4:00, we decided it would be a great way to play and celebrate my classes ending. It was really windy, but the kids had a great time together. They enjoyed the bouncy toys until they were taken down after one went airborn! They spent the rest of the time in the carnival games and on the playground. We always love hanging out with Kristin & Abby!