To say this past week was fun is an understatement! This past week was a total blast! Our small, historical town had much reason to celebrate this week. This year is our 225th anniversary! 225 years our little village has been on the map! We also had our 2016 Jubilee celebration that lasted all weekend. So fun!
The festivities started last Sunday with an opening ceremony and the first showing of our town drama. This is a play telling the history of Fort Recovery. This play is entirely put on by the townspeople! It is miraculous the amount of time and resources that were put into making this show happen. The rich history of the village was on full display, starting from when the Indians lived on the land and battled the US Military. The forts the military built still stand in town today! The second half of the drama zoomed through to modern day history, finishing with the flood last year that canceled our annual festival, to the highschool football team winning a state title for the first time in history this past fall!
All week long they had different activities and events, tours of historical areas and buildings and lots of gathering of everyone in town! We finished the week off with our annual Jubilee! The kids had a total blast here! There were a ton of rides, carnival games and of course amazing fried food! Who doesn’t like that!?
The Jubilee officially started on Thursday with rides and free inflatables for the kids! We planned to go up then but unfortunately Chase was running a fever so we stayed put to rest up for the weekend!
Friday night the hubs and I went down later in the evening to enjoy meeting up with friends and listening to the band play. We enjoyed fresh grilled burgers and ice cold beer. It was a great night out!
Saturday we took the kids up for lunch and for an afternoon of fun! They started right away with the giant fun slide! Marlee and Chase went down that thing atleast 4 times before they were off to the next thing! (Milo is our cautious one and didn’t quite have it in him yet to go. He got there though!) They rode the spinning dogs, although they didn’t spin them much, and then Marlee ran to the Scrambler. Erik and I just looked at eachother but she swore she rode it before and loves it. Needless to say her face was priceless. She was somewhere between scared to death and trying not to puke! Ha! That as the last time she rode that for the day! (Maybe next year?!)
We also let the kids play the carnival games for the first time this year. Let me tell you, we were quick to remember why we didn’t ever let them play! Those things are SO expensive and nearly impossible for them to win! Talk about expensive disappointment! We did have fun at the one stand though. It was a stand with beer bottles lined up and you were to throw a baseball at them. If you broke two, you won a prize. We bought each of the boys three balls to throw (at this point Marlee was off riding with friends!). Milo, our big ball player, was a little shy and didn’t quite give it all he had. The man running the stand gave each of the boys two extra balls to throw because they had missed all the other ones and I am sure he felt bad for him. Well, later in the day Erik brought Milo back over. The man gave Milo three balls and wouldn’t you know the little shit smashed a bottle! Erik said the man’s face was totally priceless! It takes a lot of force to bust one of those….leave it to Mighty Milo!
After a few hours in the hot sun (although I can’t complain, God blessed us with gorgeous weather all weekend!) Vayda (and maybe mom too) was beat. Erik brought us home so I could put her down for a nap and then brought the kids back up for another hour of riding! It’s amazing the energy they have!
Sunday is parade day and this year it was sure to be a big one! If you are from a small, country town like ours, you will understand when I say that pretty much half of the parade consists of tractors! We have two big implement dealers in town and they show off all their new equipment. Plus people ride their antique tractors through! While it does get to be a little much after awhile, it is neat to see the big machines all shiny and new! The local high school band plays, all the local businesses have floats and the local and surrounding fire departments all drove their trucks through. The kids collected candy like it was their job and me and Vayda sat in the shade and enjoyed the sites! It was the perfect end to a great celebration!
We are all exhausted and I am looking forward to this much calmer week ahead but I am still riding the high from all of the fun we had! I am also still in awe. In awe of the amazing community that we live in. These people all came together, working night and day for months on end, preparing every detail. It is nothing short of amazing! All of these people have families to care for and jobs to work but spent every free moment preparing for this week. I am so thankful to God for the amazing weather. It was the finishing touch! And I am also thankful for these people and this community. I have no doubt this is the best place in the world to raise our family!
Until next year, Fort Recovery! The Fiely’s can’t wait for year 226 and the 2017 Jubilee!
