Carousels & Cotton Candy

Maybe it was the bright lights, cotton candy and caramel apples (never did get into fried funnel cakes — I think I just heard most of you say, ‘What’s wrong with her?’). Or maybe it was just the plain thrill of exploring newly found adolescent independence with my best friend by my side. Carnivals were our summer flings. Boys? Meh. Come July, carnival hopping was our main agenda. Played so hard we’d leave almost tossing pavement pizza. You’d think those harebrained memories would deter a say, mother of two little carnival newbies. Guess again. Stumbling upon a carnival with not one, but TWO ferris wheels? Obligatory summer night fun!

The money spent losing this game (twice) was worth not having to take home a giant newspaper-stuffed banana. How would I ever explain why Chiquita randomly went missing? Gage thought he won both times anyway! A win-win for us all.

The flight of the bumble bee was one Beck had to watch from behind bars. He was too short to ride … broke my heart. Next year, little buddy. Just you and me. And the bee.

Sweet redemption came with the purple metallic monster truck! Jerked around on that thing like a boss. Although I must say, I’d ride it fives times over just to watch their expressions again. It’s serious business driving a truck her size.

At times they forget how little they are. Full-sized basketballs with hoops impossibly far away equals inevitable tears. I sweet-talked them into getting snow cones instead. They had no idea what I was talking about — never tasted one, before. Convincing took all of two words: snow ice-cream.

This has to be one of my favorites. A sweet memory of him being so gentle, as if it were of some special worth — savoring ever last spec of his half strawberry, half lime, flavored snow cone!

Trying to decide which out of the two ferris wheels was the biggest. We ended up making the right choice — not only was it an amazing view, it lasted 10 whole minutes … long enough to sneak in some snuggles.

As much as I enjoyed carnivals growing up, living the wonder with my little family, definitely has it beat. It’ll be a summer night I always remember.

Now, where do we find another one?