A couple of weeks ago we got to take the girls to their first carnival! Our little town of St. Joe hosts the Venetian Festival every year and it supposedly brings in about 200,000 visitors every year (that’s what I read online anyways)… and everything on the internet is true, right?
We chose not to say anything to the girls about this until the day of and so I sat them down and began to share the exciting surprise along with some of the rules for the night:
Me to the girls: “We’re getting to do something VERY special tonight that we’ve never done before and we won’t get to do it very often because it costs a lot of money. It’s going to be SOOOO fun and we’re so thankful for this opportunity.”
Nya: “Are we going to the dentist!!!!” 🙂
Glad to know she’s THAT excited about going to the dentist 🙂
Anyways, it was quite a magical evening getting to watch our little girls experience their first carnival rides, oooh and ahhh at all the flashing lights, and then crash on the beach for fireworks.
Walking down to the beach where the festivities are held.
The first ride ~ I think they’re excited!
A classic carnival ride ~ the carousel
Carnival food cracks me up ~ deep fried Oreos, deep fried Snickers, elephant ears, massive quantities of onion rings and french fries ~ basically anything that’s already fattening is deep fried to somehow make it even tastier 🙂
Ah, the sights and sounds are so nostalgic!
The girls first roller coaster ride
(gotta break em in early so they’ll be ready for Ceder Point in a few years!)
Elli’s face was pretty much the same every time they made this corner … it was a little scary for her but Nya wrapped her arm around her little sister right away and kept telling her “it’s okay Elli I’ve gotcha”. Nya really liked it, but Elli’s response when she got off was “I be scary”. This was a little more Elli’s style…
She giggled like crazy on these rides!
A family ride on the big ferris wheel, what a view…
Then it was time for the awesome fireworks! Pictures never do these justice, so I just have to say that this was a-m-a-z-i-n-g! I just couldn’t get over the fact that we were laying on the beach at 11pm in 80-degrees watching huge fireworks lighting up the pier and falling in to lake Michigan…
(you can faintly see the lighthouse at the end of the pier being lit up by the fireworks, beautiful)
The night wasn’t over yet… after walking back home we had popsicles on the deck at 11:45pm!
Thank you Lord for the opportunity to experience such a FUN night!
-Niki
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I love this Nikki! When I was little we has permanent rides down there and I loved getting to go. The boats were my favorite too. It was called silver beach amusement park. Pretty cool having all of this within walking distance isn't it. I enjoyed the photos a lot.
Wow! Loved your Magical night! It looks absolutly amazing there. Hope you guys are enjoying the new area….Looks like I would.
Nice post babe! I agree, it was definitely a night to remember.