Attending the Pecan Festival With My Little Nuts

So far, this has been a November much like many other Novembers; somewhat busy, but overall a nice breather between the pressure-cooker holidays that are Halloween and Christmas. The weather has turned fabulous, and the outdoor festivals are starting to proliferate, as is common during the Arizona winters. One of the big festivals in our part of Pima County is the annual (as of a few years ago) Sahuarita Pecan Festival, an event run by the local Green Valley Pecan Company, a large orchard not far from our home.

There's quite a lot to do and see at the festival; games, displays, merchant booths, tractor pulls, music, and lots of food (including pecans, of course!). It's your standard fall festival, with a nice nutty flavor. I have to admit I was never a huge fan of pecans growing up, but I have started to really enjoy eating them in a variety of dishes. Yummy, yummy pecans...

But I digress! Since it was a lovely Saturday in early November, I decided to take the girls to the Pecan Festival for a few hours to have some fun. Last year, Lorelai and I participated in the family "fun run" that is also a big part of the Pecan Festival. We really wanted to do the run again this year, but after our exhausting October, we didn't manage to get registered in time. Hopefully we can find another family fun run and do it later on in the year.

Despite not doing the run, we were still happy to bring the other girls along to the festival this time. We wanted to share the fun with everyone this year, and luckily everyone enjoyed themselves.

We spent almost all our time in the free kid's section of the festival. There were several activities for the kids to try, including some inflatable mazes...

...and slides (check out Celeste's face as she goes down the slide!).

One corner of the kid's area was a small enclosed area where several Arabian horses were being displayed. They were gorgeous horses and the girls were excited to meet one.

The Arabians were for petting only; however, in the other corner of the kids' area, there were some ponies available to ride on.

Right next door to the pony rides was a petting zoo, where Aurora ended up spending most of the morning. She loved following the ducks around, petting baby chicks, and staring in awe at the goats and the donkey.

A local Boy Scout troop had also set up a handmade "bridge" for the kids to walk across.

 

 

It took some time and some balance adjustments, but overall the girls handled it well.

There were a few more "hard-core" activities for kids to try, as well. Celeste and Lorelai were both enticed by the climbing wall. Lorelai ultimately decided against it however, when she realized just how high she would have to climb. Maybe she got a touch of vertigo? Celeste, however, was still game to try:

She was so excited she could barely restrain herself from squealing in glee. However, her hand-eye coordination proved to be her undoing on the wall:

Sadly, this picture shows the sum total of Celeste's ascension up the wall. She couldn't hang on; she had trouble gripping the handholds and was always scared to move her feet up the wall. She was a little discouraged when she came "back to earth" (which was just a few feet down), but I told her I was still proud of her for making the attempt. Maybe she will have more success in future years.

Lorelai was bound and determined to take a spin in the centrifuge ball that was located next to the climbing wall.

Unfortunately, since only two people fit into the ball at a time, she had to wait so long. Like, almost an hour. She was bored & frustrated, and the sun was in her eyes, and she complained a lot. I felt really bad for her, since her sisters got to run around and do several activities during this time, while Lorelai could only wait and wait and wait. But it was good to teach her a little patience, I think.

At last, though, her time arrived! And she almost chickened out.

Look at the fear in those eyes! She remained in her seat, though, and when the ball started spinning, she really enjoyed herself. All I could see was her white-blond hair flailing around in the air. And she never once screamed in terror, because to do so would be to incur Celeste's mocking.

Success! She was walking a little funny at the end, but overall Lorelai said it was worth the wait. The best part? A photographer from the local newspaper snapped a few pictures of her ride, and the following week, we found a picture of her in the paper! All we could see of her was the aforementioned flailing blond hair, but her name was in the photo caption! She gloated the whole rest of the day about her new-found fame.

By this time, we had to leave the festival and start heading back to the shuttle station, since I had another activity that afternoon. Due to nearby road construction, there was nowhere to park at the festival, so we had to ride a school bus over from the nearby high school. The girls, unsurprisingly, loved that.

But on our way out, we stopped by the rope-making booth, one of Lorelai's favorite places from the previous year's festival!

 

It was really neat to see how rope is made, and Celeste and Aurora each got their own section of rope to play with however they wished. We briefly considered stopping for some free ice cream on the way back to the shuttle (ice cream topped with pecans, no less!), but they ran out just as we walked up to the booth. It was probably a sign from above that we didn't need the extra sugar.

 

So the girls had to settle for hugs from this giant, sort of creepy squirrel, who was apparently the mascot of the festival. The girls weren't really sure of him at first, but he turned out to be harmless.

So that was about it for our day! I attended a friend's wedding shower for a friend that afternoon, and the kids stayed inside and relaxed after being out in the sun all morning (and getting somewhat rosy-cheeked in the process). The Pecan Festival probably won't be our last outdoor event this winter, but it was a nice way to start the season of nice weather in Arizona.