Can Anyone Smell Bacon?

Yesterday we spent the 24th of July holiday in Preston/Weston/Dayton with family for a fun-filled morning. Weston puts on a parade and carnival in their city park and it is full of good old-fashioned fun. The kids played carnival games where everyone gets a prize, jumped in the bounce house, and had a great day with their cousins. I love small town parties like this because they get to do things that don't happen in the bigger cities.

One such thing was a candy drop. A guy flies around in his glider (think parachute with seat and motor) and all the kids RUN to the baseball field. After circling once to get the kids ready, he flies back and starts dropping hundreds of pounds of candy onto the field and surrounding area. The kids all do the "candy scramble" to see how much they can rake in and have a blast.

The other event that was a highlight was the pig chase. They sell tickets and divide in two groups: eight and under and nine and older. Then two men carry out a pig that isn't really all that big and grease it down with Crisco and then pour - and I mean pour - vegetable oil over the pig. On "go" the kids all run for the poor unsuspecting pig as fast as they could. By this time Ethan is already twenty feet behind with the other three-year-olds and I'm sure he's thinking that it is just a race. Logan didn't want to chase the pig at all so he is on the bleachers watching.

Tom, on the other hand, is out in front, running for all he's worth. About 90 seconds into the chase, Tom makes his move and DIVES for this pig. The crowd all gasps with hope for this little man and then the pig wiggles free from his grasp and the whole crowd sighs for him. It was almost his!

They keep chasing and the pig somehow gets out of the baseball field even with the dad's guarding the entrance and races into the crowd and playground with about 50 kids hot on his tail. Finally a girl catches him and Tom is right behind her to help her hold him down. After he got away from Tom, he knew how slippery he was and didn't want him to get loose again! I was proud of him for being so close to victory for his very first pig chase. He was covered in grease but his smile was worth any laundry. I'm sure Brandon and Sunnie were slightly relieved that he didn't catch the pig since it would have to live at their house.

When Gary asked Tom what he would have done with it if he had caught the pig, Tom responded, "Kill it and eat it when it got bigger." I guess the boy understands where his food comes from.