November 2021 Books and Adventures

 Hi friends, 

November was a rough month for our family. I did get a few good books in though. We’re looking forward to Christmas, and hopefully, I’ll get a few good books to read over the holidays. As always, let me know what you think of these books and if you have suggestions for future reading. 

Tonya 

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

Rating: 3 of 5 stars

Recommendation: not really

Review: I really liked A Gentleman in Moscow, so I was excited when I heard about this new book by the same author. However, I was disappointed. First, I was promised a road trip book following a couple of teenagers across the U.S in the 1950s. That’s not what this book was. Second, the ending was awful. I guess if I read more literary books, it probably would have made more sense, but it just made me mad at all my favorite characters and didn’t adequately resolve several of the main plot points. So, that was annoying. Maybe he was setting it up for a sequel? I can see that a lot of people really like this book, so maybe I’m missing something, or it was over my head. I will admit that it was beautifully written. Towles is known for his amazing prose, like this statement, “The Good Lord does not call you to your feet with hymns from the cherubim and Gabriel blowing his horn. He calls you to your feet by making you feel alone and forgotten. For only when you have seen that you are truly forsaken will you embrace the fact that what happens next rests in your hands, and your hands alone.” Each of the characters and points-of-view felt very well realized and fleshed out. Towles made the unusual choice to have one character speak in first-person point-of-view but none of the others. In the hands of a less talented author, this might have been jarring, but I think he pulled it off, and it really served to illustrate that character's psyche and arc. The ending just kind of ruined all of the good things that I liked about it. 

Will by Will Smith

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: if you like reading celebrity memoirs

Review: I've read a few celebrity memoirs and have generally enjoyed them. I picked up this one because I figured that Will Smith has probably lived a very interesting life and thought I'd like to hear that story. I was glad I did. This book was extremely well-written. Smith does have a ghost author, so it's hard to tell if that's because of his skill as an author or his skill at choosing a co-author. In either case, Smith has lived a very interesting life, and this book is well-written, which I think makes it a good memoir. It got a bit weird at the end, but maybe that's just a reflection of the change in attitude and life of its subject. In any case, I learned a lot about hip-hop in the 1980s, which I had known nothing about before, and a lot about show business, which I also hadn't known anything about, but made me grateful for my consistent, steady government job. Recommend for anyone looking for a good memoir.

Knife of Dreams (Wheel of Time #11) by Robert Jordan

Rating: 3 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes

Review: It was good to see Jordan’s return to form in this 11th installment of the Wheel of Time. Books 9-10 were a bit of a slog, but I’m glad I endured because he finally wrapped up most of the annoying plotlines from the previous books. All of our main cast were on point. Perrin finally returned to being awesome. Mat was amazing, and although Egwene and Nynaeve didn’t get as much page time, they really did impress when we got to focus on them. I’m trying to remember what Rand did in this book, and I’m drawing a blank, so it must not have been that impressive. Oh yeah, there was a big trolloc fight scene and some scary developments with the whole Rand vs. Lews Therin mental situation. Hopefully, that gets resolved soon. I’m excited to get into the Sanderson part of the series. To be honest, I read 11 Robert Jordan books, so I could read 3 by Brandon Sanderson. Hoping that it will be worth it. 

The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes, if you like YA fantasy and cool magic systems

Review: This book came highly recommended from some book tubers that I follow. It’s the first in a series of epic YA fantasy and contained multiple magic systems, some great world building, and several points of view, some that I enjoyed more than others. However, the highlight of the book was easily the animal companion, which is one of the main reasons that I want to read the sequel. Mephi and his person, Jovis, were far and away the best point of view and plotline in this book. There was some great action throughout, and I’m excited to learn more about the secrets that were teased but not revealed in this book. 

Defending Elyisum by Brandon Sanderson

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes, but need to read other Skyward books first

Review: This novella -- and despite being written by Brandon Sanderson this is actually a novella -- is set in the Skyward Cytoverse. It’s an older story of Sanderson’s that he published when Cytonic came out despite writing it about a decade ago. It precedes the events of the Skyward books by several hundred years and isn’t necessary to read to enjoy the events of any of those books. However, it does reveal some interesting lore and world building that is built off of in the third installment, Cytonic.  Despite being short, I felt like I got a good sense for the two point-of-view characters and the world. The mystery was intriguing and it even wrapped up nicely at the end. Mostly though I enjoyed learning more about the cytonic powers and humanity’s first steps into the universe. Recommend reading in between Starsight and Cytonic. 

Cytonic (Skyward #3) by Brandon Sanderson

Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Recommendation: Yes! Great series that keeps getting better

Review: This book is going to hold a special spot in my reading heart. Our family was in Utah for Thanksgiving and realized that Sanderson was holding his own mini-con for the release of this book. Since I’ve wanted to go to a Sanderson event for a long time, we took advantage of the timing and got tickets. It was so much fun! Highly recommend for any fellow Sanderson nerds out there. In any case, I was probably predisposed to like this book, and I wasn’t disappointed. I’ve really liked how each installment in this series introduces us to a new world and crew for Spensa that we get to explore with her. In this case, space pirates were involved, and they were just as cool as they sound. There were a few great twists at the end, and I love Spensa’s new set of friends. She is a very fun character to follow, and with the transformation that she undergoes in this book, I’m looking forward to the fourth one -- due out in 2023 -- even more. 

We stopped by the BYU bookstore while we were in Utah and were impressed by the knock-off lego set showing the Salt Lake temple. They even had a little lego Book of Mormon and missionaries. 

Chloe loves it when it's her turn to present the calendar in class. She gets to talk about what day it is and the weather. 

Maya learned about veterinarians at school this month. This patched-up bear became their favorite toy for a while after his treatment.  

We had fun visiting grandma and grandpa for Thanksgiving. At least until both girls came down with a stomach bug. Luckily, no one else got it, but it did put a definite damper on our holiday. 

Some amazing seamstress made a person-size doomslug cosplay at the mini-con. My biggest photographic regret is not taking my mask off for this picture.

Dan remembered to take his mask off. 

October 2021 Reading

 Hi friends,

This month seemed to fly by, and we all enjoyed our first fall since moving back to Colorado. I got some good reading in, including another two Wheel of Time books, two new Sanderson novellas, and the classic sci fi epic Dune. As always, let me know what you think about these books and if you have suggestions for further reading. 

Happy Halloween!

Tonya 

Sunreach (Skyward #2.1) by Brandon Sanderson and Janci Patterson

Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes, but you have to read the other Skyward books first

Review: I have read most of Sanderson’s books, and I’ve really enjoyed this YA sci fi series and the world that he’s created, so I wasn’t at all sad to hear that he had teamed up with a YA author to expand the Skyward universe even more. The first two Skyward books were all told from the first person point-of-view (POV) of Spensa, our main protagonist, but in the second -- and apparently in the upcoming third -- Spensa leaves her home and her flight team to go on a new adventure. Sanderson said that he considered telling the third book from multiple points of view so that we would know what’s going on with Skyward flight while Spensa was elsewhere, but in the end decided to bring in his good friend and YA fantasy author, Patterson to co-write three novellas from the POV of the other members of Skyward flight and a new alien friend. This one follows FM, who, to be honest, I didn’t even remember from the first book. I had to look her up on the wiki and read a few chapter summaries to remember her. I liked learning more about FM and experiencing the Skyward universe from another POV. Despite this installment being mostly written by a new author, I didn’t notice a lot of differences in tone and voice. I remember reading some of the action sequences and thinking that they read just like the ones from the first two books. I enjoyed the subplots focusing on our favorite slug animal companions as well. The only thing that felt a little non-Sanderson was the romance plotline, but that’s a minor nitpick, and I thought it fit the more YA feeling of the novella. The majority of Sanderson’s work is Adult fantasy, so his YA feels a little more adult in general, but my understanding is that Patterson is mainly a YA author, so that could explain the difference. All in all, I’m enjoying the extra novella approach and hope that Sanderson can include spin-offs like this in this other series too. 

Redawn (Skyward #2.2) by Brandon Sanderson and Janci Patterson

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes! If you’ve read the rest of the series

Review: This is the second of three novellas that Sanderson and Patterson wrote in the Skyward universe surrounding the events that happen in the upcoming third Skyward book. This one focuses on a fairly new character, the UrDail alien, Alanik. I really enjoyed getting to explore and learn more about Alanik’s people and see a new world. The concept of a people living on giant trees in the atmosphere of a gas giant was neat! To be honest, I found Alanik’s character a little jarring. She came off as kind of radical, and while her actions were justified in the end, I’m always wary of characters who think they’re right and everyone else is wrong -- and people too. The action sequences were pretty cool, and it was fun to learn more about the cytonic abilities and the slugs, who I think win the title for my favorite animal companion in any story ever. I was kind of surprised by the ending and looking forward to the third Skyward installment and third novella, both due out in less than a month!

Winter’s Heart (Wheel of Time #9) by Robert Jordan

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes, for those who have dedicated a significant portion of their lives to this world

Review: A lot of fans say that this installment is part of the “slog,” referring to Wheel of Time books 8-10, which advance the plot at a glacial pace and seem to be nothing but excessive detail of people frowning at each other, smoothing their clothing, and scheming. I thought it was actually pretty good, and at least it ended with a bang! Seriously, so cool. Before that, we had to endure Rand being dumb, dumb, dumb AGAIN for his entire plot line. At least Mat returned in this book, and while his plot also moved at a sluggish pace, his POV is always a pleasure to read. Egwene was notable absent from this one, and Elayne’s plot revolved around her STILL scheming to claim and scheming about how to get laid by you know who. (No, not that You Know Who from the Harry Potter universe. Just trying to keep it relatively spoiler free.) Yeah, the Wheel of Time sounds weird out of context. 

Crossroads of Twilight (Wheel of Time #10) by Robert Jordan

Rating: 3 of 5 stars

Recommendation: see above

Review: This was the worst Wheel of Time installment so far. It took 60% of the book just to bring everyone up-to-date at what happened at the end of the last book! I am so frustrated with Perrin’s plotline. I feel like he peaked in book 4 and since then, Jordan has just sent him on pointless side journeys. I’m super sick of the Shaido Aiel plotline, and the never-ending chase after Faile and her captors. Maybe he can go back to being awesome again after he finally catches her, literally 3 books after she was taken captive. Rand isn’t in this book very much at all, and we get more of Elayne being handled delicately due to her newly impregnated state. There was literally no action in this one, and the book ends on a cliffhanger right when the action was about to start! At least Mat’s plotline is entertaining as he tries to court his prophesied wife-to-be, which for a classic rogue and ladies man proves to be more difficult than anticipated. I’ve heard good things about some of these obnoxious plotlines finally getting resolved in the next book. I’m definitely committed at this point, so I’ll keep reading even though this one was  a struggle to get through.

Dune: by Frank Herbert

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: if you’re into classic sci fi, or modern sci fi, and want to understand the origins of the genre

Review: There were things that I really liked and things that I didn’t like about this book, which I confess I read in advance of the movie adaptation coming out. I can understand why it’s a classic and can definitely see its influence in other scifi books that I’ve read. Everything from Star Wars to Avatar and Red Rising have echoes and borrow tropes from Dune. I really liked how immersive the world was. I felt like I was on Arrakis, surrounded by dunes and endless sand. I also really liked the sand worms and the Fremen’s use of desert power. (Side note: this is what I’m most excited for in Dune Part 2 the movie adaptation. Seeing that on the big screen is going to be amazing!) Herbert also knows how to write excellent political scheming and action scenes. Things I didn’t like: some of the spice-induced vision sequences were just a bit too weird for my taste, especially the ceremony with Lady Jessica and her fetal daughter. Maybe some of them just went over my head because I wasn’t paying attention, but I had trouble following some of the longer ones. This is a problem that might be solved if I ever decide to read it again. I also didn’t like the arrangement he reached at the end with the emperor’s daughter and Chandi. I feel like she got the short end of that stick, and I wanted to see her be more of a protagonist instead of just a love interest. By the way, Herbert does almost nothing to develop that relationship. Boop! They meet, and Bop! They’re in love. I don’t think writing romances was one of his skills. I can’t complain too much about lack of strong female characters though, because Lady Jessice is the bomb. She was honestly my favorite character. I’m not sure if I’m going to continue on with the series. My understanding is that it doesn’t end well. Since one of Herbert’s major themes is that power corrupts and eventually Paul has ALL the power, I guess this makes sense. 

The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

Rating: 3 of 5 stars

Recommendation: if you’re interested in popular science books and political activism

Review: I can’t really decide how I feel about this book. It’s a unique combination of popular science and antiracism. Dr. Prescod-Weinstein is the first black female particle physicist to receive tenure at a university, among other notable firsts. This book explores her fascination and love for particle physics and cosmology beautifully. The first third of the book is a wonderful explanation of the cosmos. I loved learning about how gravity isn’t real! I think I’d read this elsewhere, but it hit me a little different this time. As she says, “Gravity is not a force but rather an artefact of a curved spacetime. Matter causes spacetime to bend around it, and we experience this bending of spacetime as a force, gravity.” Which is pretty mind-blowing. The remainder of the book is pretty heavy -- gravity puns aside -- and she talks a lot about how science, and physics in particular, isn’t immune from the racism, sexism, etc. that pervade our society. She says that scientists just claim objectivity and deny that these things influence their work. I highly recommend that anyone involved in or thinking of pursuing a career in science read this book and think about how this affects them and how they can act to help change things. Considering the many diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in workplaces everywhere, I thought this insight was interesting, “It is destructive and dehumanizing to work in a community that values diversity for the “sake of science,” but doesn’t value equal opportunity for the sake of respecting other people’s fundamental humanity. The implication is that it would be fine to treat people like me badly if we aren’t providing valuable intellectual capital.” Something to keep in mind no matter what field you work in when working on these issues. 

The Last Graduate (The Scholomance #2) by Naomi Novik

Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes, a great Young Adult/ Adult fantasy boarding school novel, but have to read the first one before

Review: This is the second book in a trilogy, and true to form for all second installments, the ending is a cliffhanger, and now I have to wait a year -- more?! -- for the next book to come out! Regardless, I liked this book a lot and don’t regret reading it even with so much time to wait for the resolution. Happily, it was much better than the original, which suffered from long info-dump sections to help bring the reader up to speed on the nightmarish magical school world that Novik created. Think Harry Potter but with more monsters and no grandfatherly-type teachers looking out for you. I really liked El’s character arc over this book. It was really well-developed and cool to see her grow from focusing solely on her survival to becoming the hero she always accused Orion of being. I do wish we could have seen more of Orion in this book. His character felt kind of flat, to be honest, and while I understand there are limits on how much the author can pack into one book, I think that his character could benefit from some more page time. The action was great, the plot moved quickly, and it was fun to see the whole school come together and break down some of the classist rules and norms. Highly recommend.

Mommy Corner

Our neighbors let us come and pick some apples from their trees. In Maryland, we would go to a pick-you-own orchard every year, so we were glad we were able to continue the tradition here in Colorado. 

We drove up to the Estes Park Elk Fest, and it was incredibly disappointing. We saw 0 elk. All we heard was people imitating elk calls. The drive was still beautiful, and I would visit again in the fall, just not for the Elk Fest. 

We went to a fall festival with our cousins, and the kids had fun playing in the corn. 

Maya has a great sense of style.

Chloe always gets excited when she gets to present the calendar in school and talk about the weather. This is also the only picture I got of her in her Halloween costume because to be honest, I really don't care about Halloween.

The girls had fun playing in the leaves in our backyard.

This is also one of the only pictures I got of Maya in her costume. She was pretty cute. We basically did Halloween all weekend with a school party on Friday, a church party on Saturday, and trick-or-treating on Sunday. We have way too much candy.

September 2021 Reading

Hi friends, 

I realized that I forgot to write my monthly blog post last week. I have no excuse. It just slipped my mind. So, I’m back this week with my monthly reading for September, and I have a confession to make: I broke my promise and read two Wheel of Time books instead of one a month. I’ve come to the infamous “slog” in the middle of the series, but I’ve actually quite enjoyed it, and because Jordan refuses to resolve any plot lines at the conclusion of each installment, I’ve felt compelled to keep reading. 

Other interesting reads this month include several excellent nonfiction books about the Soviet/U.S. space race, the history of the universe, and humanity’s immense efforts to solve problems that we’ve created. As always, let me know what you think of these books, and if you have suggestions for further reading. 

 Regards, 

Tonya 

 Numbers Don’t Lie: 71 Stories to Help Us Understand the Modern World by Vaclav Smil 

Rating: 4 of 5 stars 

Recommendation: yes! 

Review: I’ve read several other Smil books, and this one was probably the most approachable. It’s a collection of short -- sometimes very short -- essays about topics that are both very familiar if you’ve read Smil’s work, such as energy transitions and primary movers, and some that are seemingly out of left field, such as bicycles and transistors. It seemed to me like Smil, who is getting older, took all the random notes and odd thoughts he’s had over his career and compiled and expounded them in one place. It was a delightful read, and I enjoyed hearing Smil’s perspective on the wide variety of topics, but at times it felt like listening to an aged grandparent complaining about the state of the world and admonishing people for unrealistic optimism. Still, I enjoyed it and would recommend it. 

 A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson 

Rating: 5 of 5 stars 

Recommendation: yes, for those curious about the universe 

Review: Whenever I read a Bryson book I feel like a grandfatherly English man, sitting in a winged-back armchair in front of a fireplace with a pipe in his mouth and bifocles on is reading to me. At least, that’s the voice I hear in my head. Bryson’s writing is so much fun to read. He takes complicated processes and scientific thoughts and explains them simply and engagingly. In addition to picking and elucidating vividly on the many processes that have produced the world we live in, his prose is delightfully fun to read. For example, “The upshot of all this is that we live in a universe whose age we can’t quite compute, surrounded by stars whose distances from us and each other we don’t altogether know, filled with matter we can’t identify, operating in conformance with physical laws whose properties we don’t truly understand.” I love books that make me think, and this one achieved that remarkably. The one thing that surprised me was that I was expecting Bryson to present a more or less chronological history of the universe on a large scale, but instead he focused more on telling the stories of the scientists and thinkers who discovered how the universe worked. I thought this approach worked really well, and allowed him to slip in interesting facts like this, “Indeed, if your pillow is six years old—which is apparently about the average age for a pillow—it has been estimated that one tenth of its weight will be made up of “sloughed skin, living mites, dead mites and mite dung,” to quote the man who did the measuring, Dr. John Maunder of the British Medical Entomology Centre.” 

A Crown of Swords (Wheel of Time #7) by Robert Jordan 

Rating: 4 of 5 stars 

Recommendation: if you’ve read and liked the others 

Review: There are some things I really liked about this book, and some things that I didn’t. To be honest, I felt like the whole searching for the bowl of winds plotline was a bit of a side tangent that was unnecessary to the overall plot, but at least it was fun. Elayne, Nynaeve, and Mat’s story was definitely the best of this installment, and I enjoyed getting to learn about Ebou Dar. Rand is always interesting but often infuriating. Like, the whole book is pretty slow-paced and focuses mostly on political intrigues and people talking. Then, in the last 20 pages of the book, Rand decides to go take on one of the Forsaken, and there’s a flurry of activity and the book ends. The thing that’s most infuriating about this series is not the overly-detailed descriptions of customs, clothing, and people, but the infighting among the good guys. To be honest, the Forsaken are fairly incompetent bad guys, and most of the conflicts in the story are between people who are on the same side, or at least should be. I guess Jordan is trying to make a point there. 

 The Path of Daggers (Wheel of Time #8) by Robert Jordan 

Rating:4 of 5 stars 

Recommendation: yes, if you’ve made it this far, you’re committed and might as well continue 

Review: The first third of this book finally resolves one of the main plots from the previous 3 books, as Elayne, Nynaeve, and company finally fix the weather, but the rest of their plotline is just travelling… Mat, disappointingly, is not in this book at all despite his cliffhanger ending in the previous book. Nynaeve, after finally marrying the pinnacle of manhood, Lan Mandragoran, is mostly sidelined as well. We get a lot of Aes Sedia machinations and infighting as Egwene tries to get the Aes Sedai to respect her in her new position, but this just isn’t super interesting to me… Finally, Rand is dumb, dumb, dumb, and doesn’t listen to the people he should and stop when he's ahead, instead deciding to inflict more emotional and other trauma on himself and his followers, because he is now alarmingly arrogant, as he insists on reminding anyone who disagrees with him that he is “THE DRAGON REBORN!” Yeah, he needs to be taken down a notch. After writing this, I’m wondering why I still gave this book 4 stars…. I guess I still really like living in this world, and following these characters even when they do infuriating things. I guess that shows that Jordan’s worldbuilding skills are phenomenal, and he’s able to create characters that are so compelling I’ll willingly keep reading even when they do dumb things, and I guess there’s something to be said for that. 

 Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future by Elizabeth Kolbert 

Rating: 5 of 5 stars 

Recommendation: yes, it’s quite revealing 

Review: Kolbert examines the extraordinary—and often expensive—efforts humanity is pursuing to solve problems that we’ve already created. From invasive species to collapsing coral reefs and climate change, humanity has become the predominant force in our world that shapes nature. In fact, Kolbert argues in this book that nature as we conceive it no longer exists, as humanity’s influence is now so large that we dictate what parts of the natural earth get preserved and how. She makes the case that if we’re going to be the predominant driving force altering the environment, we should do it consciously, and try to do it well. Kolbert interviews experts who are trying to reverse some of humanity’s biggest screw-ups, while simultaneously trying not to create new issues. The range of topics is wide and various including invasive Asian carp in the Mississippi, breeding climate change-resistant coral for the Great Barrier Reef, and geo-engineering to mitigate the effects of climate change. It’s a fascinating read for anyone wondering about humanity’s impact on the earth. Highly recommend. 

 Two Sides of the Moon: Our Story of the Cold War Space Race by David Randolph Scott and Alexei Leonov 

Rating: 4 of 5 stars 

Recommendation: yes, for any space and/or Soviet nerds out there 

Review: Working on reviews of NASA for the past two years, I’ve become a bit of a space nerd. I say a bit because there are some genuine space nerds that far surpass my level of nerdiness. Still, this was far and away the best book I’ve read about space yet. It’s kind of a combined memoir of a U.S. astronaut, who became one of only 12 people to walk on the moon to date, and a Soviet cosmonaut, who became the first person to conduct a space walk. The two men became friends when they worked together on a mission that involved a Soviet Soyuz docking with a U.S. Apollo capsule in orbit. This was during the middle of the Cold War, so the combined mission, and the fact that the two superpowers were able to work companionably on something as complex as a space mission was a big deal. The two men lived fascinating lives, and the best part of the book is definitely reading their old space stories. Leonov’s description of the first ever space-walk is particularly riveting consisting of several near-death attempts when his spacesuit inflated so much he couldn’t fit back in the airlock, when the spacecraft spun out of control for several orbits, and a crash-landing in the Siberian wilderness that saw them surviving -40 degree weather and fending off wolves. While this may sound like a plot to a Tom Cruise action thriller, it’s all real! So cool. Scott’s description of the Apollo 15 mission was equally riveting, but luckily involved fewer life-and-death moments. I also really enjoyed learning about the Soviet space program, which I had previously known very little about. Highly recommend for anyone interested in space or just wanting to hear two old space explorers describe their great adventures.

Mommy Corner

We went to Colorado Springs for the Labor Day Lift Off. Every Labor Day, about 50 hot air balloons all take off from Memorial Park. We went all the time growing up, and now that we're back in Colorado, I get to share it with my kids. They were super impressed. 

Chloe, Maya and Daddy built a bridge while we listened to stake conference at home. Thank goodness for broadcasts. It was so much better than attending in person. 

The coolest part is watching all the balloons blow up and take off around you. 

Great Grandma Honey went with us. So much fun. 

I didn't get a good shot because there were so many people, but everyone was excited about Sylvester Puddy Cat, Tweet Bird, and Tom and Jerry making an appearance at the end. 

Chloe loves doing the monkey bars at school. She actually has some pretty gnarly calluses on her hands from them. It's so fun to watch her practice something and get really good at it. When the school year started, she couldn't do the monkey bars at all, and now she's an expert!

Maya loves spinning at the park. 

We went to Broomfield Days, and the girls had a lot of fun on the inflatables. We enjoyed the parade as well, and since we were seated at the beginning of the parade route, we got a ton of candy! Like, a full grocery bag of candy...