Finn Hits Rose Festival Fun Park

You'd think he'd landed in heaven! We felt blessed too. The rain stopped 5 minutes before we got to Waterfront Park and started again as we left - it was an amazing 70 degrees. We didn't need the rubber boots we wore, but they made quite the fashion statement! From 5:30 to 8 we made the most of the All the Rides You Can Handle Arm Bands given to us by Jenny O'Bryan. Finn rode on the helicopters, horses, planes, tigers, canoe, swings, red bus, went down the slide twice, played in the ball cage and went on the big Ferris Wheel with his Mom and Dad. We were surprised how independent Finn was. He insisted on going on a few of the rides, like the red bus (see his little head in the back seat), all by himself. He shouted, "See, this isn't scary." He wanted to go on the rides that made me sick just to watch . . . Luckily he still wasn't tall enough. We figured we got in over $50 bucks worth of rides.

I asked Finn the next day if he told his friends about the rides (he didn't want to part with his arm band so wore it to school). He said, "Yeah, but they didn't understand my words." I think he meant, "They have no clue about stuff like that. They aren't cool like me."

The picture at top right shows Finn saying, "Yee haw" and throwing his arm up on the swing - something he learned on the previous ride, the merry-go-round on the horses. We aren't sure if we was saying, "Giddy up," too, but he was so high, he may have been. Steve shows pride as Finn boards the bus on his own. Mom screams on the Ferris Wheel, Finn reassures me that I'll be OK, even with Hildi kicking and a stomach full of a hot dog and curly fries.

See more shots of all of us.