Michael & Amanda and chicklets to call our own: Aberdeen Daze

Aberdeen, ID is the town Michael grew up in. His parents moved there just out of college so Craig could teach elementary school. (Forgive me if I've got any of this wrong.) Craig grew up in Los Angeles, CA and Janet grew up in SLC, Utah. So it seemed pretty crazy to me to have these guys move to such a small place. The population in LA is about 3.8 million. The population in Aberdeen is about 2,000. The population in SLC (and to me it seems more correct to include the surrounding area as well because it's just wall to wall city for about 80 miles) is about 2.8 million. Did I mention the population of Aberdeen is 2,000? That's 6 less zeros than either of the places Michael's parents came from! And then some! But with small towns come great things. Aberdeen has an annual town celebration where the native Idahoans can enjoy the perks of small communities.

Before we get to the festivities... We stopped at a lake just outside Aberdeen to bird watch and play. This was Friday night. We had to get there a day early to be sure to get in line for breakfast early enough the next day.

Oh all the bird pictures... Are you sick of them yet?

At least I only put 2 out of the 50 we took.

The first of those awesome tributes to small towns is the free breakfast. Now many people stay at hotels and are promised a free breakfast. To be honest, it's not really free. You pay for a room to sleep in and that covers the cost of food too. At these hotels, you might get a waffle or a small bowl of cereal or even a package of mini donuts. But let's get real. Breakfast is about the pancakes! Aberdeen's breakfast has hashbrowns, eggs, sausage, pancakes, chocolate milk, and orange juice. Now that's what I call a feast! I love pancakes. I could probably eat pancakes every day if they were fresh. Breakfast starts at 6 am and ends at 10. And you better get there early cuz that line gets long! We got there around 8, since the kids were already awake. Ivan liked the pancakes and so did I. I never get the eggs, cuz they cook 'em sunny side up and that's just gross. And as long as hashbrowns take to cook, they just don't wait quite long enough before they scoop them off the grill. But the pancakes were amazing! They have the breakfast at the park, so they don't have to worry about fitting enough people. The kids really loved the park being right there. And by "kids" I mean Ivan and his cousins, Charlotte didn't care except she was cold. Last year it was so hot outside we couldn't do enough to stay cool. This year, we wore jackets almost all day long. It was pretty windy, dang SE Idaho, and chilly all day. But almost all of Michael's family was able to make it so it was worth while for all the food, fun, and family.

If you're wondering how they mix up enough batter to make pancakes for an entire town, look now further. That's right, you're looking at a garbage can full of pancake batter. They used a drill with some kind of paddle attachment to stir it.

Later in the day, there was the ping pong ball drop. They fill a crop duster plane with ping pong balls and the plane flew over main street dropping all these balls on the road. Some of the balls had prizes from local stores on them. Michael's dad actually got a free sucker from the local drug store. This little plane flew pretty close to the ground and did like 4 or 5 fly by's. Ivan loved it! He's really into planes and trucks right now. He thought it was pretty awesome. Charlotte, on the other hand, was not impressed. She was pretty pissed off before the plane flew over, you know on account of the wind and cold. Then when the plane flew over it just set her over the edge. Poor girl. The only thing that calmed her down was the walk from main street back to Michael's parent's house.

While the kids (and Michael) were sleeping, or at least supposed to be sleeping, I went to the parade. We sat in the best spot ever, right where the parade started. That's where the least amount of people were, where the parade ended the soonest, and where they handed out the most candy. Woo hoo candy! We loaded up on all the candy they threw. And it was the good stuff too, not just taffy. Don't get me wrong, I love taffy, but when that's all you get, it kinda gets old. Jane, Megan, and Ben had a blast running out and getting the candy. Christopher brought a small cooler to collect everything and he filled that thing clear up to the top! It was good times.

It appears I didn't get a single picture of the parade. Oh well. Here's a creepy picture of Princess.

Then there was supposed to be a lawn mower derby. I guess I misinterpreted what was happening. I hear lawn mower derby and I think super rednecks with their push mowers trying to race each other around a figure eight. Nope. Not a chance. It was more of a treasure hunt and it wasn't really for spectating. Oh well.

Michael bought a kite in the morning and we finally had enough down time to give it a go. I'm pretty sure that was my first time ever flying a kite. I remember trying to once with a friend from back home and we just couldn't get our schedules lined up. So Michael showed me the ropes. And let me tell you, it was scary! I thought for sure I was gonna crash it or it would just explode or it would catch on the power lines and electrocute me. So after a few minutes of totally agony worrying about crashing this thing, Michael took over. Then it was fun. He even tried to show Ivan how to fly it. I think by then, the kite was too far away so Ivan didn't understand what he was doing. Michael wanted to get the kite even higher, so he let out all of the line on the kite then hooked his fishing pole up to it and let it go even farther. After only a few short seconds, the line broke and he lost the kite. Ha ha. It was pretty fun to watch. And after 45 minutes of searching for the kite, he finally found it, about a mile away.

In the evening, there is the annual fish fry. I don't really care for fish, but Michael loves it. And they have scones, salad, and french fries so there's enough of the other stuff to make me happy. It's all you can eat and they have bottomless sodas too. This is again at the park. It was harder to keep Ivan happy at the table this time, now that he knew what he was missing from the playground. But he definitely enjoyed all the food.