Peanut Festival?

This past weekend we went to the Peanut Festival, it wasn't really a festival as much as it was the state fair. It was overpriced and we didn't have Nannie (Joe's mom) with us to buy a ridiculous amount of tickets and all of the fried food that we wanted. So we settled for a ride on the carousel and an elephant ear. The boys scouts from our stake had a booth and they were selling, elephant ears. I had never heard of them before, but they are like a flat churro or a bigger thinner version of indian fry bread covered in cinnamon and sugar. We bought two and then one of the guys that was working there was one of Joe's flight instructors and gave us a free one, so we ended up with three elephant ears. We couldn't eat all of them, but immediately Ezra was in heaven, River took some convincing, but after we made him take a bite he thought they were delicious too.
It was pretty much a rip off of over-priced games, rides and food.



They did have a free booth you could go in and learn about the Alabama Farm, which leads me to Joe's favorite story.
The boys and I are in the booth learning all about the farm, Joe is waiting with the stroller outside the booth. A man and his kids, who clearly know about farming in Alabama, walk by and his kids start to go into the booth. Then the dad in a thick southern accent says, "Kids don't go in there that is for people who aint never seen a fa....."
Then he sees Joe and says, "For people who want to be a farmer for a day."
I don't know if is funny as a story on my blog, but it was funny when it happened.



So there was this lady and she had a monkey on a chain. You could A) Give the monkey a quarter for a good luck handshake. B) Give the monkey a dollar and get a picture OF the monkey. C) Give the monkey 5 dollars and get your picture taken with the monkey.
Holy Smokes that monkey was raking it in!!! Joe said if I wanted to live comfortably like a carnie he would buy me a monkey. I'm still debating.

Mississippi

Ezra & River on the back of a giant C-17.

My three boys in the Huey.

Ezra on top of an F-15



This weekend we went back to Columbus MS, too see our friends get their assignments (what plane and where to). Our good friends the Woodlands and the Carusos both got their first choice and they are both going to go to Travis AFB in California (Lucky!). It was so fun to see all of our friends from Mississippi. We went to dinner with the Caruso family and some other friends after assignment night. On Saturday we went to "Career Day" (planes set up for you to look at and talk to the pilots).

We got to watch a University of Alabama football game with Joe and Katie C. and their friends, Ana and Kyle (I recommend this to everyone). If you don't know what "Roll Tide" means look it up. Katie's dad was calling her during the game so they could discuss what was happening. I'm pretty sure she answered the phone "roll tide" when he called. My Joe was impressed by Ana's football knowledge, first she was discussing how college football should go to a play off system and then during the game she claimed there was "p.i." (pass interference). It was so fun to see what being a true football fan is all about.

Here are our friends with their new aircraft.

Kelsey and Oliver on the left with C-17.

Joe and Katie on right with KC-10.













On a side note when I said "look it up" I didn't actually look it up myself because I know what it means. The Mascot for University of Alabama is an Elephant or The Crismon Tide. I don't get it either, but I'm from AZ. I found this quote on the internet(so it must be true.)

“Roll Tide is Alabama’s battle cry, but among fans, it’s the ultimate all-purpose phrase, like prego in Italian or namaste in Nepali, an acceptable substitute for hello, goodbye, nice to meet you, and Amen” — Warren St. John, Rammer Jammer Yellowhammer

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween. Trick-or-treating on post is out of control. It is set up to be from 6-8pm. Once it starts it is non-stop. I wonder if it was like that in Queen Creek, AZ? They have similar set up, lots of houses in a row, that are full of kids waiting to get candy. Joe got home from work at 6:10 and he said it was crazy trying to drive home. We had 6 giant bags of candy and we still ran out before the 2 hour block was over. When we (I took the boys trick or treating) were on our way home at 7:05, most houses were out of candy too. The boys came home with a good haul. River is still too young to guard his candy and let Joe and I pick out our favorites.