Hamburg Family Fun Fest (6/17/10 & 6/19/10)

Thursday was a gorgeous day so we headed over to the Hamburg Family Fun Fest after work. Lily absolutely loved wandering around and looking at the carnival rides and games. With all the music, lights, and movement, it was very exciting for her:

She kept pointing at everything and staring in fascination:

Lily was really into watching the big rides like the Ferris wheel but then got really excited when we wandered over to the area with the little kids' rides. She kept reaching for them like, “Come on, let me ride!” She is too young now but next year she will be able to go on some rides. I bet she can’t wait. We left the midway and wandered over to the petting zoo area where she fell in love with the kangaroo. It was in its own fenced in area with a tortoise and a hare. No, they weren’t racing.
I love this picture that Paul took of her adorable little arm reaching through the fence to pet the kangaroo:

Lily pointing to Roo:

Petting him again:

Along came the tortoise:

Then the hare:

Lily was so excited to have a face-to-face encounter with the kangaroo. Unfortunately, this picture turned out blurry as my camera focused on the fence instead of Lily and Roo. Darn:

Waiting for Roo to come back again:

We then headed over to see the farm animals. There were a lot of goats that weren't at all shy:

A mommy and very little baby goat:

Lily kept trying to climb through the fence to see the baby goats:

More goats:

The llama lliked LLily:

We ran into Toot at the petting zoo area so we chatting with him for a while then Lily greatly enjoyed watching a band perform while she shared a funnel cake with me. I think the band was her favorite part of the Fun Fest as she kept happily dancing to the music.

We returned to the Fun Fest on Saturday night to watch the fireworks. They started at 10pm and we barely made it there on time due to the traffic. Who knew there were so many people in the Hamburg area? I was glad to see that the event has gotten bigger and more popular each year, though. Lily fell asleep in the car on the way there and continued to sleep as we took her out of the car, put her in her stroller, and hiked from the parking area to where the fireworks were being launched. I had to wake her up once the fireworks started. She was a bit groggy but as soon as she saw the fireworks, she was instantly awake and completely fascinated. She greatly enjoyed the Fun Fest fireworks last year when she was a mere 3 months old but you never know if kids are going to suddenly become scared of them as they are quite loud so I was glad that she loved them yet again. She kept pointing, laughing, and clapping the entire time.
A firework:

Watching with mommy:

Watching with daddy:

Cool:

Lily and I with the fireworks (we took a somewhat similar picture last year as well):

The grand finale:

Lily stayed awake through the stroller ride back to the parking area as she was enthralled by the crowds of people rushing around us to get back to their cars. We decided to hang out on the midway for a little while to avoid the mad rush of cars exiting the parking lot. That worked out well for us and Lily enjoyed all the sights and sounds of the midway again. She fell right back to sleep on the car ride home after a fun night.