What says summer more than festival?

  Well,well, well...look who got their camera to download pictures.  It's still not showing anything on the viewfinder window-thingy, but hey, this is better than nothing!

  It's an annual tradition of ours to attend the Scandinavian Festival in Junction City, Oregon.  There is always amazing food, interesting people to watch, smells to smell, and friends to bump into.  You know, pretty much what you would expect at a Festival.  There's also all of this fun, folksy, Scandinavian style dancing to watch, but we never take in much of that as we've got squirmy, restless little ones, and it's always a better idea to just keep moving.

   It started pouring rain when we were about 10 minutes away and I was just sure we would be fighting rain the whole time.  But thankfully, the skies cleared and God seemed to smile down on all of our silly little frolicking, and a good time was had by all.

  I wish I would have gotten a picture of all the other food, but for some reason this was the only one I got.  The thing I always end up getting each year (not sure exactly why) is the crab puff.  Another necessary item is the Fri-jo.  Randy always gets the Italian sausage and other winners are the meat pies, Philly steak sandwiches, and supposedly, the Abelskeevers, although I think I've only tried one once. 

    Nathan & Alisa's daughter Trillium (one of the ones born in the baby boom around the time Charlotte was born:) was so very festive and Scandinavian looking, and positively darling as always. 

No Scandi Fest would be complete without a good amount of vikings roaming around.

   

    These two don't always get along like little angels, but when they do, it's simply adorable. 

 

   Barney and Nikki were there with their little Grayson, and baby brother on the way! Someone has to balance out all the girls in abundance around here.:)

  We've attended this Festival while we were dating, newlywed, pregnant, parents-of-one, and now a family of four.  It is so fun to already have some of our own little "traditions".  Randy LOVES traditions and I have come to realize that I am at times very hesitant to start any, because then that means I can fail to keep them.  But one thing I have discovered is that if you let that fear keep you from starting them, than you miss out on them altogether, which is worse than starting one and quitting. 

   So I guess long story short is, I am a big fan of making traditions, even if I'm not yet an expert at keeping them.  But I hope the Scandi Fest one is here to stay.

What are some of your favorite traditions?