July 23, 2008 Emmy's braces come off and Barnstable County Fair

Today's the day Emily has waited for. She's worn braces for 2 years and almost 3 months and can't wait to get them off. Her appt was at 10:15. Dan and I dropped her off then ran to the bank. We returned to find Emily still in the waiting room. I'm not going to miss these ortho visits! This appt was scheduled to be an hour and a half so Dan and I got comfortable with some magazines and started reading. Em was finally called in, and Dan asked me if he could go make friends with another little boy in the waiting room. "Sure" I said, it's our second to last appt. How much trouble could they cause. The two boys had a great time playing hide and seek around and under the waiting room chairs...some of them occupied. They were cute and generally well received so both Mother's allowed it to continue. Emily finally appeared at a little after noon and smiled wide, she looked great, and couldn't be happier, she was itching to try out the new chompers sans metal so home we went for lunch.
After lunch, Dan and I laid down for a nap. This afternoon we're headed to the Barnstable County Fair for the demolition derby, a highlight of our summer...we can't wait. Dan, Em and I arrived at the fair a little before 5pm and wandered through the animal tents. Dan liked the sheep, I thought the baby chickens were great. We made our way over to the face painting tent and Dan decided he wanted to be Spiderman. In the end a great choice, because people called him Spidey everywhere he went. Mike arrived and we decided we'd get some food before the long vigil protecting seats for the demolition derby. Mike and the kids got corn dogs. I ordered an onion blossom, the first food "off diet" in over 3 weeks. I know I'll pay for it in the morning, but boy did it taste good! Dan rode a few rides, the first a race car, the second was a mini roller coaster with Daddy. Dan's over 42 inches tall so he can ride most of the tot rides himself and was very excited!

Since it was getting close to 6pm I decided it was time to do some sitting. We climbed the bleachers, found the perfect spot and laid out everything we owned to save seats. The first year we made the mistake of not finding seats until the last minute and paid for it by having to stand for the entire show, a mistake we've not repeated. Now we go early, make friends with the spectators around us, and enjoy demolition derby warm up. At one point they pulled all the first heat cars around the rink, and one of the drivers went a little crazy with some lime green spray paint. He was sitting in the windshield of the car getting ready to paint something on the roof when he looked up at the stands, pointed at Dan and said "what's his name" We shouted Danny, which he then painted on the roof of his car. He immediately became our favorite. Turns out he's a backhoe driver for Bortolotti Construction (Mike Leone's company) and right up to the end would wave, and thumbs up Dan. He made it to the second to last heat before he lost reverse and was a sitting duck. When it was over he came over to shake Dan's hand. Dan was very excited!
We watched 5 heats of demo, the last was the best with two cars that just wouldn't die. Finally a winner was chosen, and the bleachers emptied. We wandered the fair for a while longer. Dan was really interested in the big rides...next year should be fun! Time to leave and Dan chose to ride home with Daddy. Em and I made our way over to our car. Emily was a little nervous about driving at night but after a wrong turn down a curvy, dark road, she was happy to find 151 and cruised right along. We made it home just as a thunderstorm was starting up. Dan put himself to bed at 11:23...I can't believe he stayed up and behaved so well late into the night. I checked E-mail before bed and found one from Derke who's looking to put together another group for testing on Saturday. We'll have to see where it is, and who's going... I might be game!