Safford Light Festival

On Saturday night we were able to get together with some family and friends and go to the Safford Light Festival. Those in attendance were my family, Clint, Nicole, Marcy, Merry, Kevin, Brianne, and Chancey. My parents actually surprised us and showed up at the festival and Justin, Cassie, Kabri, and Paxton Echols joined us for the light parade. The festivies started at 5:00. We took the kids to see Santa on Main Street. They had a small little house for him, it was really cute.

Chancey Mortensen with Santa.

After we saw Santa we just walked down Main Street. There were some vendors, and they also had a stage set up where they were doing some performances and some other entertainment. We didn't watch to much of that. After we saw all there was to see we found the place that we wanted to sit and watch the parade and sat there for about an hour and a half. The light parade didn't actually start until 7:00 and then we were about at the half way mark. We were pretty disappointed with the parade. It was very drawn out. The floats were about a block apart. It took them forever to get to us and once they did they drove so fast by us we didn't really get to enjoy them. We did find out that towards the beginning of the parade they were doing some commentating and so that is what was holding up the show, but it was pretty bad. We ended up leaving early due to cranky kids and just sheer frustration. The floats we did see were really nice. My favorite one was being pulled by a hummer and they had turned the hummer into Santa Clause. It had a beard, eyebrows that moved, and a big Santa hat, I tried to get a picture of it, but it drove by to fast. We did have an enjoyable time being with friends and family and Avery loved what we did see of the parade.

Waiting for the parade to come our way.

On Sunday night we were able to go out and look at houses that have been decorated for Christmas. It was such a nice family outing, Avery really enjoyed all the pretty lights and Emmabelle just loved being out of the house.

One more little tidbit. On Sunday afternoon we were sitting around and Dave and I had been talking about his parents and all the sudden Avery said, "Heavenly Father is sad." I asked her why Heavenly Father is sad and her relpy was, "Because Papa and Grandma won't come see me." I thought that it was the cutest thing I have ever heard. She really gets sad when she talks to them on the phone and they can't come and see her at that exact moment. Apparently she has also picked up on my trying to teach her about doing things that will make Heavenly Father and Jesus happy. Most the time it is when we are talking about going to church and she doesn't want to go. I tell her that if we don't go it will make them sad. It just goes to show how her little mind works and that she knows how to apply things in her little mind.