Maeystown Oktoberfest

This past weekend, we ventured an hour away from St. Louis to Maeystown, IL for their annual Oktoberfest celebration. It was beautiful weather in a beautiful setting: a picturesque creek bubbling by an old stone mill surrounded by historic buildings. The smells of kettle corn, baked goods, and bratwurst filled the air… and yet, the timing was just all wrong for us.

You know when your family just has one of those days? A day full of whiny, sulky moods and pouting no matter what wonderfulness surrounds you? That was yesterday.

Looks can be deceiving…

I think any other day, this would have been fun, but we left after just an hour, without the promised funnel cake, without skipping a single stone into the creek, without choosing a bunch of cool-looking greenish pumpkins to cart back to our city house. It just didn’t work out this time, and that’s okay.

Part of what occurred was completely expected. Milo and Oliver had their lower elementary camp-out on Friday night and slept zero hours. We figured they could rest and recover all day Saturday (which they did), but it turns out they needed just one more day to lounge around the house. It always amazes me how sensitive our boys are to sleep, but it shouldn’t surprise me. I’m the same way!

We did come away from the festival with a few goodies. Emil found a baby, of course. Oliver chose an old-fashioned toy cash register that really works, and Milo came away with a cool wooden puzzle of the United States. And we managed to avoid the craziness occurring only two blocks from our house: the second Presidential Debate. The excitement was palpable. Streets were shut down, there were thousands of media people, protesters, and police officers encircling the university. Even though this entire election season has been a complete circus, it was exciting to have our city and even our neighborhood part of history.

Hope your weekend was a good one!