The Hub of the World

Steven is from the tiniest town in the whole world that every single person in the world has a connection to.  No joke.  Everyone.  It's not 7 degrees of Kevin Bacon.  It's 7 degrees of Panaca, NV.  I'd never even heard of this place, but now that I know of it, I find people all the time that know someone from Panaca.  Um, there are only 700 people that live there.  How can the whole world be connected??  But they are.
And so, in July, Panaca celebrated 150 years of existence, and all the world converged on the tiny little town.  Including all of the B-strand clan.  It was tons of fun!  Noah LOVED spending even more time with his cousins.
There was a craft fair, hot air balloon festival, parade (that we were in!), money drop, games, yummy food, and quilt show.  It was quite the production.

 I took my new Jamberry nails business to the craft fair and paid for our trip down there with the money I earned from sales. Plus, I got a lot of follow up business and made some great new friends.  I even got a great girl to join my team.  :)  So, that was a great success.  And, it gave all the nieces a way to spend their days, as they were all my little helpers.  So fun!  It was kind of a last minute decision, but it was great fun!  And, it was a great experience, so I know how to run a bigger vendor booth.

A lot of my time and energy were spent at the booth, but I was also able to see all of the fun stuff in town, while we were there, and Noah was able to participate in a few of the different activities.  Mostly though, I think he just liked playing in the backyard at Grandma and Grandpa's house, with all of his cousins.

 This is Noah right before and then during the fireman money scramble.  I was told that he wasn't a huge fan, because of the amount of people and the noise.  But somehow he still came home with a bit of money.  Wonder who got that for him?! :)

On Saturday, there was a big parade through town.  Panaca does a big 24th of July (Pioneer Day) celebration every year, but this one was especially big because of being the "Sesquicentennial."  As part of the festivities each year, they have a parade and anyone can be in it.  But, since this was ALSO Kraig and Diane's 50th wedding anniversary, we thought it was fitting to have the family walk in the parade, with Kraig and Diane riding in the back of the truck with the grandkids.  But, Steven and I can't just walk in a parade... we have to make complete fools of ourselves and everyone else around use!  Luckily, Tammy joined in the fun ~ And we really did have fun!!  We danced and shouted and skipped down the whole parade route!  It was great fun!  It was hard to get good pictures though, because the camera kept focusing on people closer.  Oh well... there's always next year.  ;)

There was also a balloon festival and one of the best fireworks shows I've ever seen!  Both of which, we could watch from the front lawn.  Very cool.  This was Noah's first time seeing either one of those things, so now every time we see fireworks or hot air balloons, he says, "like at Papa's house."
Roxi, who we all know is a terrible sleeper, would wake up early or go to bed late, every single night.  But of course, on the night of the fireworks, she fell asleep about 3 minutes before they started and then slept all the way through them!  Poor girl was exhausted!

And speaking of sleep... someone sometime along the way, decided it was a good idea to wake the whole town up at 6am by shooting of dynamite as part of this yearly celebration.  10 sticks of it!  So, of course Roxi woke up.  But Noah slept right through it!  On the last stick, he started stirring and I was afraid he might wake up.  I figured that would just be our luck... the very last boom woke him!  But, heaven was smiling down on us, and he kept right on sleeping.  :)

We had a great time in Panaca and enjoyed visiting with family and some of the friends we've made who also all have connections to Panaca.  We also enjoyed celebrating the 50th wedding anniversary, but that will be a separate blog post.  :)

~ 23-25 July 2014 ~