Spud Day Weekend

This past weekend was a big weekend. The 3rd weekend in September is like a national holiday for me and Craig. That's when Spud Day is celebrated in Shelley, ID. I'm probably the most loyal attendee of Spud Day and Craig is pulling up a strong 2nd. We were figuring it out this past weekend and I'm pretty sure that I've only missed one Spud Day since I've lived in Shelley. I would have attended every Spud Day while I lived there. Then I was in New York for the Spud Day of '94 so I had to miss that one. But I've gone home every year since then. And this year was Craig's 5th year of attending. That's either really pitiful or really loyal. It's just a good excuse to go home and enjoy a little small-town food and fun.

Here we are at the parade. None of the other siblings attended this year, so the parade was a little uneventful. Normally we're chasing around with the little kids and helping them gather up a nice 'ole helping of candy.

Shelley has hit the big time. This here is the SECOND traffic light we have in town. Oh yeah!

Here's the famous cement truck that comes to mix up a ton of mashed potatoes for the Spud Tug. What's the Spud Tug you might ask? It's a tug-of-war over a huge pit of mashed potatoes. This other picture is a Potato Pickin' contest. You have to put potatoes in a basket and then dump the basket in a potato sack.....over and over until your pile of potatoes is in the sack. I took a picture of the 2 & 3 year-olds competing. I was cracking up because my dad was getting so mad at this one guy. He was out here with a little kid and he was helping the little kid just way too much for my dad's liking. We almost had to hold my dad back from going in and confronting the guy. Seriously...he was so bothered by it. My dad kept talking about it all weekend too. I guess the lesson learned here is don't cheat in front of my dad or else he'll get ya!

Now on to the important stuff....the food! The food is the reason that Craig is a 5 year veteran of Spud Day. It's up for debate whether his first true love of Spud Day was the Prime Steer burger...or me. :-) Among other things, you've got your choice of turkey legs, pronto pups (otherwise known as corn dogs), funnel cakes, Navajo tacos, Prime Steer burgers, and prime rib sandwiches. We pretty much plan our day around the food and usually have to go home after the first round of food, take a nap, and head back in to Spud Day for round two of grub.

Here we are resting up from round one of Spud Day. The past couple of years, Spud Day weather was pretty crappy and cold so we were due a nice one. This year was absoutely perfect. So since the lines were all long at the food booths, we went and enjoyed my mom's gorgeous yard for a while and then went back in for our Prime Steer and funnel cake.