Spud day was Saturday. This is always an exciting event for Shelley. It's a pretty big deal and so much fun every year.The day started with a parade as usual. Benson and Grant got so much candy. I don't know if it's because more candy was thrown out this year or if they are just getting faster and understand the concept better of picking the candy up and putting it in your bag rather than eating it right away. It took a while for me to explain to Grant that he needs to stay in one spot and pick up the candy that is thrown to him. He kept getting so distracted. He started to follow a float down the road and picked up candy from the same float as he ran after it. I thought he would come back but he just kept running along side it as they kept throwing candy. I finally concluded he wasn't coming back on his own and had to run after him quite a ways.
This was the potato picking contest. It looks a lot easier than it is. There are different age groups and separated between men and women. The Women's group, 17 and older, have to pick up 400 lbs of potatoes and bag them them. Josh's sister Melissa got second. She has for a a few years in a row now. Josh helped with the timing for a little while so Grant ran and jumped over the potato rows.
My personal favorite event...The SPUD TUG. Mash potatoes are mixed in a cement mixer and poured into a pit. The weight limit is 1000 lbs. which averages to be about 5 men.
Josh and 2 of his brothers (Nathan and Jacob), his b.i.l. (Dan) and a friend (Dustin) pulled. I think this was the 6th year and the 5th time they've won. The year they didn't win was because the other team cheated. (I won't get into that.)
They have won enough times now that they each have a trophy. This year it was our turn to keep the trophy and it is sitting nicely in our kitchen right now until we find it a home some where. I am sure the rest of the town is ready for some new winners, but it is so much fun because they seriously pull for less than 2 mins. It is amazing how strong they all are together.
After the spud tug we headed out the demolition derby. This was our first year attending the Spud Day Derby and it was worth every penny. They put on quite the show; a car rolled over, two cars caught on fire. No one got hurt but I felt like I was in a Roman coliseum cheering for the death of a warrior. I think is my new favorite event.
