Yesterday we did something a little crazy and went to an ice festival in Richmond (a 2 hour drive south). The reason was my (mom's) cousin was participating in the festival and his family was going to be there too. And my cousin is a pretty amazing ice carver. For example these giraffes he carved.
Nate and I were hesitant to go because we would have to be outside for long periods of time and we just weren't sure how long Evelyn and Jameson would last. As it turned out, we didn't really need to worry. The festival had several warm-up stations with kids activities, free hot chocolate, and snacks.
And even outside Evelyn and Jameson never seemed to mind the cold.
There was a family play zone with an ice slide, ice ping pong, ice checkers, ice corn hole; you get the picture. Once we caught up with my cousin, Evelyn ran off to play with the big kids. Jameson watched my cousin Aaric bury his son Wyatt in ice.
There were lots of amazing ice sculptures both big and small.
We got a great family picture with Batman and one of the carvers.
The best part of the day was the evening throw down ice carving competition. Aaric and his carving partner (team fire) battled against another team of 2 carvers (team ice) to see who would win the golden chainsaw. Aaric's wife Becky explained that it's all just for fun and show, it's not a real competition. Everything's kinda hyped up with fireworks and pyrotechnics, but it was very cool to watch.
The battle happens over 3 stages each lasting 15 minutes. One carver on each team works for the first 15 minutes, then the other carver for the second 15 minutes, and finally they work together for the last 15. The audience chooses the winner and team fire won! Team ice carved a ZZ top car. Team fire carved the itsy bitsy spider.
The one bad part of the whole day was the drive home. It had started to snow and the roads were okay in parts and not great in others. But drivers were very cautious, some overly cautious and we saw no accidents or slide offs. It did take an extra hour to get home, but the kids were so tired, they slept the entire way.
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