Cortland....trying not to suck!

As most of our family knows, we moved into a small town that was taken over by big builders....most of whom have now declared bankruptcy after struggling to stay afloat. All of the failing neighborhoods have obviously taken their toll on our town, one that had big dream dependant on the builders that were coming in. Those dreams will probably never come true now. I will hand it to our town, they are trying to make the best out of a bad situation and while I think most of the residents here roll their eyes at a lot of what this town does, I know they're trying, so I support the efforts. I have no idea how long the Cortland Fesival has been going on, but they did try to expand on it this year, which gets them a big thumbs up from me! This year, we had a band/dinner night the day before the parade, with a beer garden and some subpar food. It was geared towards the younger, newlywed/starting family crowd and they meant well. It was a little overpriced, the food was not worth it, but they tried, and thats what I care about. They gave it a shot, hopefully learned some lessons and will try again next year. The next day was the parade and carnival, which is always small town and cute. They added a lot of new rides and games for kids, had the fire truck open for kids to go in and the Flight for Life helicopter there to go through as well. Pretty good, Cortland, pretty good. I can honestly say that I love this silly little festival and will support it all of the years that we will live here. Which hopefully won't be much longer, but I'm lying to myself if I think we're selling anytime soon.

{my boys, waiting for the parade to start!}

{driving the fire truck - the fireman was impressd with his wheel skills!}

{trying to honk the horn, which was really on the floor...}

Little man is totally into fire trucks, let me tell you. He threw quite the fit when it was time to get out and kept running back to it. He will also imitate a siren, which is cute and kinda wants to make you rip your ears off all at the same time. Is there a fireman in our future? I'm worrying already.

-maggie