Olive Festival

I took the kids to our town's Olive Festival last month. Olive trees grow really well here because of our Mediterranean climate. Dave had a seminary meeting in the morning, so we just went for a couple hours before it got too hot. 

 

 

We spent most of our time eating kettle corn and sword fighting.

 

They had a free knight tournament for kids 6 and up, and they fought in teams of two. First Spencer and Tyler went.

The weapons and shields were totally realistic, and they were all made of super tough foam. I really want to buy it for the kids (they're always sword fighting with sticks, and someone's always getting hurt), but we looked it up when we got home, and it's SO expensive. All their stick wars paid off, though - they beat the other team twice.

 

 There was also a booth handing out free olive branch crowns.

 

So cute!

 

 

After Spencer and Tyler finished, Dallin and Brennan got a chance to compete in the tournament. They had SO much fun. It was definitely their favorite part of the festival.

 They lost one and won one.

 

After the fighting, we walked around the booths a little bit. Mostly it was olive oil tasting. I had no idea there were so many different olive oil companies here! I like olive oil okay, but mostly I saw flavored olive oils, and they tasted way too strong for me. Of course Brennan loved it - he loves strong flavors. As you can see, he chose to wear multiple shades of green to look like an olive.

On our way out we stopped to get our free olive oil ice cream. There was olive oil in the ice cream, plus we got to choose a flavor of olive oil to be drizzled on top. The boys liked it, but I thought it tasted too strong. So anyway, it was an interesting experience. I've always seen the signs and wondered what the Olive Festival was all about. The verdict was that it was worth going for the sword fighting alone.