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This weekend I accomplished two more things on my list. I did #43 Take Little Miss to a Festa and #49 Ride the Giant Dipper with Little Miss.



This weekend Hubby and I took the Kiddies to Santa Cruz to enjoy the Festival of the Holy Spirit. Oh my gosh we had fun. We got to Santa Cruz about 9:30am on Sunday, found a nice comfy place to sit and waited for the parade to start. Little Mister, of course, was not interested in sitting so the Hubbs and I took turns walking him up and down the street. Little Miss was a little restless as well, but as soon as the parade started she got into it.Tons of girls around her age dressed in really pretty white dresses with trains longer then they were tall. I gotta say, the trains on their capes (I guess you would call them capes) were beautiful.


After the parade we drove to Church then off to the Portuguese Hall, met up with Hubby's aunt and a few of his cousins. I gotta say, I really like his aunt and cousins. Not only are they very nice people, they just look like good people. They seem to exude good, always welcoming, always with open arms. I really like the Santa Cruz wing of Hubby's family. Now all I have to do is get all the names straight of all of Hubby's cousin's kids.



The moment I stepped out of the car I smelled the smelly smell of sopas. MMMM. One of the yummiest things ever. The link above to the Festival of the Holy Spirit has a recipe at the bottom. I'm sure that many different regions of Portugal, The Azores, Santa Cruz, Merced, etc. have versions that are specific to their area, family or terroir, but you'll get the basic idea.



We ate and ate and ate and ate and ate. About a year ago Little Miss gave up beef, except for Festas and St. Patrick's Day dinner. She ate beef yesterday. I was worried she'd get a tummy ache but she didn't, at least she didn't act like she felt yucky. She did feel a little guilty, but she got over it once she smelled the yummy food. Little Mister, it being his first Festa, pleased all on lookers old and young. He must have eaten his body weight in Sopas. Good boy. So glad I've raised two eaters.



We left before the dancing started. I think it would have been fun to stay for a while but we had a 2 hr. drive ahead of us and we needed to make one more stop . . . Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. We totally lucked out on parking. 2 hr metered parking right across the street. Sweet.

I bought tix for Little Miss and me to ride the Giant Dipper. Yay, #49 is done. I don't think I like Roller Coasters. I think I don't mind them, but I don't think I really enjoy them, except Space Mountain. I like that one. Hubby and Little Mister waited for us at the exit. After riding the Giant Dipper we went home.



We were tired, sweaty, dirty, a little cranky, but mostly happy and satisfied. We had a big day. We drove to Santa Cruz, we watched a Parade. We went to Church, we saw family we hardly ever see, we ate a whole cow, we rode a roller coaster, we had some cotton candy. It was a full day.