IceFest 2010

It's cold outside and we've been planning for over 6 months...it's that time of year again, IceFest time! The time of year when ice shavings fly around and big giant ice trucks park themselves downtown. It's also that time of year for my "once a year best friends" to come and make downtown Chambersburg glisteny and sparkly with chiseled ice and out-going personalities.

Loads of fun and super cold, but well worth all of the hard work that the whole committee has put into making IceFest 2010 bigger and better then ever before! This year the Chambersburg Recreational department sponsored a 40' ice slide and the chili cook off committee (one of my personal favorites) moved the cook-off outside under a huge tent and invited Roy Pitz brewery to serve beer samples.
Everything unofficially started Wednesday morning with the building and carving of the ice slide.When building any of the blocks the guys (4 of them pictured here, the one in the plaid, not sure who he is...he's not part of the " bestie" pack) need to properly smack, er pack the ice into position.
Then they ladel water all over the ice to seal it. It's very scientific and percise...or atleast it looks it.Next is the shaping of the ice. The one holding the chainsaw is Ernie...he runs the whole ice operation and during the event (and months leading up to it) I am his sidekick. His go to gal. His friend in need a friend indeed (did that make any sense?)...either way, we eat breakfast together, sometimes lunch depending on if lunch is eaten that day, dinner together...we are pals. He texts me, I text him back...like family. The rest of the crew, is also like family. We are like birds of a feather flock together.Thursday, was another busy day of unloading ice, building ice walls and the official ribbon cutting ceremony for IceFest. Little wee one was amazed at the technique and skill that goes into creating those monsterous blocks of ice; or just scared of the chainsaw and the flying ice. I'll let you decide.I don't have too many pictures of the wee ones from the event, mostly because they didn't come down for much of the event. Paul and I were both working our rears off (he with the lax team picking up trash and manning the ice slide), so they got to stay with their favorite sitter, Melissa :) She takes super great care of them and they just adore her and her boys, so I knew they were in good hands.
I did bring them down for the ribbon cutting ceremony, which Big wee one thought was, "So boring!"She didn't complain too much after she got a nice giant piece of this cake, and then she got to finish her sisters! Sadly, after cake I had to call Melissa to come pick them up. It was way too cold outside and I still had a lot of work to do...which by the way, if I haven't mentioned...I LOVE! I loved working with the guys from DiMartino and doing tv interviews, and radio spots and checking in with store owners to see how business is going...I love working on the different committees, everyone pulling together to make this HUGE event so much fun!
I posted this picture because I like how the news lady is in the background while he is carving. This ended up being a wishing well :) And we both interviewed with her, he was lucky and got to go pre-taped, mine was live. Talk about nerves! I always sound like such a dork doing those things.

Doesn't that just crack you up?! Look at those buns of steel!Here's Ernie, showing the guys who's boss!Friday was less ice during the day, more chill time for the crew and more catch up time for me. We did meet up for dinner, which was Mexican and shared some good laughs.This awful picture proves I was there...see, there I am! Sporting my IceFest beanie :)Oh look! Tuscarora Mt. Winery's ice block was sculpted to hold bottles of wine! The winery was rocking the whole 4 days of the event (wait...3 days, they were closed on Sunday)! Things are going very well there and I couldn't be more proud of my parents and the hard work they put into making the wine shop such a cool place.Friday, when Paul pulled in for his nightly duties, I made him pose with the muscle man...hehe! I want to pump you up!Some of the lax team doing their thing.One of the highlights of any of the events is the free food...clearly it's obvious what was free this evening! The three young'ens do a lot of the live carving of the giants, the middle guy does all of the one blocks that are carved before coming to Chambersburg. All three of them are hilarious and make trailing their every moves fun :) If you have to hang out with people for 4 days straight, hopefully they are funny.An ice dolphin you can sit on and have your picture taken with.Oh Saturday....Saturday, Saturday, Saturday. BUSY! The chili cook-off with one mild interruption went off beautifully! We were beyond THRILLED with the turnout and everyone seemed to have an awesome time. The hot pepper eating contest was also fun and we are excited to amp it up another notch next year! The ladies on this committee are soooooo fun to work with, and meeting with them is like a little mini social hour :)
We finish with Sunday. I literally forced myself to get out and take the girls downtown to see the ice and take a ride on the ice slide. Big wee one didn't even want to head out, I think she just wanted to be a homebody, since none of us had literally been home in days, but I didn't want the to miss out. Lucky for us, it was the nicest day of the event, sunny and 30 something degrees out...perfect for checking out ice.

Both of the girls went down the slide with Paul, but only Little wee one would go down by herself. Big wee one gets a little anxiety around crowds and there was a big one there! I'm happy they went down and Little wee one said it was a lot of fun! She practically flew out of the slide (shown here), but did a great job at keeping her hands in the slide (hehe).

I'm happy I had a chance to get a few days of downtime, but I'm sad that such a fun event is over. All that hard work for it to fly by with exhaustion, but alas, we have a celebration dinner and a wrap up meeting, so ice is still on the brain for another week or so and then we'll start meeting again in June for planning of IceFest 2011.