All Is Fair

We managed to squeeze in one more activity before summer closes its curtain. We went to the State Fair yesterday. We all hopped on the bus and were smelling fry grease and manure by 11:30am.

Our first stop, which is always our first stop, was the baby animal barn. Over half of the animals there now share a birthday with Number One Son. Some others were born the morning we were there. Sweet Pea was full of, "Oh, they're so cute!" exclamations. Each kid got to pet at least one of each animal there. After the lambs, calves, piglets, chicks, bunnies and ducklings we emptied our first bottle of hand sanitizer.
Then it was on to lunch. Like last year, we found a church dining hall but this year we took advantage of our State Fair coupon (cheapskate) book. N1S and I got a two for one hamburger basket and Lady Di and Sweet Pea had taco in a bag. Luckily, they changed their order from a family sized taco to a single sized. A family sized taco in a bag involved an entire family sized bag of Doritos.

Once our bellies were full, we started walking. And walking and walking. Much to N1S and SP's disappointment, we visited all of the old people places at the fair. The health building, home improvement building and modern living building. They perked up a bit in the eco-environment building, but that didn't last long. It seemed like every booth and stand were giving away canvas shopping bags with their respective logos on them. The State Fair is going green this year, and not just the 4-H building.

Luckily, Lady Di and I had just gotten enough freebies (including free bike helmets for the kids) when the kids' complaining reached its peak. That meant it was time to go to the Midway.

We took a short cut through the Kidway, but N1S could see that these baby rides were not for him. I was just hoping there would be a slower ride for SP at the adult Midway. I got a sheet of tickets (discounted from coupon book) and we looked for the safest thrill ride we could find. SP got scared and hid behind me just looking at the ride next to the ticket booth. N1S spotted the Scrambler and got in line. Lady Di was a nervous wreck. She doesn't care much for rides. At the same time N1S was getting strapped in by a licenced thrill ride operator (carny), SP decided to try the big spinning chain swing ride. As both kids were being whipped and spun around Lady Di and I were checking each kid for facial distress (crying) but were pleased to see both kids yelling, smiling and hamming it up for Mom and Dad.

The rides ended at the same time and both kids came running. "That was so awesome!", they almost said in unison.

Now they had to up the ante and find even more thrills. N1S and I both spotted a spinning, twisting upside down contraption and said, "Oh yeah!" Lady Di saw it and said, "No way!" N1S and I then begged and pleaded and got our way. Then I got nervous. Once N1S's ride really started to spin, I caught short glimpses of his somewhat serious looking face. Was he really scared and just barely holding it together to make it through the ride? No. He got off and yelled, "That was the best ride of my life!" I guess we don't need to worry about big rides anymore for him. We used the rest of our tickets on a few more rides and headed for a treat on our way to the bus for home. This was the kids' first visit to the Midway and they each were getting rubber necks from taking in all of the wonder of carnival games, lights and noises.

We ended the day with cotton candy and shakes from the dairy barn and enjoyed our relaxing ride home on the bus. Well, it would have been relaxing if the three sugared up and over tired four year old girls wouldn't have sat next to us. We spent about six hours at the fair and once home, the kids went straight to bed.

Our summer has really been pretty active for our standards. It's getting so the kids now expect something to happen every other day.

I can tell you one thing, tomorrow will not be that day.