It's that time of year again! Time to visit our local fair and rodeo. I have such good memories of this week-long event when I was younger (and even as an adult) and I look forward to the fun that Abby will have each time it comes around. This year I just knew she'd get a big thrill out of seeing all the animals that she loves to point to as we drive by as well as some of the tamer kiddie rides. Due to Nate's work schedule I'd mentally prepared myself for a fair of just us girls (mentally as in I was disappointed he wasn't coming but understood why) but when I called him to tell him that we were about to head out he countered with an offer that if we waited another 45 minutes he'd join us!!! You could definitely say I was as happy as a clam that my whole family was going to go together!
As soon as we walked through the fair gates we headed for some fair food to start the evening off right. We got Abby the biggest corn dog we could find (Nate got yakisoba of all things and I settled in with a Diet Pepsi as I just wasn't hungry yet). It was honestly the best opening to the fair I'd had in awhile. I love it when the extended family gets together for these types of things, but having different ages and different likes means trying to please a lot of people at once which typically means someone's unhappy. :-) With just the three of us we were really able to focus in on what would make Abby happiest, what we wanted to see (and what we didn't), and what pace we would go at.
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| Abby eating her corn dog. After she finished her dinner she happily played in the grass beside our table while we waited for Nate to finish. |
After dinner we decided to head to the animal barns to make sure we got in to see them before it became too dark. We started with the cow barn and Abby had her little head whipping back and forth as she excitedly looked from one HUGE cow to the next. Here is where I will add in that while I enjoy bringing Abby to see the cows I'm actually not a fan of the way the barn is set up. All the cows are tied up facing away from us so, as we're walking down the aisle to see all the cows, we are actually facing their hind ends. Nope, I'm not worried about stepping in anything I'm worried about those back legs kicking. Growing up around horses meant you were always a little extra cautious as you came into range of kicking back feet. We were always taught to walk up to a horse from the side so that they could see us and put a hand on their backside so they could feel us as we walked around them so as not to startle anyone. Every single time I walk into the cow barn that's all I can think about. So while Abby's eyes were flicking back and forth in excitement mine were flicking back and forth in search of any tensing legs. :-)
Then, of course, we exit the cow barn of kicking back feet and enter into the pig barn. Normally I don't mind the pig barn as the pigs are nicely locked up in their pens. However, we had perfect timing and entered in while a group had just finished showing and were taking all their pigs back to the appropriate pens which were spread throughout the entire barn. Pigs are mean y'all. Mean. So here my little 2.5 year old is walking down an aisle right as a huge, squealing pig starts racing towards her. The family in front of us had their Dad jumping in between the pig and his son so I knew I wasn't the only one not feeling all sunshine and roses at the situation. I started totally babbling to Nate about picking Abby up and eventually make the declarative statement that we needed to leave the barn now and could come back later. I kept having images of this wild pig running rampage down the aisle and trampling and eating Abby. I'm pretty sure a scene from the movie
Hannibal contributed to this.
We tried a third barn and entered into what I consider barn heaven. The bunny rabbit and bird barn. Ahh. Sweet cuddly bunnies. Silly looking hens. All either appropriate petting animals or safely locked away animals.
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| Mom is much happier in this bunny barn! |
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| Abby was willing to touch a few bunnies but preferred to mostly just watch. |
After leaving the barns it was time to visit some carnival rides! Last year Abby really didn't enjoy the rides but I figured that we'd give them another try. She sure was excited as we walked over to the rides area she was jumping and bouncing she was so excited. After talking it over with Nate we decided to buy a book of tickets and when they were done we were done. Since I'd need to go on most of the rides with Abby it meant she'd get to go on about four rides, but we figured that that was about all that she'd stand in line for.
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| First up was seeing how tall she was! I just can't pass up one of these "how tall are you signs" without taking a picture. |
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| Our first actual ride was this tug boat that went in circles, but as I was on the ride with her and Nate was standing in line for the Strawberry ride we didn't get any pictures. Here she is waiting for her second ride to start. I sense equal boredom in both of my peeps. |
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| And we're off! Let is be known that I don't have the strongest stomach for rides and riding two twirling ones in a row was ehhh. Thankfully this one let me control how fast we spun while we were spinning. :-) |
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| Then we went on the slide. Abby likes slides. I like slides. I figured this would be a super fun ride. It doesn't look that crazy tall from the ground just sort of tall. I mean it's just three little bumps and you're done. |
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| At this point I've realized that you actually fly down the slide at Mock 8 speed! As soon as we took off I actually tried to stick my hands and feet out to slow us down but my feet were in the burlap sack and my hands were clinging tightly to Abby so I just grinned, held tight to Abby, and flew! |
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| Here is when I realized that Abby wasn't having much fun as the "uhhhhhhhh" coming out of her mouth was definitely not an uh of "hey this is super fun" but rather "what the heck are you doing to me, mom!" |
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| Finally, the end is near! |
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| At last we've come to a stop. |
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| In case you weren't able to see in the earlier photos here's a close up of Abby clawing at my arms to ensure she's not going to fly out of my lap while giving her "uhhhhh" of displeasure. |
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| And here she is yelling at me for taking her on such a scary ride! :-) I'm giggling with fear and thanksgiving that the ride is over! |
After our slide adventure I thought it was time for Abby to have a chance to really enjoy a 'ride'. Hence her last two sets of ride tickets were used for two rounds in the bounce house.
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| Her first go 'round had her in with a group of kids who were mostly her size so they had fun doing their little jumps all around the bounce house. Her second round was with much bigger kids so she found out pretty quickly that if she sat on the ground and waited for the kids to bounce near her she'd get a really good bounce out of it! |
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| My goofy girl having a great time! |
After the rides we went back to the pig barn (all the pigs were safely in their pens at this time) and took a quick tour through the 4-H barns. We tried to visit the horse barns but Abby wasn't up for the long walk and the wagon ride that takes you to the horse barn was nowhere in sight so we decided to get an after dinner snack and then head home. As I was standing in line for an elephant ear (because seriously, what fair is complete without one) I looked back and saw Abby chowing down on the corn on the cob that she was supposed to share with Nate. That girl seriously likes her corn on the cob. :-)
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| Daddy and daughter moment. |
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| Chowing down! |
After finishing our snacks we headed back to the car, both of us talking about how we had a great time at the fair this year. I think it was the little things that made this year so awesome. 1) We drove instead of taking the fair bus, which meant we could come and go as we pleased instead of on someone else's schedule, 2) we ate first instead of waiting until we were starving and grumpy, and 3) with just the three of us we were more smoothly able to transition from one activity to the next. Not to say that we won't go with family or friends next year but we may still try to carve out some "just us" time if we do go with a group. Here's to another great fair year!
