Fair Day!

If there is one thing I REALLY look forward to in the Fall, it's "Doin the Puyallup".  I absolutely love the fair and although my husband is a transplant here, he loves it too. (Just not as much as I do :)  We have begun the indocrination process of molding our children into fair-lovers, as well.  If you know me, you know I have a calendar and love to make plans.  The fair runs 17 days each year; opening on a Friday and running three full weekends with the two weeks in between.  So, each year we block out a few days because we know we are going to go to the fair more than once!

Our first trip was last Monday...I like to think of this as our "family barn time" because we have a "NO RIDES" rule when we go for this purpose.  We go to eat and looked through animal barns, nothing more, nothing less.  This year, there was a liter of piglets that had just been born that morning, which is a first for me at the fair!  It was amazing to look a few feet over at the 10-day-old piglets and see what a difference in size a little over a week could make. I love all the questions that kids can come up with when they are looking at animals.  Raymond's comment/question about the mother pig only being 2 years old was tabled for later discussion. And of course we ATE: corn dogs, curly fries, cotton candy, an elephant ear and more.

Our school always takes a fair day on a day that the Dizzy Pass (unlimited ride bracelet) is available and yesterday was that day.  We typically open and close the fair on Fair Day so last year I proposed that we give the students (and their families!) a break and have an hour late-start at school the morning after.  What do you know...my wish was granted!  We were running a little late yesterday and didn't get to the fair until about 10:30 (it opens at 10am) so we only had a short wait before the kids could start their rides.  And RIDE THEY DID!  We bought them each a ride bracelet and they were off!  For almost 12 hours, our kids rode the rides...they met up with various friends to go on rides and Kevin and I tag-teamed between Raymond (who goes on the really big, midway rides) and Zachary and Addison (who still prefer the tameness of Sillyville).  My legs and back can attest to the near-constant standing and walking.

Raymond on the Skydiver with his friend Jeremy...I wish you could see their expressions better!



Addison and Zachary have fun on the Sillyville Rides

I'm REALLY looknig forward to our next trip to the fair because it'll be my BIRTHDAY!  I'm planning to take the day off of work so  Kevin adn I can spend the WHOLE day at the fair...no kids :)