The State Fair

We took a little impromptu trip to the State Fair on Thursday!  Thusday is our new Friday and Nate and I were racking our brains trying to think of something fun to do that night when I got the little jingle from my phone, it was my calendar reminding me of cheap day at the Fair!  Wahoo!  So we dropped our homework and jobs, and left!  We had a good time.  Nate and I couldn't get over how nice it was to have Friday off!!  I think we could get used to this! 

Right as we got to the Fair we went to the KBull tent and spun the wheel.  And what do you know Kelly won 6 tickets to the screening of Alpha and Omega that cute new movie that's coming out!!!  We were thrilled!  Minus the part that Nate can't come cuz he has to work :(.... but still excited.  What luck huh!

Then we went through the little Farm thing for the kids.... teaching the kids what the Farmers have to do.  I like these things :)  The kids had a good time.  Especially milking the cow and earning play money to buy a REAL treat!  Very well done I must say.

Noah had a hard time keeping up with his big sibs, and I was wondering what was wrong with him the whole time, but I came to the conclusion that Noah really does just like to take his time with things.  He's not a rush through it kinda guy.  He likes to soak it all in.  I'm happy to have learned this.  Makes me think twice about rushing him and helps me know why I need to hang back and basically coddle him through some things.  I welcome these moments of insight.

Luke just looked funny in this one :)  FFA's!  Not to be confused with Harry Potter and his classmates.

I think this is the only picture I took of Erika. boo. But isn't she a cutie!! 

So after we walked through the livestock buildings and a few of the marketing things, we let the kids each pick two rides to go on.  Seeing what they choose and who to go with was half the fun for me.  They always surprise me.  Lukey wen t on this lame little slide thing and actually we ended up not counting it as his ride because the slide was P-A-T-H-E-T-I-C!!  And because we needed someone to use up the last few tickets :)

Luke and Noah went on the train... they looked so cute.  I loved how Noah just sat there looking around like he was actually on a train checking out the scenery.....

Then Charity and Brad (interesting combo for the night!) went on the Tornado!  Very cool and fun to watch them on.  It was thrilling yet not scary.  This was Brad's favorite.

Then Nate and I kinda talked them into going on the Thunder Bolt!  This ride is similar to the Music Express at Lagoon.  They were a little freaked out to go on this.  Charity was anyway as you can see here:

And acutally they did really good for the first half of it.  They were sccreaming screams of joy and had fun looks on their faces.  We all loved watching them.

Then the ride stopped and announced that it was going to go backwards!!!!!  I will not forget the looks on their faces.  I totally thought they were going to barf!  It was bad.  And I was so worried that they would be crying and totally freaked outwhen they got off.  Luckily they sucked it in and pretended like they loved the ride but that that part was just "scary".  Funny kids.  We all learned our lesson :)

 

By this time Kelly was the only one who hadn't been on a ride and I realized that she HAD wanted to go on some of the other rides, but when someone else mentioned that they wanted to go on it too, she would change her mind.  I figured out that she just wanted to go on a ride by herself :)  How cute is that.  You have all these siblings to enjoy stuff with and you choose to do it all by yourself :)  Whatever.  To each his own.  And actually after watching the attention and cheering and fun stuff the other kids do for the one that is riding I realized why that might be desired.  She ended up going on the Merry-Go-Round and riding on what she named, her horse, "Cookie".  She said that this was her favorite part and that she can't wait til next time she sees her horse cookie.  Funny girl.

After the Merry-Go-Round I finally talked Kelly into trying out this awesome Barn ride.  It looked SO COOL!!  We had a bunch of tickets left (not enough for everyone of course) so it was then that we decided Luke and been jipped and let him ride with Kelly (apparently the ride rules are just for looks because I think Luke was supposed to have an adult with him.... of course I noticed this after it was too late.... nobody said anything).  They seemed to have a good time and didn't get too freaked out from what I saw.  I totally wish I had gone on it with them though.... it looked like FUN!!

Noah wanted to go on the train one more time so we let him go by himself :)  He had a blast.  Everyone yelled to him and waved every single time he came around..... it was hilarious.  We must have looked so funny to other people :)

And speaking of other people, we ran into Christy and Bryan and their family there!  Imagine that!  Of all places.

So it was getting late and we made one more stop into another building and found ourselves buying books for the kids :)  They had a great deal and we just couldn't resist.  They all picked out some really cool ones.  Lukey's was the coolest I think, a train book that has a track inside for a small train to ride on.... way cool!  Charity put back several before settling on a book about the body.  I feel like she only picked it because I showed it to her, but hopefully she likes it as well.  Kelly got the princess sticker book.  Nate struggled to help Noah find a cheaper one, but he couldn't put the Dinosaur one that roars down.... so we bought it.  Brad picked out a flap book about Dragons.  It was a lot of fun for all of us to look around.  I liked it.