State Fair

It is that time of year again!

Summer is settling down and Autumn is beginning to show it's beautiful colors. This is my favorite time of the year. One of my favorite parts about it is the State Fair. We love going to the fair as a family every year. Aaron grew up going with his family and really wanted to pass the experience along to me when we started dating, and we have continued to go every year. We took off work early Thursday so we could get down there in time to enjoy it before it got too late. We like to go on opening night, partly because that is a discounted rate to get in, and also because it's before too many of the crowds descend on the fair.

I picked up Zack from my parents and met Aaron at home to drive to the fairgrounds. The whole drive Zack sat in the back seat yelling "Let's go to the fair!" He was pretty excited. When we got down there we first walked through the animals for Zack. He doesn't really like the idea of touching them, but he likes to look. After that we walked out to the pony ride. Aaron asked Zack if he wanted to ride the ponies this year. He said no. Aaron asked if he was sure, he still said no. So we decided to walk on. As we were walking away Zack starts yelling "Ride the ponies!" I guess he just needed time to warm up to the new idea. His horse was named Thunder and he had fun wearing dad's hat and yelling "YeeHaw!"

While Zack was riding the ponies Aaron's parents came to meet us. They like to go to the fair multiple times each year, and we have fun spending time with them on the night we go. Grandpa and Grandma loved seeing Zack trying out something new. And he just smiled bigger with all the attention he was getting.

After that we went to find some food! This is my personal favorite part of the fair. I love all the variety. Aaron skipped lunch just for the occasion, and I had a small lunch (pregnant women don't skip meals...ever). We love to get Navajo tacos every year. That seems to be our favorite meal there. All we could seem to get Zack to eat was pickles and fries...we tried with other things, but to no avail. Sometimes you just can't seem to fight a two year old! When Cathy saw the pickles and fries, she said "Pickles and fries, perfect for a pregnant woman!" Which I had to quickly respond that they were for Zack...I can't stand pickles right now!

After that we just wandered to booths. This is so much fun! We rarely buy anything, but it is so fun to see the stuff people have to sell. Zack likes to see the toy booths, and we have to hang around those booths for quite a while for him to be satisfied. After Zack went potty (more on that later! yay!) we promised him some ice cream for being such a big boy. Dippin' Dots are always a good summer evening treat! Shortly after that we decided it was time to go home. It was almost 9 at this point and Zack was saying he was ready to go home. We sometimes try to watch part of the rodeo, but this year we decided to skip it. It sure was a fun night to spend as a family!