Yesterday, Grandma Deb and I took the boys to the county fair. Before we left, a few ground rules had to be set for our little adventure.
- The rides do not open until 3pm.
- We will see a few shows, walk through the exhibit halls, and window shop at booths before going to the ride because we have time to kill.
- The rides do not open until 3pm.
- No matter how excited you are, you will not run! But you can skip, jump, jog, or walk along side us or in front of us.
- And again, the rides do not open until 3pm!!
The boys enjoyed the rides so much last year that we decided to try out a wristband night this year. Last night was also a cheap admission night due to a Wendy’s promotion where every receipt equaled one free admission. We, also, brought two 20 oz bottles of Dr. Pepper to receive a $5 discount off each wristband. The county fair also boasted that all carnival games were $1 but we typically don’t do games, Although, it seemed like every game the boys had any interest in playing had signs up stating they weren’t participating in the discount programs. We saw one game that was giving away free fish and a portable plastic mini-tank. The boys have played the game and won in the past so we thought we’d check them out since their fish (the same ones they won) passed away last year. The game was not participating in the $1 games so we opted to skip the game. I would have paid $1 to win a fish, I wouldn’t have paid $5 since we already have a large tank at home just waiting for new friends.
While we were there, I thought it would be interesting to walk through the artwork competitions and see if the boys had any interest in partaking next year. They were intrigued by the project boards because they had the word hypothesis (a word they recently learned and now use to talk about everything), the decorated rock (a new category), and the various collections. They have a lot of great ideas and are excited to enter next year.
Of course, no trip to our county fair is complete without stopping by Farmer John’s farm to help with chores, play in the oversize building block area, sift through sand to discover a gem, and watch the model trains run around the small scale village. Another stop on our to do list was the power from the past exhibit because the boys love making a rope and playing with the large selection of antique telephones.
The rest of the evening was spent hopping between rides and avoiding the rainfall. It was obvious that water falling from the sky appears to scare most of the people who live here as when it started to rain, most people scrambled for cover either under umbrellas, under overhangs, or inside the closest exhibit hall. We took a break from the rain for a while about midway through the day. Little T ate a corn dog, Drama King ate some beef jerky and we all watched a few demonstrations, one for a peeler that you could use with any finger and one for the Shammy. Both demonstrations were highly entertaining and the boys watched with intent but easily walked away when it was over.
Towards the end of the night, it was raining so hard that it got uncomfortable. The boys asked to ride a couple last things before we left. They made one last trip up and down the pirate obstacle course and then once around the merry go round.
