The Fair

We had so much fun at the fair last weekend. My mom (Granny) and dad (Grandad) and my sister (Bethany/Aunt BB) came to visit and we headed out with Dan for an afternoon of fun! It was my first trip to a country fair and I loved it. We never even entered the main part that has the rides for adults, but we had so much fun with Elena on the kiddie rides.

Everyone's favorite parts (I think):

Grandad: Eating good stuff. Our ice cream was made by the John Deere motors pictured below. He also loved the chocolate covered key lime pie.

Granny: Seeing what quilts, art, decorated gingerbread houses, etc. won blue ribbons

BB: She got to milk a cow!

Elena: the petting zoo, the giant slide, and the tractor pull competition

Dan: Getting to spend time with the family (especially Elena)

Me: the tractor pull, the giant slide, and getting to see that 2 of my former students had artwork on display in the Education Center. I can't believe that my first group of kindergarteners are in 4th grade now!

It's a shame that the video stopped when it did because immediately after the slide, Elena hopped off my lap and tried to climb back up the purple side saying, "Again?"

Here is a video of us at the tractor pull. Let me preempt this by saying that we are suburb/city folk and are therefore ignorant in all things country as you will hear by our various comments. Regardless of our ignorance, it was loud and fun and if you listen you can hear Elena's squeals of excitement. I loved seeing how souped up the tractors were. The competitors knew a lot about what they were doing and they took a lot of pride in their work/skills. It made me happy to be American.

Side note: Two minutes ago, I was googling "souped up" and "suped up" to see how to spell it when I came across a thread from the UK where everyone was wondering whether the phrase meant the same thing as "drugged up" or whether it was just a misspelling of the word "supped" as in: "ate dinner". Hilarious.

Here is the biggest pumpkin (612 lbs):

Aunt BB and Elena on the Carousel:

Granny and Elena:

A fancy tractor. The guy is even wearing a helmet: