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:
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)
Aunt BB and Elena on the Carousel:
Granny and Elena:
A fancy tractor. The guy is even wearing a helmet:
An action shot of Elena:
The only picture I took with Dan in it. Oops! :)
Elena got to help me by licking the card in order to seal it, so when Dan was about to open it, she thought she would help him by licking it some more.
Dan's birthday pie (chocolate chip):
The ward (congregation) that we were in before we started attending the Spanish branch did their annual luau. As always, Jonno and Tonya did an awesome job! We will be so sad when they are not here to be MCs/dance teachers/performers next year. Jonno will most likely be doing his residency elsewhere. That's him in the middle below.
Elena had a lot of fun watching - in this pic - and dancing (my batteries died before that).
She enjoyed getting to sit in the fire truck after the "Buddy Walk" (more about that later). She LOVES trucks, tractors, buses, etc right now.
Elena and cutie-pie Aiden. Aiden's mom invited Elena and I to do the local "Buddy Walk" a couple of weeks ago. Their neighbor has a child with Down syndrome. The purpose of the walk was to raise money in order to "benefit national education, research and advocacy initiatives, as well as local programs. These funds enable NDSS and local groups to offer services that support and enhance the quality of life for individuals with Down syndrome and their families." I pasted that info at this site. We had a lot of fun eventhough it rained and we enjoyed all the free food and entertainment (an awesome and inspiring talent show).
She loved wearing her "Buddy Walk" t shirt and didn't want to take it off. She now wears it as pajamas (with the sleeves rolled up a bit).
Elena's cute friend Sadie really enjoyed watching the luau:
I love this picture because I am so happy that Elena is old enough this winter (not crawling) that she can wear cute tights and have them last more than one day:
Thanks for checking up on what we've been up to. Stay tuned for a belated birthday post for Dan and pictures and videos of Elena's first trip to the fair!
Dan and Elena having fun:
Caleb and E. playing with bubbles on the front porch:
She doesn't get to spend as much time with them as she would like, but she loves them a lot, so she wanted to say:
We also took a video of her saying hi. Unfortunately, we waited until Sunday afternoon and - as all church-going parents know - Sundays are hard on little ones. The video is cute, but she did need redirecting a couple of times. :) Enjoy, Abuelita and Abuelo, Granny and Grandad!
