Going to the Fair

Sean loves his new clown friend.

For the past 5 years my kids and I have faithfully attended the Spokane County Fair. (Sometimes dad joins us and sometimes grandma and bompa come too.) Mostly I love to go because I enjoy watching the expressions on my children's faces more than anything. There is so much amazement and wonderment in their eyes as they look at all the rides and lights. Then there are the delightful squeals and laughter of looking at and trying to touch the animals.

It was a milestone year - as it was the first year we did not take a stroller! Everyone walked and there was no crying!!!! (We were our own show at the fair the first year we took Halle. She was just 3 1/2 months old and still crying all the time. Everywhere we went people would stare and wonder what we were going to do to stop the baby from crying. Of course what on lookers didn't know - is that there wasn't anything to do. Halle just cries - that is what she was good at - and there was nothing or nobody that could have prevented it.)

Halle is all smiles now. Proudly posing in front of the biggest pumpkin.

Bompa and Chad get their minds in motion at the science display.

Halle gets to pet a chicken.

The boys get fascinated with a pig.

Say "Moo!"

Posing by a long-horn cow.

Chad checks out the fire engine.

Grandma and Bompa takes the kids on a train ride.

It's tractor riding time. Chad uses his imagination to go on a great ride (and it was free!).

Halle chooses her tractor to ride.

Sean thinks he is ready to drive. Watch out - here he comes!

My other favorite memories of this event:

1) Chris teasing a mother long-horn cow and getting her to run and head-butt into the cage. That was pretty scary! It made us all jump. Chris thought it was fun and keep at it for a while.

2) Chris teaching Sean to sing the words, "Bacon, bacon, bacon," at all the pigs.

3) Sean getting almost literally scared to death. As we were walking through the cow barn, one of the boys who had a cow in a stall had set up a pretend spider to fly down from the ceiling. It came down right in front of Sean and made him jump right out of his skin. For the rest of the evening he only looked up - trying to prevent another spider attack from happening.

These are the moments I am glad I have kids. It wouldn't have been half as fun going to the fair without them. In fact - I would probably never go. So thank you Chad, Halle, and Sean (and yes, Chris) for making my life fun.