In keeping with the tradition (of three years now), my mom and grandmother came up for the State Fair. This year we went on Labor Day. The tradition is that they come up in the morning, we go to the fair, and then we go out to lunch. This year, lunch was at the Elephant Bar. It was really good.
As always, we go look at the animals first. My grandmother grew up with farm animals and loves to look at them. We saw llamas - first time at the fair to see llamas. We also saw sheep - who ran away from my grandmother. There were some steers there too, with baby steers. Those horns are really sharp.
The funniest moment of the animal watching was when Nicholas saw the sheep and yelled (while pointing at the sheep) "Ana" - which is the name of his sitter. Jon and I laughed. I told Ana and she laughed too.
Then we went to go find the petting zoo. While on the way there, my mom saw a pony ride and had the bright idea to put Nicholas on the pony.
The picture above shows that he's loving the pony ride. This was not the case at first. At first, he was not enthralled and wanted down. But my mom held him on there and walked with him, and then Jon and I cheered whenever he came around the circle to see us, so he began to love it. It is amazing what kids do for some cheers.
Then we went to the petting zoo. This year you had to pay to get into the petting zoo :( Jon didn't come in, but my grandmother, my mom, me and Nicholas all went. Needless to say, my mom carried Nicholas.
My grandmother only fed and petted the small animals. It was adorable. And they started to eat her purse, but since they were small and cute she didn't mind.
My mom helped Nicholas feed the animals. The rules said you had to be three to feed the animals. My mom ignored the sign, and let Nicholas feed them. He had a blast. See the smile?
Then there was this huge sandbox filled with corn kernels. Nicholas played in there with the cars, trucks, shovels and pails. We didn't have to pay anything for this. He did not want to come out. Not at all. But eventually he came out.
To finish the day, my mom and grandma went on the monorail with Nicholas. It turns out that Nicholas fell asleep on the monorail with my mom holding him (shocker).
Jon and I went to play games. We played this Whack-a-mole game that I loved. You get the hammer, and you have to hammer the noles as they come out of their holes. First one to 15 wins. Jon won the first game and I demanded a rematch. So I won the second. Jon also played other games. He won a cow, a monkey and a tiger for Nicholas. We also bought Nicholas an inflateable sword that makes noises. Guess what his favorite is?
The sword.
The games were great fun. Yes, games at the fair are expensive. But I think that is the first date we have had since Nicholas was born where we went and did something fun - something game-like. Normally we go to dinner and then do errands. Anyone who doesn't have a child does not understand the difficulty of errands with children. When you get to do them without children, it is almost like a date. So that's what we have been doing. But this was so much better. We laughed and had fun - just like we were dating.
But he slept all the way until we got to lunch, where he promptly ate a chicken quesedilla and some sweet potato fries. He also got to have some ice cream for dessert. Jon had lamb, I had sushi and a patty melt. It was great.
It was a fabulous day and I cannot wait until next year.
