The Northwest Washington Fair

The Northwest Washington Fair has won national awards several times over.  This year they broke the Guiness Book of World Records for the most people on a hay ride.  (The original record was 250; they got over 600 people on the hay ride this year.)  I would have loved to have been a part of it, but it just wasn't doable this year.

Anyway, in previous years I could take or leave the fair, but this year I really, really wanted to take the kids.  It is so much more fun when you have kids along!!  Bryan didn't want to go or take more time off of work, so in May when the tickets were on sale for reduced prices, I bought a gate pass and two ride tickets for the kids and I.  As the time got closer I kept thinking it would be more fun to go with someone else, so I called Grandma up and she was excited to join us.  Then, the day before we went, I was talking to Auntie Sally and asked her to join us as well.  Let's just say we had a BLAST together!!    From animals, to junk food, to rides with Brandon, to watching horse shows and being told tall tales about horses ;), it was all so much fun.

A rooster crowing contest!?!  It was pretty funny to watch these roosters crowing.  One of them supposedly never shut up in the barn, but during the whole contest he didn't crow once until they called time.

I wasn't sure at all that Brandon would enjoy the rides and at first he wasn't sure either.  But then we found the slide. 
He. Loved. It!  He was game for any of the other rides after that.

"Flying" the airplanes was one of his favorites.  We discovered we could control our up and down motion.

One of my favorite rides Brandon wasn't so sure about.  It was one where the main piece went around in a circle, but then there were three different arms with three seats on them each that spun separately (kind of like "spinning saucers" but a little different).  Anyway, he held on pretty tightly on that one.

 My friend, Alyssa (Auntie Lis), rides the draft horses at the fair, so we went to visit her and the horses.

Micah was intrigued with these rather large creatures.

But didn't so much like touching them.  Auntie Lis has (notice present tense) Brandon convinced that ponys are small because they washed big horses in too hot of water and they shrunk.  Brandon explained it all to his friends two days later!

Grandma looking rather sassy and cute in a cowboy hat!

 And then we found the tractors!  Oh the tractors...
"Mommy, mommy, mommy, there are tractors!!!!  Can I sit on them?"  Thankfully the salesman understood the excitement of a little boy and let them sit on the tractors.

HUGE tires.

Both boys were thrilled to be sitting on the tractors.  Brandon kept asking if the pink tractor was there--he remembered it from the Farmer's Day parade, and sure enough there it was.

I just love this picture.

 At that point it was lunch time, so we headed to get some hot dogs and hamburgers.

See the tired eyes?  He was pretty tuckered out.

There was a free horse show at 1 and 6 every afternoon, so we went to watch Auntie Lis riding her big horse in formation.  It was pretty cool to watch what they could get those big horses doing.

Auntie Lis

After that we split up for a bit.  Grandma and Auntie Sally took Micah for a walk so he could take a nap and Brandon and I went back to go on some more rides.

He really wanted to ride the helicopter on this ride, but they all filled up before it was his turn.  This was also the first ride he had to go on by himself.  He was a little concerned at first but when he realized I was right by the fence watching him he was just fine.

Loving every minute of it and making the engine noises too.

We managed to get the very last seat on the ferris wheel after standing in line for about 10 minutes.  There was a little boy behind us who really wanted to go on and they asked if he could sit with us since the seat fit three.  He was a pretty talkative little guy.  It was fun to get his perspective on the fair.  He was much more seasoned than Brandon was.

Just a fun shot I took on the ferris wheel.

 And the roller coaster was the ride I was the most worried about Brandon not enjoying.  Then to make it worse, they said it was only for little kids so I couldn't go on it with him.  He wanted to go on it, though, cause I had talked it up so much as a "dragon train". 

The first time around he looked pretty worried when it threw him sideways and forward, but after that his faice was pure joy like in the bottom right.  He LOVED it and wanted to go again but we were already late for our meeting up again with Grandma and Auntie Sally.  It will definitely be on the list for next year, though.

 We met up with Grandma and Auntie Sally to watch "Roberto the Magnificent".  This guy is a nut case!  That's about the only way to describe him.  I kept thinking about his teachers growing up and how they would have handled all that energy.  He's been on Sesame Street and several other national TV shows.  My favorite was the juggling hammers, standing on a teeter-totter, spinning a saw that was held on a stick in his teeth.  He calls himself a "multi-tasker" but that was pretty amazing even for multi-tasking.

When his show finished up it was time for an afternoon snack before heading home.  We had ice cream and my favorite fair food, Funnel Cakes.

I had to piggy-wiggy but happy and tired boys by the end of the day.

It was such a great day.  Thankfully we had beautiful sun but not too terribly hot either. 

Brandon asked several times over the next couple days if we could go back to go on the rides again, but it just didn't work this year.  I'm thrilled that I have a fellow ride-lover for the years to come!