State Fair!

We ventured out today as a family of four to the state fair! As I mentioned last year, the fair is one of the highlights of fall around here, and I didn't want to miss it just because Anneliese came a week later than we thought she would. So we packed up both kids and had a fun morning together! I think we'll do it this way again next year -- a weekday morning was such an easy and pleasant time to be at the fair! So much less crowded than evenings like we've done in the past.

We saw farm animals (Nathan liked the roosters but proclaimed the horses to be too scary), tractors, and lots of police (well, state trooper) vehicles including cars, motorcycles, and even a helicopter. Which, knowing what you know about Nathan, you can assume made him incredibly happy. (And you would be correct.)

We also saw a motocross and bmx bike stunt show. I think Nathan
was just as happy with the bikes when they were on the ground as when they were flipping through the air, but he clapped and cheered with the crowd for all the stunts anyway -- so cute! (I don't think he had any idea why he was clapping.)

And Nathan got to ride some rides: a merry-go-round with Daddy and a giant fun slide with Mommy!
He liked both of them, and asked to do it again after both!

We ate fair food: ham biscuits, a pineapple slushy, sausages with peppers and onions, and yes... the requisite fried snickers bar. As usual, they had a whole plethora of fried foods (including chicken-fried bacon... what does that even mean? isn't all bacon fried?), but we just stuck with the snickers. I made a huge mess of powdered sugar while enjoying my fried feast. :) I tried to offer Nathan a bite, but he wanted nothing to do with fried chocolatey goodness on a stick. He's so not my son.

Surprisingly, very few people commented on the fact that we were out with a newborn. Although one woman did tell us that her mother would "roll over in her grave" if she knew I was up and out in public and (gasp!) pushing a stroller with my one-week-old baby. Haha! But Anneliese slept through the whole fair and didn't even wake up until we were near the front gate on our way home. It was actually a great outing with a newborn -- we kept her snuggled into the car seat/stroller with the canopy up. And once again I was reminded how much more human I feel when I go out and do something instead of just sitting around at home.

And Mark has never looked more like a DAD than walking through the fair, pushing a tandem stroller, wearing a purple backpack. Just sayin'. :)