State Fair First Timers

I watched Oprah for the first time in forever today. Her segment on the Texas State Fair reminded me I needed to post about our adventures there. Michael and I have lived in Texas our entire lives but never ventured out to Fair Park. I was ready to experience it after all this time. Michael? Maybe not so much, but he obliged me. We picked Hannah up early from school on Friday, took the DART (oh how I do NOT miss those commuting days) and we braved the festivities.

The train ride went well. Luke likes Thomas the Train so he knew what was going on. We heard a lot of "choo choo" noises. He was actually still for a change; I was worried he'd try to escape.

Once we got there we zoomed thru the car show, took a seat in the GMC Acadia - might be the next family car in a few years. Then we needed a map and a plan. Luke doesn't do strollers well and he was already getting antsy. We decided to head to the midway, I wanted to let the kids ride a few kiddie rides (something my parents never really let us do). That area was ginormous and luckily Hannah wanted to go on two rides right there - a wave ride and the carousel. Luke threw a huge fit b/c he wanted to ride the wave too, but of course he wasn't big enough. Michael tried distracting him by taking him on the carousel. He liked it until he spotted me. Poor guy didn't understand the "round and round" concept. He'd see me and then I'd disapear and he would get mad. Not off to a great start.

We let them play two games (by this point we are already down about $20). Hannah threw some darts at balloons and hit 2 of 3 winning a unicorn. Luke won a car from the duck pond game - lots of skill involved there, just pick a duck. :) By this time, Luke was doing better. We did have to pull out "gi-gi" (his blankie) to help him settle in better.

We found some pizza for the kids, a corn dog for me and sausage on a stick for Dad. We were all feeling better...

Next we checked out the Little Hands Farm exhibit. Sooooo cute!

Finally we found the petting zoo. Hannah enjoyed feeding the animals. Luke seemed to make a lot of animal noises, mostly growls and roars.

On the way out, we got a fried snickers bar (sooo tasty!) and a bag of cotton candy for HK. We didn't plan on it, but the parade came thru and we watched it before leaving.

The ride home on DART was a beat down, but the kids hung in there and we got home safe and sound. Happy to say we have been there and done that!