State Fair!

Every year since Jason and I started dating, we've talked about going to the state fair and every year it would pass us by. I really wanted to go this year with Gage, so I recruited our friends, the Cannon family, and we made a family date of it. Now I won't tell you how much money we spent in 2.5 hours, but it was a large sum, and the only tangible item we came home with was a 2 foot inflatable Spider-Man. I don't care though, we had a great time. We started at the auto show, which was tough because Gage loves to "drive" cars. we had to drag him out of there with some kicking and crying. The grown ups tried some of the food (shout out to Jason and Daniel for standing in the Fletcher's line for everyone) and we rode the kiddie rides for about 45 minutes. When we first got to the Midway, we walked past a huge ride that was spinning people WAY up in the air and Monkey was really into that. He got so excited when it would go up in the air. This kid is a daredevil, I tell ya. He and I rode the jumping dumbos ride, which an elephant ride that goes up and down while going in circles. Then we rode the whale ride, which splashed up and down and blew bubbles - we also ran into the Lee family there - EVERYONE we know with kids was at the fair today. Sidenote: the weather was awesome. Gage rode the whales again with Jacob, while I bit my nails on the sidelines. He loved it though, didn't need any grown ups. He rode a car ride with Jason that looked cool, but ended up being kinda lame - only one time around, really? We stepped into the shade and he and I rode the haunted house ride with Daniel and Jacob. We both thought "meh" on that one. Jacob and Ella shared some rings with us on the ring toss game and then Gage and I rode the animal kiddie coaster. By the time we got back to the group, Gage was fading fast. We decided to head out and spend the rest of our tickets on food on the way out - funnel cake (me), Reuben sandwich (Jason), iced tea (me), orange push up pop (Gage) and frozen lemonade (me). We got home just in time for nap time and Gage and I both crashed. It wasn't perfect, there were some minor wiggly meltdowns over not getting his way, but distraction usually worked quickly and he was able to walk around on his own a lot, which helped. I really had fun and Gage did too. Jason and I were saying it would be cool to go back at night for an adult outing to see some music and just walk around. It was worth it just for the inflatable Spider-Man, which he's been playing with all day.