Fair time

Ken took the afternoon off yesterday and we went to the Clark County fair with Grammy and Grampy. Ken and I haven't been to a fair since the kids were born, so we were pretty excited to show them all the cool animals and rides. It's one of those Parenting Perks.

Unpredictably, the animals weren't that big of a hit. I guess pigs/goats/cows/chickens/sheep all look the same...and once you've seen one you really don't need to see the others. We did get Michael to tentatively touch a pig's ear, and Laurel briefly patted a bunny, but otherwise we worked our way through the barns pretty fast...

...except for the tractors. There was a John Deere display at the end of the barn with SHINY! NEW! TRACTORS! so we hung out there for a bit so Michael could climb on them. What is it about little boys and construction equipment??

Outside things were much more fun. Surprisingly, the fair had quite a lot of rides for kids...that is, kids taller than 38 inches. So, Michael could ride on LOTS of fun rides...and Laurel couldn't. Bad Mommy - this scenario didn't occur to me until we got there.

Here's Michael on the pony ride. He loved this one so much he did it twice:


And Laurel watched:


Then Michael got to ride on the spinning cups with Ken. Ken got them spinning pretty fast, and Michael shrieked in excitement the whole time. Grammy and I were floored - we still can't get used to the fact Michael's vestibular system functions so "normally" now.



And again, Laurel watched from the sidelines...


Then Ken and Michael went on a large swing:



And again, poor Laurel watched...


At one point we swapped and I went on a ride with Michael while Ken stayed with Laurel. The ride was the kind where you sit in a teddy bear cage and go around and around. Michael had a lot of fun, but I could hear Laurel screaming for me the ENTIRE RIDE and every time we went around I caught a glimpse of someone trying to keep ahold of her as she thrashed. By the time the ride was over, she was a wreck. Mommy wasn't so good herself.


Needless to say, Ken went with Michael the rest of the day. He and Grampy tried to take Michael on the BIG ferris wheel, but he was too young to ride on it. Oh well, maybe next year:


But Michael did get to ride on his first roller coaster:


I felt so badly for Laurel as she unhappily waited over and over. FINALLY I got a clue, and went and bought her a toy - a ball on a stick. She thought it was the coolest thing ever and jumped and jumped and beat the poor thing against the ground so much the air valve finally busted open.


All in all, it was a good first visit to the fair. This morning when Tasha arrived I mentioned to her that we had gone and she asked Michael about it. "Michael, did you like the fair? What did you do there?"

Michael looked at her. "Tractor!" he said.

But of course.