State Fair

We spent seven hours at the NC State Fair yesterday! Last year was chilly and damp (and Simon-less), while this year was hot and sunny. The kids were really focused on the rides this year, and with nicer weather came more people and longer lines.

Between the sunlight, shadows, and motion, it was hard to get pictures of the kids on most of the rides. Here they are exiting a strawberry (or was it an apple), which spun them around. Spinning rides make me ill, but not my little adrenaline junkies.

They begged to ride the Super Shot like last year. Boo remembered chickening out on her last attempt, but still wanted to give it another try. They sat with one of Norman's soccer teammates from last year, who we met waiting in line. The view from below as they neared the top ...

... and their happy/gleeful/amazed/thrilled faces after it dropped.

Simon rode the Ferris Wheel with Norman and Lea-Frances. It was more like a mini gondola than the traditional bench seat, so he was able to get a nice picture of them.

Here I am, waving from the ground (I'm wearing a red shirt in the center of the picture).

The midway aside, Lea-Frances would have ridden the ponies over and over (Giddy up!) ...

... while Norman could have stayed at the NASCAR video game car all day.

Me, I was happy with my requisite fried dough (AKA Elephant Ear), and the caramel apples I brought home for later.

We did drag the kids away from the midway rides long enough to check out a few animals. Here's Boo with a real live big bunny. I figure a Flemish Giant would fit right in to our family: we could have a rabbit bigger than our cat bigger than our dog. :-)

And here she is checking out a pig's snout. Hard to believe we give them to Snowy as treats.

We had tons of fun, and were completely worn out by the end of the day.