Family Affair

It's that time of year again... our local county fair!

Yee-Haw!

And, once again, I volunteered to work a shift at our court information booth. (Good brownie points for work. Know what I'm sayin'?) And when I sign up to work with 2 of my friends, hanging out behind our booth taking a tally of the number of mullets, fanny packs and men who appear to be 13 months pregnant, it hardly seems like a chore to spend three hours of my time there.

When my shift ended at 7 p.m. Eric was waiting to meet me with both of the kids in tow. Yet another fun-filled family night, hanging out at the fair! And again, how you go wrong with fair food, which you already know my affection for greasy, fried, overpriced junk food. Mmmm...

This year at the fair, Elaina was big enough to ride most of the kiddie rides all by herself. I thought that she was going to pull her arm out of socket as she was pointing so hard at each and every ride, saying over and over, "I wanna ride, I wanna ride, I wanna ride 'dat one," She could hardly finish her sentence, stating what she wanted to ride before she spotted another just as tempting. Yes, Elaina, there isn't a ride here that you don't want to ride. I get it!

Elaina learned a big lesson in patience tonight as she had to wait in line, and then wait for the kids to exit the ride before she could get on. Excruciating for a 2 year old to just sit idle when there are rides to be ridden! Talk about no fun! The better part about going to the fair on a Thursday evening is that the lines for the kiddie rides weren't really that long, In fact, some of the ride operator's were just sitting around waiting for customers. Plenty of times I walked up to the gate and asked if they didn't mind running it just for one rider. Elaina had some of the rides all to herself!

Surprisingly, we were able to inch Elaina away from all of the lights and noise of the kiddie ride area and move onto the animal barns. At this point, it was getting much later in the evening and the crowds were minimal. In fact, plenty of the animals were already asleep in their pens. As we walked down the aisle of the big barn, Elaina peered into the pig pens and said night-night to each and every pig. Eric heard her echoing through the barn and decided to have a little fun with his girl. Instead of saying night-night to the piggies, he had Elaina shouting, " Night-Night Bacon-bacon! Night-night Sausage-sausage!" Although she enjoyed this just as well, she had no idea how hysterical she sounded to everyone else. Good influence, Daddy.

Since we were having such a terrific time, and no one was yelling, screaming or fussing, we ended up leaving at closing time. 10:00. Well past Elaina's typical bedtime and long after we usually have Lincoln snug in bed too, we finally headed for home.

We had such a great evening and can't wait until next year when Elaina will be three and can teach her little brother how to sweet talk the piggies before bedtime!