State Fair

I have so many great memories of family trips/outings growing up.  I want our kids to look back 20 years down the road and have fond memories of their childhood as well.  This leads me to be a bit idealistic.  I always come up with these great ideas and plan out the "perfect"  day.  Sometimes it works out (case in point: day before Kade was born.  We had an amazing last day as a threesome.), and sometimes things just don't go as planned (case in point: our trip to the State Fair on Saturday). 

I was SO excited to take the kids to the State Fair.  Not that either one of them will ever remember it.  But partly because Marleigh is now old enough to really enjoy the animals, climb on the farm equipment, etc., and partly because it is so nice to be able to take our son in public and not be scared to death he'll get sick.  It was supposed to be a gorgeous day on Saturday (at least that's what the forecast said earlier in the week).  Marc had been gone Wednesday through Friday, so I thought it would be a fabulous way for us to spend our Saturday as a family. 

It all started Friday night.  Kade had a really rough night, which meant Mommy and Daddy were shot already first thing Saturday morning.  I had planned for us to be out of the house by 8:30.  At 9:01 we left the house, only to realize we needed gas.  While getting gas, we realized we somehow made it out of the house without a binkie for Kade, so we had to run back by the house.  It was now 9:17 and we were finally on the road.  At this point, I was still determined to make it the "perfect" day.  About half way there, it started pouring.  Shortly thereafter, Kade started crying.  It rained on us the rest of the way to Hutch.  Instead of heading straight to the fair, we crashed my sister's house for about an hour waiting for the rain to clear out.  I was ready to throw in the towel.  I was sure the rest of the day would just be one big disappointment.  But a certain two year old kept asking, "Can I go to the fair and see tractors, combines, and cows?"  (Go figure, she wanted to go see things that we have back home!)  Marc convinced me to not let a few setbacks ruin our day. 

Although we were only there a little over two hours and didn't ride any rides, it was perfect.  The highlight of the day was Marleigh asking begging to ride a camel.  She is normally afraid of ANYTHING new or different.  We were both shocked when she asked to ride it.  We fully expected her to get near the camel, and cling to Marc, but she hopped right on. Snickers gave her and Daddy a great ride! 

Kade is SO excited to be going to the fair!

Happy to be in a combine!

She had to drive!

Happy girl!

We even found the owner of one of the cows, and he let Marleigh pet it.  She LOVED it!

Looking at all the bunnies (and there were a lot!)

Seriously, he can't contain his excitement!

Ready for a ride on Snickers.

Loving the camel ride!

I am so glad we went.  We had an amazing time as a family.  I'm learning that even when things don't
go exactly as I've planned, all that matters is that we're together as a family and it can still lead to some fantastic memories.