State Fair of Texas

Friday, Sept 28th, was our last day with Kelly and Reagan.  We were leaving that afternoon to drive them halfway to Houston where Lance's parents were going to meet us and take them the rest of the way.  Lance was flying in that night so he and Kelly could leave for a cruise on Saturday.  But just because it was our last day, doesn't mean we didn't plan on packing in as much fun as we could!

 

It also happened to be the opening day of the State Fair of Texas!  Sounded like a great way to burn through several hours and lots of money so we gave it a go!

 

Welcome to the Fair!  Everything's bigger in Texas!

 

 

Even the bbqs!

 

 

The fair grounds are located surrounding the Cotton Bowl, so Andrew and Eve paused for a picture as we walked around it.

 

 

We hadn't been there a full hour when we realized this day was in danger of becoming another zoo incident (heat + no sleep = fussy Eve).  So we tried to rotate our time between outdoor and indoor activities.  This was a good idea except that Eve has extreme separation issues, and not just from us.  Anytime we'd find something fun that she enjoyed she flip out when we tried to move on.  Even if we were moving on to another fun thing!  So keep in mind as I go through the series of events we did, that we had to deal with a fit after each one.  Lucky us!

 

One of the indoor exhibits we passed through had some fun displays/play places for kids.  Such as this cute little green house:

 

 

Peek-a-boo, Mommy!

 

 

Next up with the playground equipment. 

 

"Hey, I know what to do with this!  We were just at a park yesterday!"

 

 

Our last stop at these indoor exhibits was the trampoline station.  Eve's been on one a couple of times, but at first just sat there refusing to move because the salesman was watching her. 

 

 

She finally warmed up to the running and jumping and then the problem became getting her out!

 

 

We'd been inside for a little while at that point, so decided to try our luck at some outdoor entertainment.  We stumbled upon the second best activity of the day - a free farm/barnyard experience for kids!  Eve and Reagan got their aprons and baskets, then it was a quick picture before the activities began!

 

 

First, Eve got to pick a peach from the tree for her basket.  (Note that Reagan was a bit young for all of this, so she mostly just wandered around with Kelly waiting for Eve to finish).

 

 

Then she fed some grain to the chickens before picking out an egg for her basket.  (All the animals/food were fake, but the kids didn't seem to mind).

 

 

Waiting in line to milk the cow (I didn't get a picture of the cow).

 

 

Next it was time to plant some seeds and then pick out a vegetable for her basket. 

 

 

What farm experience is complete without a tractor ride?!  Thanks Dad for the help! 

 

 

Eve fed the rest of her grain to the sheep then picked out a piece of wool for her basket.

 

 

At that point, she took her peach, egg, milk, tomato, and wool to the market and turned then in for some "money".  The last stop was the "store" where she traded in her money for a snack - Eve picked out animal crackers. 

 

All in all, it was a brilliant little setup and Eve took the whole thing quite seriously.  That girl knows how to work!  And she loved using her money to buy a treat at the end!

 

 

We were all hot and sweaty again by this point, though, so it was time for another indoor activity.  We saw a sign for something about a medical tent for kids (still don't understand what it was talking about?) and it said it was free so we went on in.  This turned out to be the best part of the day!

 

It was like a petting zoo on steroids!  For $1, we bought a dixie cup of animal food at the entrance (totally worth it!) then spent 30 mins wandering around so many different kinds of animals and feeding them! 

 

Eve and Reagan both did really well!  Eve wasn't scared at all to have a goat or a sheep eating out of her hands - and they got pretty pushy and rough even!  They wanted that food!

 

 

Some weird wanna-be rabbit like animals in with the chickens - Reagan liked those baby chicks!

 

 

This is the kind of thing I would normally steer (get it?!) clear of - look at the size of those horns!

 

 

But Eve wasn't too scared to feed the huge cow!  This time on a little plastic shovel instead of her hand, though :)

 

 

Eve's the smart one in this picture - probably not the best animal to turn your back on when you're holding a cup of food and it has a long neck....

 

 

Even the donkeys wanted some of our food!

 

 

Mommy pig was too busy feeding her babies to come get some food from us.  But Eve liked seeing all the pigs!

 

 

That about wrapped up our adventure feeding the animals.  So awesome!  Just about made our day!

 

After that, we wandered from exhibit to exhibit, snagging free food where we could.  I had to throw this picture in of Eve balancing on the small rock wall.  She loves doing this!  Every Sunday after church we have to walk back to the car along the planter box with the curb so Eve can balance on it. 

 

 

We didn't take any pictures for the next hour or so because we had an EXTREMELY fussy girl on our hands (meaning Eve).  She was just tired, so once we got her to fall asleep, all was well again.  We walked around a bit more, through the carnival section of the fair and Kelly and Reagan went on rides. 

 

Just as it was time to leave, we stopped at the merry-go-round for one last ride.  Even though we'd had a bad experience waking Eve up at the zoo, we decided to chance it here because she'd been so excited for another merry-go-round and we really didn't want her to miss it.

 

This time was a success!  She went on the ride with Andrew this time (they wouldn't let a pregnant lady on - who knew the ride was so dangerous?) and I took pictures. 

 

 

 

Two merry-go-round rides in one week!  How lucky can one little girl get?!

 

I know she's not smiling for the pictures, but I promise she had fun.  Her face lights up any time she sees one of our pictures from the "merry-goat-round". 

 

 

After that ride, there was nothing left to do but stop and smell the....flowers....while Dad and Aunt Kelly got our bags all packed up....

 

 

....and spend some final quality moments with Reagan while Aunt Kelly made a bathroom trip. 

 

 

Then it was back in the car for a 2 hour ride south where we said our goodbyes to Kelly and Reagan.  It was SO much fun to have them visit, if only for a few days, and Eve talks with great fondness now of her "cousin Reagy". 

Splash Park...Not!

We ended up taking it easy for most of the day on Thursday, but had planned a trip to the splash park (that we had visited a few weeks earlier with Candace, Jeremy, and kids) that afternoon and the girls were excited to go "swimming" so we didn't want to disappoint.

 

But we managed to anyway.  We got all loaded up and all the way over there, just to find that it had already closed for the season.  So much for being open until the end of September like we'd thought! 

 

Thanks to two little girls who were feeling flexible and a park that was nearby, we still managed to make a fun afternoon of it!

 

Double slides for two cute girls!

 

 

Double swing....kind of?  Think thin!

 

 

It was funny because while she was sharing the swing with Reagan, Eve wouldn't put her hands down until I showed her how she could hold the chain with one hand.  She never quite figured out what to do with the other hand.  Reagan did!

 

 

Can two people really steer at once?  Apparently!

 

 

Slides are almost as much fun to go up as they are down!

 

 

Aunt Kelly is a rock climbing wall pro so she showed Eve the ropes :)

 

 

And then Eve discovered the mother of all slides!  She was a little hesitant to let go at first (I can't see the bottom, Mom!)...

 

 

But once she made it down once, she wouldn't stop!

 

 

Reagan even gave it a try!  And it had just about the same effect on her hair!

 

 

Eve went down that slide so many times!  I literally had to drag her away from it when it was time to go.  It's so much fun to play at the park and even more fun when you have a cool cousin/best friend to share it with!

Dallas Zoo

We had some very special visitors this past week!  Aunt Kelly and cousin Reagan came down from Layton, UT to spend a few days with us!  Uncle Lance had to work, so he couldn't join the fun, but we made do the best we could....

 

They got in Monday night and we all went out for some yummy hamburgers on the way home from the airport.  On Tuesday, I had to work and Andrew had some errands and school things to get done, so Kelly and the girls played around the house.  I got home late from work, so instead of cooking dinner, as was the plan, we went out for some yummy Texas bbq!

 

 

I took the rest of the week off, so we had lots of time to have some fun! 

 

Or in the case of the Dallas Zoo trip on Wednesday, not so much fun.... :(

 

We thought that surely the weather would cooperate seeing how it is almost October, but alas, no.  It was BLAZING hot - which put all of us (especially the hugely pregnant lady) on edge.  Add in a couple of skipped naps and almost no animals to be seen and it was largely a disappointment. 

 

 

There were a few fun things to do.  Eve got to go in and touch some goats.  She was mostly fascinated with the goat poop that covered the ground once I explained what it was.  She talked about the goats pooping for a part of the rest of the day.

 

 

Although there were no lions, we did manage to see a tiger!

 

 

Kelly and Reagan were so cheerful and happy despite the heat that I felt bad with how grumpy Eve (and I) were.  But Kelly managed to get Eve to stop crying long enough to sit on the big turtle for a picture. 

 

 

That lasted about 3 minutes until we got inside the lizard/snake building where Eve had a complete meltdown.  She stood in the corner crying.....

 

 

....while we looked at some reptiles!  I swear people probably thought I was trying to steal her with the scene she was causing.  Luckily, no one in their right mind would suspect a large pregnant woman to be taking children. 

 

 

We stayed in that reptile building for probably close to an hour.  We all got cooled off, Eve got some food, then we managed to get her back in the stroller where she promptly crashed.  Success!

 

 

Reagan quickly followed her example.  So we headed over to the food court to replenish our fluids.

 

 

According to the map, we were only halfway done with the zoo at that point, so we shouldered on and headed over to see the large animals of Africa.  LAME!

 

This was about the closest thing we got to an elephant (we did see a live one from a distance, but it was far away and not moving, so I don't know that Eve saw it):

 

 

We made the mistake of waking Eve up at this point because we thought we were coming to the cool animals we'd been telling her about all day.  Like I said, it was a mistake.  She began freaking out immediately, and there were NO animals to distract her with!  Ah!  The bronze elephant statues didn't quite do the job....

 

 

No lions, no bears, no elephants, and (even though we wandered the exhibit for 15 mins looking) no gorillas.  Sigh.

 

But - thank goodness! - we finally came upon the giraffes!  Aunt Kelly got some food for them and she and Reagan shared with Eve.  So here's Eve feeding lettuce to a giraffe:

 

 

She did really well with it and got to feed them several pieces!  I was nervous that it wouldn't go well since earlier in our zoo day we'd attempted pony rides.  Reagan did great but Eve immediately started crying and begging to get down so she never got her ride.  She did much better up close with the giraffe.

 

Besides feeing the giraffes, the other saving point of the day was the merry-go-round we took the girls on on the way out.  Eve had a moment of panic when I first tried to get her on the zebra, but she quickly realized this was fun and enjoyed the rest of the ride. 

 

Reagan's already a pro at the merry-go-round so she knew just what to do!

 

 

Eve now loves to talk about the "merry-goat-round" and how it goes up and down AND spinning.  Super cool!

 

 

We were all completely exhausted by the end of our few hours at the zoo, but only some of us got the luxury of some shut eye on the way home.

 

 

That evening, Andrew had class and Kelly, the girls, and I headed up to our grandma's house for dinner.  We had a fun visit there with some more yummy bbq!  After getting the girls in bed when we got home, we of course stayed up way too late talking, so we were all worn out on Thursday.  Which made for a perfect day to stay home and do nothing!  Almost...