County Fair

Labor day weekend, I went five days in a row to our county fair.  Yes, five days.  And the remainder of my week was just as crazy non-stop busy. When Monday rolled around this week, I said too many times that I was so excited to have a so-called "normal" week.  Why do I jinx myself?  This has been anything but a "normal" week.  Jasper proclaimed a no-nap Monday, then was sick Monday night and all day Tuesday, and yesterday ended up being full of unexpected appointments for my mom.  Oh well, I guess you just have to roll with the punches.  If I start to think about how crazy everything is, it just makes me more crazy.But back to the Fair, it was just so much fun!  I have always loved the fair, but since I have been an adult I haven't had as much reason to go.  Especially since Trevor is not a big fan.  He sees it as dirty, busy, and hot.  But I see all the fun that can be had...walking through the animal buildings, eating all the unbelievable food, playing games, seeing local vendors, possibly riding a few rides.  I have so many great childhood memories of the fair.  My Grandma always took me, my brother and sister, and my cousins one day of the week to the fair to ride rides, play games, and get us whatever we wanted.  We always had so much fun!  Some of my best memories of my Dad are when we camped at the fair.  I remember thinking we were so cool to be able to be in the fair at night when everything was closing up.  And I could never forget when I had two goats at the fair; it was quite the disaster...I had no idea what I was doing.  My goats ate the two participation ribbons that I was so proud of (so I cried), I got the flu the day that I was supposed to sell them so my sister showed them, and then to top it all off I didn't realize that I would never see my goats again.  But even though it was a disaster, I don't know how many times I tell the stories from that time.Now that Jasper is old enough to enjoy it all, I couldn't resist taking him.  I wanted to make sure to get the most out of it since it only occurs once a year.  He loved it, and I loved it more than ever before.  Seeing his face just light up at all the animals and rides was just priceless.  Here is an overview of all that we did.He could have sat here for hours, playing in the corn inside the cow barn.  How wonderfully dirty!  HA!The first night of the fair, Jasper pointed to the bull to ride.  We walked past it, and I thought there was no way I would let him ride this.  And then we walked past it again, and he still wanted to do it.  Uncle Sam decided to ride it with him.  Trevor recorded it while I snapped away, and we were all a little nervous.  Even Papa looks nervous in the background of this picture!  Jasper looked terrified in the beginning.The bull rose up the first time, and we saw this face.The bull turned, and I thought that when it turned back around to me Jasper would be crying.  But instead we saw this!Needless to say, he loved it!  When the bull stopped, he yelled, "More!".  We all laughed!We watched horses and trains.Drank too many milkshakes to count and found plenty of photo worthy props.We went through three balloons in less than a twelve hour period (two in less than five minutes).  The fourth one finally made it home!Jasper sat on lots of tractors and lawn mowers.  Of course he had to pull on all the levers and push all the buttons.He saw all the animals, and especially liked when he got to pet some of the goats.Trevor and I took my four brothers to their first ever concert!Uncle Sam and Uncle Gabe were just the coolest in Jasper's eyes....they rode all the kiddie rides with him!Jasper was carried and pushed all over!This was the hardest I have laughed in a long time.  Sam got on the Happy Swing ride with Jasper - Sam looked huge!  Especially because Jasper was by far the smallest one on the ride.Sam said he felt like Elf, so later that night he sent me this picture.  My brother has quite the sense of humor!The train was by far Jasper's favorite ride.I love seeing my brothers' tote Jasper around all the time.  He just adores them, and they take him everywhere.  Jasper just thinks he is one of the guys.And they won him lots of prizes!We had such a great week at the Fair!  Now let's hope the remainder of this week will straighten itself out a bit.