County Fair! (with descriptions)

Last week Dave got off work early one day, so we decided to take Gracie to the county fair!

This year, since it is so hard to find parking at the fairgrounds, they offered shuttle buses from the high school and college to the fair, which was so nice! Gracie loved riding on the big white bus, as you can see from the look on her face in this picture:

First we went to see the farm animals, and we couldn't believe how big the pigs were!
(Side note: We also walked by the cows, but didn't take a picture. Since Gracie is newly potty-trained and we've discussed bodily functions a great deal lately, I pointed out a big pile of cow poop to her. She was quite impressed.) :)


Then we went to the petting zoo, where Gracie was very brave and touched the baby goats. :)

Then we looked at the newly-hatched chicks...

...then saw (and heard) the big goats.

We also saw lots of cute bunnies, and Grace got to pet two different bunnies whose owners were brushing their fur. One was named Jacqueline, and the other was Thumper (cute, huh?).


The free event that night was the rodeo, so we thought we'd go for a few minutes, until Gracie got restless. Well, the thing lasted 2 1/2 hours, and she loved every minute of it! She especially liked the bucking broncos and would say, "Horsie go jumpa-jumpa-jumpa!", "Good job, Cowboy!", and "Ouch--hurt da back!" (We thought that was pretty perceptive, 'cause it certainly looked like it would hurt your back!)


Enjoying the rodeo (aka "vobeo"--she kept forgetting what it was called)


Enjoying it some more--this time with Daddy)


We decided we better get a picture of the three of us at the fair, so we stood in front of a hot dog stand to "prove" we were there. :) Obviously, not the best picture ever taken!

All tuckered out at the end of the day (it was nearly 11 PM at this point!)

We also did a lot that we didn't get pictures of, like eating corn dogs/hamburgers/fries, looking at the contest submissions (crafts, homemade clothing, jam, cookies, cakes, etc.), lots of walking, and watching people on the crazy rides. We also saw Dora the Explorer and Diego from a distance--you could meet them and take your picture with them, but we didn't want to wait for 3 hours, so we just waved as we walked by. I think Gracie would've been scared anyway, since they were 3 times her size!

They also had an 8,000-square-foot rainforest exhibit set up in one of the warehouses, and it had several dozen rainforest animals on display in it! We saw turtles, alligators, snakes, spiders, birds, and even a sloth!

And now you're asking, "What about the carnival rides?" Before we got there, Dave and I had planned on riding at least the ferris wheel (since they do that in Charlotte's Web, which Gracie loves). However, we got there and found out that each ticket was $1, and most rides required 3-4 tickets a person. We just weren't willing to pay $12 to ride one ride that Gracie may or may not have liked. Instead, we paid $5 for a yummy brownie sundae to complete our evening. :) Then we caught the bus back to our car and headed home.

So, we had an awesome time at the fair. We can't wait until next year so we can go again!