Fun at the State Fair of Texas

We visited the State Fair on Monday, a family tradition many years in the making.  I have such great memories of visiting the Fair every year when I was growing up, and it seems like it really hasn't changed at all.  Aaron, on the other hand,despises just about every thing about the fair, but puts on a happy face and comes along because he loves me.  What a guy.  Pla Shee opted to hang out with Pu Lue and Paw Moo this weekend, so he missed out on the Fair this year.  He was pretty disappointed that we refused to bring him a turkey leg.

What visit to the Fair would be complete without some crazy fried food?  In addition to a corny dog (a required item  for all faithful fair-goers), we tried the Fried Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (pretty tasty) and the Fried S'mores (sickeningly sweet).

Amanda joined us for our fair day, much to Ruby's delight.  She adores her "Aunt Jean."

Posing in the monkey cutout thing.  The Fair is very fond of these cut out things, and we took full advantage.

Here are Kai and Ruby posing in the midst of their favorite fair activity, the simulated farm.  This is always the favorite, despite the fact that we have a REAL LIVE farm at home.  For some reason, feeding the plastic goats and sheep and planting seeds in the fake garden at the fair is tons more fun than feeding real sheep and goats and planting a real garden at our house.  Whatever works.  It is one of the only free activities at the fair, and it holds their attention for a good 20 minutes, so all in all it's a winner in our book.

Ruby in her pumpkin shirt posing with the pumpkins in the livestock barn.  Unfortunately we chose a day that there weren't many animals around, so we did a lot of walking around looking at empty stalls.  But they did have a cute kids area with some longhorn cattle and baby chicks that made it worth the walk, especially since there were hardly any crowds in that area.

And we always have to go to the petting zoo, despite the insane crowds. It's worth it to see the adorable baby animals and some of the more exotic animals like zebras and a giraffe up close and personal.