The State Farm* (er, I mean fair)

Our group of eleven ventured in the side gate, jacketed and talking about how chilly it was.  The first words out of K’s mouth were “I want to go see the HORSES!!”

Tim went to buy coupons and the boys went off to ride the “Crazy Mouse” (with Tim).

I quickly spotted the carousel so those were the first horses K was able to see.  But she didn’t seem to mind.

Then we made our way into the midway. The kids were ready to tackle it.  Can’t you tell?

After that we found our way into the line for the Texas Star (BIG ferris wheel).  G didn’t want to ride, he was scared.  He looks terrified here, doesn’t he? 😉

Once we got off I could no longer take her pleas so my parents and K and I made our way to the animals.

We took the long way round and found this guy first.

And thankfully he was NOT in flames like last year.  So good to see a non-burning Big Tex!

We found the horses in their stalls first.  She was all “swoony” over them, running from one stall to the next and asking their names.  It was so stinkin’ cute!

Then we had Fletcher’s corn dogs for lunch. THE BEST.

The gypsy horse show started at 1 p.m.  Pretty sure she wanted to go in the corral with them….

We spent some time in the petting zoo where a goat stole K’s cup of food right out of her hand and then she lectured it.  See that pointer finger?  Yeah, he got schooled on not stealing food. Chump.  And I have no pics of the actual theft because I was too busy laughing!

And omg, aren’t those baby goats cute?!?!

Turns out I did spend more time with the girl this go ’round.  What? The boys wanted to ride rides that she could not AND hang out in the midway and win giant Minions so…

 Fair Park has some really cool historical buildings and Art Ddeco architecture.  I could have spent time just on a photo walk…

But Tim wanted to check out the “family” cars at the auto show. 😉  Even Minions can ride!

We ended the day with a few last rides…. (note to self, NEVER get on the Crazy Mouse ever again!)

…and then a quick trip through the butterfly garden, that K did NOT want to leave (even though everyone else was exhausted at this point).

But we found some pretties so… it was okay with me.

We enjoyed a great day of fun and food and family (three of my favorite “f” words) and then the kids sacked out on the way back to our friends’ house.

Success!

So glad my parents were able to join us and that Big Tex was still standing when we left… 🙂

FUN FACT: We used to live in the Dallas area and ran into NO one we know. My parents live in a completely different city, 3 hours away, and ran into two sets of friends.  Crazy!

*K’s name for the State Fair