To help us cope with Ben's long absence we headed down to Illinois Thursday afternoon, after swim lessons and a couple errands were completed. Bonus: it was the week of the Boone County Fair.
Ben's family doesn't live in Boone County, but for whatever reason going there each summer became a sort of tradition among his parents and siblings. So we've been several times. When we lived in DC, Ben would often time our summer visit to the Boone County Fair.
Reid and Nell both had a lot of fun and immediately asked, "can we come to the fair again next year" as we were driving away. All three kids were asleep before we even hit the highway, headed back to Wisconsin. It was an exciting (and tiring) day!
We started off watching the tractor pull and the Clydesdale carriage pull. Then we found the cousins and Reid wanted to do anything they did -- naturally. That's what put him on this mechanical bull. He did excitedly tell me it was "super fun" as we walked away, but I'm not sure I'm convinced. You can watch the video and decide for yourself.
Then we checked out the animal barns. Coraline loved the horses and giggled the whole time she petted them. Reid and Nell both loved the rabbit barn. I tried to have them take a peek at the stockshow kids showing their cows, to let them know I did that back in the day -- but they weren't at all interested.
Next we made our way over to the carnival rides. On the way we stopped by a face painting booth and had the kids each get a couple of little paints. Coraline even wanted one and sat so still through the whole thing. I was impressed. We also stopped by the doughnut shop. Coraline essentially ate cheetos and a doughnut for lunch. She was a pretty happy (and messy) little girl.
I let the kids pick two rides and Reid let Nell choose both of them. She was so excited about the carousel and the teacups. Before the fair we watched a show with a ferris wheel and Reid told me he wanted to ride one, but once he saw it he happily backed out and tagged along with Nell on her rides. "I'm afraid of heights, remember?" he suddenly started saying. My response was to remind him of hiking up to the edge of the world with daddy in Canyonlands NP last summer, "Buddy, you went higher up than I dared to go. So don't tell me you are afraid of heights. If you don't want to go on the ferris wheel you don't have to. But it isn't because you are afraid." Silly boy.
Nell wasn't quite tall enough to go on rides by herself, but they refused to let her pregnant mamma stand next to her on the carousel, so Grandpa was a great sport and came to her rescue. And Coraline had to do whatever the big kids did, so Grandma was nice enough to take her on the carousel as well. I think I distracted her with some graham crackers when they got on the teacups.
I loooooooved listening to their giggles as they spun on by. Nell's was especially joyful and completely melting my heart. She loves stuff like this (ie turbulence on the plane) and was as happy as could be.
I also let them play one carnival game before we left (and I really should say Grandma did, as she paid for it). I knew Reid would really want to go fishing, in fact he about gave up his teacup ride, thinking he only had one more thing to do and he knew he wanted to fish for a prize more than he wanted to ride a teacup! Lucky him, he got to fish for two prizes -- one for him and one for Coraline.
They were all in heaven as they loaded into the car, new little stuffed animals in hand, doughnuts in bellies, and light sunburns on their faces. It was a wonderful Saturday morning/afternoon with family. The only thing that could possibly make leaving exciting was the prospect of coming home to daddy!
Ben's family doesn't live in Boone County, but for whatever reason going there each summer became a sort of tradition among his parents and siblings. So we've been several times. When we lived in DC, Ben would often time our summer visit to the Boone County Fair.
Reid and Nell both had a lot of fun and immediately asked, "can we come to the fair again next year" as we were driving away. All three kids were asleep before we even hit the highway, headed back to Wisconsin. It was an exciting (and tiring) day!
We started off watching the tractor pull and the Clydesdale carriage pull. Then we found the cousins and Reid wanted to do anything they did -- naturally. That's what put him on this mechanical bull. He did excitedly tell me it was "super fun" as we walked away, but I'm not sure I'm convinced. You can watch the video and decide for yourself.
Then we checked out the animal barns. Coraline loved the horses and giggled the whole time she petted them. Reid and Nell both loved the rabbit barn. I tried to have them take a peek at the stockshow kids showing their cows, to let them know I did that back in the day -- but they weren't at all interested.
Next we made our way over to the carnival rides. On the way we stopped by a face painting booth and had the kids each get a couple of little paints. Coraline even wanted one and sat so still through the whole thing. I was impressed. We also stopped by the doughnut shop. Coraline essentially ate cheetos and a doughnut for lunch. She was a pretty happy (and messy) little girl.
I let the kids pick two rides and Reid let Nell choose both of them. She was so excited about the carousel and the teacups. Before the fair we watched a show with a ferris wheel and Reid told me he wanted to ride one, but once he saw it he happily backed out and tagged along with Nell on her rides. "I'm afraid of heights, remember?" he suddenly started saying. My response was to remind him of hiking up to the edge of the world with daddy in Canyonlands NP last summer, "Buddy, you went higher up than I dared to go. So don't tell me you are afraid of heights. If you don't want to go on the ferris wheel you don't have to. But it isn't because you are afraid." Silly boy.
Nell wasn't quite tall enough to go on rides by herself, but they refused to let her pregnant mamma stand next to her on the carousel, so Grandpa was a great sport and came to her rescue. And Coraline had to do whatever the big kids did, so Grandma was nice enough to take her on the carousel as well. I think I distracted her with some graham crackers when they got on the teacups.
I loooooooved listening to their giggles as they spun on by. Nell's was especially joyful and completely melting my heart. She loves stuff like this (ie turbulence on the plane) and was as happy as could be.
I also let them play one carnival game before we left (and I really should say Grandma did, as she paid for it). I knew Reid would really want to go fishing, in fact he about gave up his teacup ride, thinking he only had one more thing to do and he knew he wanted to fish for a prize more than he wanted to ride a teacup! Lucky him, he got to fish for two prizes -- one for him and one for Coraline.
They were all in heaven as they loaded into the car, new little stuffed animals in hand, doughnuts in bellies, and light sunburns on their faces. It was a wonderful Saturday morning/afternoon with family. The only thing that could possibly make leaving exciting was the prospect of coming home to daddy!
1 comment:
How fun was that! Wish we could have been there.
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