Ever since last year's ride in the fair's Big Wheel's race, Emma has been planning her comeback, and Ashlyn has been planning her debut. Unfortunately the one and only day the race was scheduled was the same day Dakota's department from work was planning on doing team building activities at the fair.
Fact 1: Dakota needed to be there with his department.
Fact 2: The girls ONLY wanted to go on that day.
Fact 3: I wasn't about to take 2 kids and 1 baby around the state fair on my own.
The solution? We came up with the brilliant plan to take our neighbor and favorite babysitter along with us. Dakota was able to spend the morning with us, and then when he had to go join his department in the afternoon, Jaime helped me look after the kids. Having the extra set of hands made bathroom trips, diaper changes, feeding Josiah, riding Midway rides and everything else so much easier! Plus the girls just thought it was fun to have Jaime with us.
The first thing we did once we arrived was spend some time in the butterfly house.
After that, we did the Little Hands on the Farm, and then saw the baby animals. While I took a break to feed Josiah, Dakota and the girls got to see baby piglets, a newly hatched ostrich, and baby chicks. When I had finished feeding Josiah, I came out to find a huge crowd gathered around a pen, where a mother cow was giving birth to her calf. (Be glad I didn't have my camera at the time.)
After the baby cow arrived, we headed over to the Big Wheels race. The girls rode in the same heat. On "GO," Emma took off and raced for the finish, while Ashlyn sat at the starting line and watched. Turns out she was a bit small for the Big Wheels, and needed some help to get going and keep going. But the people working the race were happy to help guide her down to the finish, where she received her first state fair ribbon.
With what little time we had left before Dakota had to leave, we took a few funny face photos. We actually filled up all the face holes this year! (Though, Josiah didn't seem as excited about that.)
Then it was on to collecting our food. Once we found a place to sit and eat, it was time for Dakota to meet up with his department for their afternoon activities. While he was gone, Jaime and I took the girls to the giant slide and several Midway rides.
We also had slushies and ice cream and hunted for miniature cows. In honor of the butter cow's 100th birthday, there were lots of little cows scattered all over the fairgrounds. I think we spotted about 20 of them. When we took a break to watch a children's show on one of the stages, I got the call that Dakota was finished and on his way back to us. After he rejoined us, he took Josiah in the stroller, and Jaime and the girls and I rode the sky glider back to the entrance.
We arrived home, hot, sweaty, sticky and exhausted. But not so exhausted that we couldn't appreciate a nice dip in the pool. Yes, it was raining by that point, but who cares? You get wet when you swim anyway, right?
As if that hadn't been enough for one day, we had two good friends from college join us for dinner and stay the night with us. Good times catching up with them!
And after that amazingly busy day,we all slept happily ever after. The end.
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