Or better known as “The Puyallup Fair” by locals. I have no idea when it even changed names, but I guess in the nineteen years since I have last gone, it has grown into the Washington State Fair. We have never taken the boys to a fair this large before and thought this would be a fun year. The Washington State Fair has a lot of great rides for smaller kids, tons of animals, and loads of free things to do. Jeremy took a half day off of work and after Carter was done with preschool, we headed out.
We had high hopes of Gavin taking a nap on the way. Annnnnnd of course he didn’t. Add a bad last minute decision to leave a stroller at home, it made this the perfect set up for disaster. From basically the time we got there until we left, Gavin wandered around in what could best be described as a drunken state – he meandered around, not look where he was going, and bounced off of people and things because he was so out of it. And he melted down. A LOT. He didn’t want to wait in line for rides so he would struggle and cry, then he cried when he got on them, but was happy once the rides got going. *Sigh* This is one of those times when your patience is so strained as a parent, but we stuck it out knowing that we were there with Carter too and he was having fun.
Carter on the other hand was awesome. He had so much fun, he listened really well, he stuck close and was curious about most everything. He was super brave and was just so. much. fun. We quickly realized that while he still tests his boundaries, it is SO NICE to have him out of that awful period where it felt like you were bashing your head into a brick wall over and over and over again while trying to deal with him because he wouldn’t listen (haha, Gavin is there now!). Now Carter is older, he understands, and it is just simply amazing to see the world with him.
I brought my Canon and my little Sony point and shoot. I had such high hopes of being able to spend some time doing fun artsy photos of the fair and all it has to offer, as well as get some great pics of my kids experiencing something new. “The disaster” was too much to deal with though and we had to split up – Jeremy took Gavin and my big camera back to the car to see if he could get Gavin to sleep some (HA), while Carter and I wandered around and had fun, so I just had my little point and shoot on me. Maybe next year I will be able to get the photos I am hoping to…
The first set of photos: You used to only be able to get Cow Chip Cookies at the fair growing up – that was our first stop. The other thing special about this fair were the scones:
Performers that were walking through the crowds:
We stopped to watch circus-type act for a little bit:
Getting Gavin on the Merry-Go-Round was P-A-I-N-F-U-L, but he had fun once he was on it. And Carter loved it!
Carter and I did a few rides with just the two of us (and at this point, buh-bye big camera!) – Carter loved the swings and took Gavin back on them later. He and I also went on the Scrambler (no photos of that) and had a blast – it was “a little scary” but he enjoyed it!
And then Daddy and Gavin joined back up with us – we went on a canoe ride and the swings again:
All in all, it was pretty fun despite “the disaster” – I will do another post about the giant slide that Carter went on … there is a large succession of photos that I need to edit for that still. We decided next year we will go bright and early when it opens in the morning so that we don’t have to deal with the over-tiredness of kids. And I am excited to take an obscene amount of photos to see what I can get!