Going to the Iowa State Fair is a family tradition of mine. Every summer, whether we liked it or not, we'd trek to the State Fair. One year my family even camped there (it rained...that was no fun). When I worked in politics, I was given the task to work the fair, 9-9, every. single. day of the fair. Spot the mullet was quickly becoming my game of choice. It's still a fun game we play today.
Traditionally, we've gone to the fair with my folks as it was tradition. However, we're quickly realizing that there are many things we'd love to do with our children...just our children. I don't want them to be grown and gone and look back and say, "We never did (insert event) with just the kids." So we've decided that we're going to start doing things, just the five of us.
We decided that Sunday would be the day as Beckett (our cat) had a vet appointment on Saturday and Sunday seemed to be the best day for temperatures. Usually it is scorching during the fair but Sunday was going to be 83 and nice.
I had planned on getting everyone up early...Sean usually gets up at 5:30-6 so that wasn't going to be hard. But this happened to be the one day of the month Sean decided to sleep in. We finally got out of the house around 10 (rounding up three kids is a task) and made it to Dave's co-workers house.
We had made a list of food we wanted and things we wanted to see...I was kind of hoping to stick around long enough to see the Vanilla Ice/Tone Loc free show. Yes, free Vanilla Ice and Tone Loc. Unfortunatley we didn't make it that long. But how cool would that have been?
First on the food list, deep fried cheese curds.
Cheese curds. Check. As you can see, getting three kids around the fair can be a task. Our double stroller worked nicely and Liam was very good about staying where we told him to stay. Brendan slept most of the day but Sean LOVED to see the sights.
I kind of wish I would have had someone include me in the picture...
After the cheese curds were in hand, we went to the Varied Industries building to see the Iowa State booth (where I got my yearly ISU football shirt), the GOP booth (where the kids were a big hit), and Dave's work booth where Liam REFUSED a temporary tattoo.
YUM!
Once the corndog was gone, it was Gyro time! Noticing a trend here? We caught a bit of the Bill Riley talent show while eating and walked a bit more. We saw the biggest Bull (a mandatory at the fair) and the One Man Band...he was really entertaining!
It was getting pretty warm (I'm convinced that the fairgrounds are at least 10 degrees warmer once you enter the gates) so we decided to let the boys cool off at Pella Plaza. Sean hated it. Liam loved it and it gave me a chance to nurse Brendan.
A couple of people walked by while I was nursing and pointed (oh hey, how's it going) but whatever. I was covered and sitting on a bench in a shady area. I was using my nursing tank and nothing was visible. If you can walk around the fair eating a turkey leg, I can sit on a bench and feed the baby.
Liam had been really well behaved the whole fair so we made good on our promise. One ride down the giant slide. Liam was such a big boy that we allowed him to go by himself and Dave took Sean down. Liam LOVED it.
We were only there for four hours but that was enough. Next year we'll be sure to go on a weekday to avoid some of the crowd. I didn't get to see all that I wanted to but I was exhausted. 5 weeks after giving birth that was the most walking I had done...we were all tired. Sean was asleep before we got onto 235. All in all, a great day at the fair.
1 comment:
Looks like you had a lot of fun at the fair! Pat on the back for taking three kids (including a baby). Can't believe how big Sean looks. Hopefully we can get together soon.
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