The Texas State Fair, 9/30/09

Howdy! Yesterday we got some GREAT Texas time for our little break back here in Texas. I was thrilled to introduce Eli to some great things known in Texas, or at least known for at the Texas State Fair. Such as fried ice cream, country music, and cows. We got to the fair about 10:30am and stayed until after the laser and light show, about 8:30pm. My mom and Linda joined us. I was shocked to see what a trooper my mom was. I mean we hit the ground running and hit up every show and activity that an almost 2 year old boy would enjoy. The worst part about the day was not having Bud with us. Tear. But we still managed to have some fun. We got there and walked halfway around the place, getting familiar with everything and lining up our day, and had to take a break for the best corn dog EVER. At least to a pregnant woman who has been out of the country for around 7 months it was. It was fresh and incredible. I wish I had a picture to reminisce on the goodness. And of course Heinz Ketchup was icing on the cake. We also had some good southern sweet tea to go with it. What better start to our Texas day? Soon after we got some fried ice cream. "Fried ice cream?!" you might ask. I had heard about all the crazy things they fry up at the fair but wasn't so sure about this. (some other things were: fried oreos, fried nutter butters, chicken fried bacon, fried peaches, fried pecan pie, fried peanut butter and jelly sandwhich, fried cheesecake, fried grill cheese, and... gag... fried butter!) But when will we get another chance to try this so we had at it. First of all, it was made with blue bell ice cream and there's really not much you can do to make blue bell taste bad! It was battered in something that had a rice crispy texture, then fried a bit, and piled high with whip cream, chocolate sauce, and a cherry on top. We took it over and watched the pirates of the Caribbean dive show. The show was uneventful but the fried ice cream was delicious. Well, the show wasn't so great because we sat too close and Eli cried because of how loud it was. Needless to say we left the show early. I'll let the pictures tell the rest of our day since I just posted a record post on how many pictures there are. I'm taking full advantage of high speed Internet!

"Baba, I had some cookies that came with my ice cream, I saved these for yoooooou?"

Cowboy Eli

Farmer Eli off to do his chores on the farm. This was a cute little activity you walk through and pretend to do things you'd find on a farm. Such as pick peaches, feed the chickens, milk the cow, plant seeds for vegetables, and harvest them.


At the end, Elisha quickly found this tractor and I literally had to peel him off of it so that other kids could get their picture on it.

We then headed to the petting barn. "Here duck!"

He stayed away from animals larger than him

Put the feed on

And let mom feed the animal (that's how it usually went)

He liked the baby cow, not much of a threat, until a fierce llama came up

Me and my precious friend, Linda

My sweet momma, Eli and me

About to watch the dog show

Eli really enjoyed this show. At the beginning of everything though he'd be super reserved and check things out, then he'd get comfortable and be himself

He decided to sit across from us. Every time people would clap, he'd get excited and clap too. It was cute!

On the way to the fair my mom says "oh you and Linda can ride rides and I'll sit with Elisha". My response.... I just looked down at my belly and smiled. Here's in front of the carnival part.

We did manage to ride one ride, the gondola. It went across most of the fair.

My mom glancing out at downtown Dallas

And there he is! Big Tex! In case you don't know, Big Tex is one of the main attractions. He's been around forever, since the start of the fair. Elisha was OK with him by looking at him through his finger, until he started talking and waving. Then he just shut his eyes in hopes that Big Tex disappeared.

And get this, one of the shows was African acrobats! And they just happened to all be from Kenya. Linda was thrilled to get to talk to them in Swahili after the show.

Taking a break to get refreshed with some freshly squeezed lemonade.

Ahhhhh

bitter

super bitter!

Oh, maybe that's too much

We then went to the backyard circus. They used children from the audience to dress up as characters and pretend to be the circus.

My mom was about to pass out but I assured her the next show was indoors. It was worth the walk to go sit in a cold theatre and watch a cute puppet show on strings. Before the show began, Elisha was the center of attention. A little kid kindly gave him his balloon and within no time Eli had almost everyone participating in hitting the balloon to him. He then was sweet to put the balloon away and sat quietly through the entire show. Shortly after the show he took his nap in the stroller.

We rested while he slept, I was in search for a fried grill cheese since someone recommended it to me. I had no luck but instead got a turkey leg. I'm sure that was the better choice anyways. Elisha woke up and started eating away.

We then mozied on over to Big Tex's sand box. It was another place that was nice and cool inside with entertainment for Eli and chairs for us. We were all happy!

He was iffy at first to play in the sand, but not long after he was "swimming" in it. He also had a lot of fun playing and chasing after the two little kids that were there.

And then the little boy had to leave, he was bummed....

We then walked towards where the parade route would be to mark out a good place.

While waiting, all these little kids had fun light up toys. I hadn't bought anything but food all day. Elisha was SO GREAT all day that I figured he deserved a prize so I broke down and spent FIVE dollars on this cheap-o light up toy. Oh well, it was worth the money. He was thrilled.

And that's where the pictures stop because Elisha was terrified of the people dressed up in the parade. He would peep out the corner of his eye to see what was coming, and as soon as he spotted something dressed up he was gripping my neck and saying "no, bye bye momma" begging me. Thankfully the parade didn't last long at all. We went over and watched the new illumination show. Elisha was not impressed at first but after we danced to a few songs, he was all better. He also realized no freaky dressed up people were involved and fireworks were, so we were good! At the end of the show they played good ol' American songs and I cried. I cried because I was really wishing Bud could of enjoyed the day with us. I emailed Bud this and his response was.... "you cried at a light show?! you sure are pregnant". Gee, thanks, yes, I am! And after a full day of pushing a stroller around, I am SO sore today in my legs and back. It was a succesful trip to the fair! I highly reccomend a trip out there. Goodbye big Tex, maybe next year my son will talk to you.

Off to another neck of the woods tomorrow. We'll be in west Texas visiting Eli's other grandparents and dear friends of ours.

Reckon I'll end this post now and go check on my lil buckaroo,

Kimberly

(p.s.... for those of you that responded to the last post, THANK YOU! I was thrilled to get that many comments. And for those of you that havent yet (which I know who some of you are), then comment!)