florida state fair

Mom and Dad H visited us again before they finally headed back to the cold north. They stayed with us last Wednesday through last Monday morning. We enjoyed having them here throughout this winter, and we look forward to seeing them again next week in Utah.

Last Sunday (a week ago), we took the kids and Mom and Dad to the Florida State Fair. I had no idea that it was located in Tampa. I saw the flyer at SweetBay (a grocery store here), and Billy and I thought it would be a great place to go while his parents were visiting us. It was kind of a windy and rainy day, but we still had a lot of fun.Colton with Daddy and Grandpa ... watching the tractor races.Everyone at the fair ... and me behind the camera! Granpda got to be the pusher for a while; Colton got a little Daddy-time; and Khloe was getting some good love from Grandma.

Colton got to ride his first rides! He rode a caterpillar "train" roller coaster. Billy told him it was a train, so he would want to ride it more. They went on together, and Colton did a great job. He is still talking about the caterpillar train that went "bumpity-bump" ... according to Colton it did "a lot of bumpity-bumps!" He also went on the carousel with me. By then, it was the end of a very long day, and he had had no nap up until this point. He wanted to sit on the horse, so I put him up there. I stood right next to him, and he seemed excited. The ride took forever to begin, and once it did, he was happy. Then it started to go a little too fast for him, and he started to cry. I had to show him Daddy trying to take our picture each time around ... and eventually, he stopped crying. All in all, I think he liked his first two rides.With Daddy on the caterpillar "train" roller coaster. Notice in one picture he is holding onto Daddy's hands pretty tightly!You can tell he was pretty tired. You can see his 100-mile stare here.You can see mid-ride he was less than thrilled to be on the carousel.We finished with a smile.

We ate some good fair food, of course. We all shared some roasted corn, fried green tomatoes, nachos, fried pickles, and cotton candy. Colton got a little old-time candy, too. (Like penny candies.) Khloe didn't have as much luck in the food department. I went to warm her bottle in the thermos I had brought, and when it was ready, I took it out and searched for the nipple ... but I had forgot the nipple at home! So, Mom and Dad went all over the fair in search of a nipple. She was so mad ... and hungry, I couldn't get her to breastfeed either. Finally, Mom and Dad returned with a bottle (that I'm sure has travelled with these "fair people" to many cities, but I was so thankful to be able to feed her that I rinsed off the nipple (it was a new bottle) and fed her. She sucked it down!

We saw a lot of animals, too. There were ponies, pygmy goats, dogs, llamas, chickens, and rabbits. Colton liked to see the animals. He, also, talked for days about the tractor races (which were lawnmowers, really). We watched them race around for a while and even saw some wrecks. Colton remembered that the orange one was the fastest and the blue one fell over. He has talked about it all week.Colton had a good time meeting the ponies.Even Khloe got to meet the ponies.

I thought it was a pretty good fair. Not as large as the Minnesota State Fair (which is my only other comparison). I never went to the Kansas State Fair ... I guess it was held too far away from where we lived. Still, it was fun, and we will probably go again next year.Wiped out from all of the fun!

The Strawberry Festival is coming up in March, so we will take the kids there, too. I think that will be fun, because of all of the strawberries we can eat! I hear it's a smaller version of the fair. We'll see!