The first time we went, we took Jessey with us. It was fun to have him around since we don't see him all that much anymore, and we even took advantage of the $1 per-ride tickets that day and let him ride a couple of rides with his sisters. After walking through the midway at this fair, I think we may also decide to buy wristbands for this one next year since it had roughly twice the number of rides as the other one, including some really awesome roller-coasters, some really insane inverted rides, and even a log ride.
At this fair, our first stop is always the Puppy Party Palooza. This area is loved by my girls even more than the petting zoo, if you can believe it. The dogs are often scruffy or goofy-looking, but I love that this agency pulls dogs from all the local county shelters that are about to be euthanized, and that they manage to adopt out between 80 and 100 dogs each time the fair happens. Way to go, guys!
New this year was a special puppy area where you could pay $5 to go inside the cage for 5 minutes and be with the puppies. I wonder how that worked out for them. By the time we came back for our second visit, it was noticeably empty, although I'm not sure if that's because they adopted nearly all the puppies, or if no one was willing to fork out $5 to go inside and pet dogs they could just reach over the fence to pet.
Next to the Palooza is the show area for Rocket's Comets K9 All-Stars, the really cool frisbee dog show. We've seen it every year, but I still like to see it every time. The show opens with a battle of boys vs. girls with Jenny and Chowder competing to see who can catch the most frisbees. Chowder won the first time we watched and Jenny won the second.
Jenny on the left and Chowder on the right
Instead of just sticking her head in the bucket, Jenny likes to put her whole body in when she drinks
The next part of the show included a pretty impressive dog named Mick Jagger. He is still a very young dog but was so naturally good at catching frisbees that they were planning on entering him in a national competition. He'd barely seen a frisbee for the first time a few months ago and is still very shy in a crowd, but he covered that entire field grabbing all the frisbees Rocket threw at him.
Did you know nearly all dogs are either left-eye or right-eye dominant (and will always turn the same way to see a frisbee before they catch it), just like we are left or right-handed? Well, this amazing little dog is apparently ambidextrous (or whatever you call it for eyes) and he can catch frisbees by turning both left and right. In fact, Rocket says that the first time this dog ever saw a frisbee in his life, he caught 15 of the 20 that were thrown for him.
The last dogs to come out this year were Sadie, a border collie, and Lucky, a rare Irish-bred short-haired retriever in a brindle color - one of only 70 of these dogs in the entire U.S. This time Rocket threw two frisbees at once and they would split apart in the air and each dog would catch one. Sadie jumps so high, she just springs off the ground!
Lucky's beautiful brindle coloring
The first time we were at the fair, we had to leave the dog show a little early to rush over to our volunteer job. We had signed up to do a food-packing event, which my girls have done before and really loved. The food is a perfectly balanced combination of protein, veggies, vitamins and carbohydrates, that is the ideal nutritious meal for children. The meals are packed by scooping servings into little baggies that are vacuum sealed and then sent off to other countries to be distributed. The dried ingredients are heated in water to make a perfectly balanced meal for several hungry children. It's a little bit like Rice-A-Roni, I guess.
A is on the veggies, K is on the soy, C is loading bags on the funnel, Jessey is dishing out protein (or the magic powder/golden powder), and the rice sits unmanned.
Now that's a lot of food!
After we were done volunteering, it was time to look around some more. We noticed a sweet prize atop a rock climbing formation, although we also noticed that the second tier from the top was totally rigged (but somehow several other people didn't seem to notice it and plopped down $8 for this total scam).
After watching one person after another attempting to hold onto nothing and falling (don't they notice the pattern?), we headed to the small animal area and I prepared myself to face the onslaught of begging and pleading. C wanted a duckling, but A and K had their hearts set on a bunny. I must admit, the bunnies were pretty cute. I'm still way too traumatized to think about getting another duck, though.
As we were looking around outside at the birds (where of course there were more ducklings), we were stopped by two geese that were out for a little exercise. They were very noisy and very unafraid of humans, so we took it slow for a minute wondering how forgiving they would be if we walked across their path. Turns out that they could have cared less. But still, those guys were big!!
We looked around inside some of the buildings, and even ended up in a vendor tent where I stopped to look at a hat shop. I've been looking for a new hat (literally) since I lost mine in Florida, but I haven't been able to find one anywhere I liked. But this Australian hat company booth in the vendor building caught my eye, and even more amazing, their hats fit me! (I have a pretty big head, apparently). I was torn between the black and the khaki and went back and forth many more times than the kids had the patience for, so I finally took pictures and sent them to Mike, who replied back that I should buy both... "You're going to lose one anyway," he said. Gee, thanks. Turns out I did actually buy both, and I still have them right now - both of them! Hopefully my hat losing spree is over for good now!
the Lego building table
There's just something so disturbing about calling them "the snack-size sheep"
K tries to figure out just the right angle to get the marble to the bottom
And once again, we saw some amazing handicrafts. The rooms are a little more mixed up at this fair, so the crocheted blankets share a room with the cakes and pies and the table settings, and the art is mixed in with the youth crafts, but one room I always love here is the "Collection Room", where people display their pretty cool (and sometimes really weird) obsessive collections of themed items. I didn't take any pictures in there, but here are some of the unique and interesting things people made this year.
This zucchini doll is just really weird. I don't think I would have liked her even before she lost her eye. I found the neon pink Barbie purse especially disturbing
A Chandelure Pokemon cake. If you don't know anything about Pokemon, don't worry about it. It's one of the primary languages spoken in this house, though.
Although everyone can appreciate this Pokemon Treehouse cake, where the kid actually took the time to mold and color all of the Pokemon figures out of fondant
Felted wool wildlife scene
So cool!
Machine gun rubber-band gun
Fried fair food. We tried to order the Fried Nutella the second time we went because it was supposed to be amazing. One girl said she'd pay the fair admission price just to get in and buy another one. It must have been good because they were all sold out before we could buy one. From left to right, these fried beauties are Fried Bacon, Fried Donut Dog (in back), Fried Doritos, Fried Choogs (??), Fried Peanut Butter Sandwich, Fried Cheeseburger on a Stick, Fried Pickles, Fried Relleno Dog, and Fried Mac & Cheese. C said they all look the exact same to her. We also saw fried pineapple, fried watermelon, fried Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, fried brownies, and of course the staples of Twinkies, Oreos, and the like. Although noticeably absent was the fried butter from last year. Thank goodness.
The first time we were there, the girls and Jessey rode a couple of rides each, although the girls choices were highly unimpressive. Jessey ended up riding the Gravitron by himself, and said he earned widespread admiration by doing sit-ups during the ride. :)
A & K went together on Pole Position, which was surprisingly like the Triceratop Spin ride at WDW.
The other rides they picked were nothing special, including the walk-through funhouse for A and the same Zillerator ride from the other fair for all three. Oh well, at least the ride tickets were only $1.
The second time we went, we had a neighbor kid with us, and she was brave enough to go on the Vertigo ride with K. It's a swing ride on steroids - one that goes ridiculously high up in the sky. And for the record, our neighbor kid screams really, really loudly!
"No problem"
Screaming!
That ride is WAY up there!
"I'm okay now."
One ride that the girls didn't go on, but that I couldn't take my eyes off of was one called Evolution. I've seen rides that spin, rides that go upside down, and even rides that swing back and forth, but until this, I've never seen one that does all three at the same time. This ride was nuts!
And of course, the fair wouldn't be complete without visiting a couple of shows while we were there. We went to see a circus show called Jest In Time Circus. C was playing it cool, sitting with me instead of up front with the other kids, but within a few minutes she was laughing out loud along with the rest of the crowd. Cheesy? Yes. Funny? Double Yes. And these two people must enjoy their jobs more than anyone else on Earth. Either that, or they are the best actors alive.
A tossed the clown's hat back up on his head and got a clown nose as a prize!
But then everyone wanted a clown nose!
Well, almost everyone...
And this was definitely the kids' favorite part of the show
We also watched an Extreme MotoCross show, which featured three amazing, and crazy motorcycle riders, one of which was a medalist at the X-Games (Dustin Miller). They were really awesome to watch, in spite of the fact that the put the bleachers right under a tree - a great place for shade - but not a great place to watch the motorcycles 75 feet in the air.
The triple-backflip at the end. The tricks these guys did were amazing! I just couldn't get any pictures or videos because of that tree. Dustin was particularly spectacular and did several stunts where he completely let go of the bike and just floated above it in the air in several different positions before grabbing on again.
The last show we watched on the last day was a Weird Al Yankovic concert. Well, when I saw we watched it, I mean we watched it all except for the being-able-to-see-it part. The amphitheater filled up very early and by the time we got to the overflow lawn with the big screen monitor, the lawn was invisible under the sea of bodies. Not only that, but the walkways, bleachers, concession areas, dirt areas, and just about every single speck of land with even the tiniest view of the screen was packed with people. I shot a photo early on while K was buying her dinner (I had promised her a turkey leg) before it got completely packed in the walkways. By the time we sat down, the crowd was so swarmed that even if I had taken a picture, you would have only seen the people around me. Bet you didn't know Weird Al was still so popular, did you?
The concert was fantastic, even though I only saw bits and pieces, and the girls thought the video clips between the songs were hilarious. I was impressed at the number of costume changes he did. He wore a Kurt Cobain wig and flannel, a maple-leaf jacket for Canadian Idiot, donned a full Amish costume, rode a Segway across the stage, and even came onstage in his full-body fatsuit for Eat It.
Luckily we left just before the mob scene as everyone rushed the entrance and exit gates to try and catch a glimpse of him getting in his trailer to leave. Seriously, people. It can't be that exciting!
My own personal "view" of the concert ;)
the crowd of people before they took over the walkways
The girls and their turkey leg. They were like animals ripping that thing apart.
We love the Fair!!
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