HOWDY Y'ALL!

Frijole, Big E (picker), Bubbie, and Pods

sitting on my future swing

Going to the State Fair of Texas used to be an annual event for me. Even though it's basically the same thing year after year, it's just something every good Texan needs to experience once every 365 days or so. My attendance record was broken when I started dating my Texan-challenged husband. He felt that if you've seen it once, you've seen it enough. Evidentally, he'd never had any fresh-squeezed lemonade and the deep-fried food of the year. He also wasn't interested in the dirty-ness of it all. He's got this whole germ fetish. Needless to say, I had a several year hiatus from the fair. Oh, what you'll do for love. Then, came the babies, one right after the other. I was always in the yucky stage of pregnancy or had a newborn who didn't need to be exposed to every cootie in attendance.

Aunt Laura was dropped on her head at birth

This year was different. I got to restart my annual tradition. I loaded up the kids, husband, and Gabby and we headed down to Fair Park. Two double strollers, Dad, Mom, Grandma, and a rainy day! Usually rain would put a big damper on things, especially with four soggy kiddo's, but I was determined that we were out of the house and we WERE going to have fun. Our first area of exploration was the farm animals. As we walked through the cows, sheep, and pigs, I could see Eric's forehead tensing as the thought of any animal's body fluid coming in contact with the bottom of one of our shoes. He was also a bit unnerved about Bubbie touching a relaxing Brahman which was chowing down on some hay. Dad was happy to exit the bovine area and re-enter the rain.

Somedays I wonder if I really am his mother...

We made sure Gab's got to visit her favorite, the Food & Fiber building. I haven't seen her that happy in years. She got the whole herd a free Bluebell Ice cream cone. We had peace and quiet for the next five minutes! It continued to rain as we darted from one building to another. We enjoyed the auto show. It's always fun to pretend that a sporty convertible could be parked in your driveway...in eighteen years. Eric had fun checking out the new mini's with all of their new upgrades. The scene could've easily made a commerical. Eric would walk up to the mini, open the door, and immediately all four kids would pile inside and go straight to their designated seat. Those poor guys trying to keep the cars all neat and shiny! They must've cringed everytime they say us open another door. Oh, and yes, Bubbie was estactic to see a "RASE CAAR!" This could be a forshadowing of my future...

I could see this in the future...

I have a need for SPEED

Bubbie got to see the "biggest cowboy in the world" as he described it. He's fascinated with Woody from Toy Story, so Big Tex was a big deal! He was mesmerized by Big Tex and what he had to say.

Bubbie meets the biggest cowboy in the world!

The kiddo's were getting fussy around six o'clock, so we had to cough up the money for tickets. We ended up with four slices of pizza for nine bucks. Ethan, upset and asserting his angry side, decided to toss his on the floor. Dad was not impressed at this one bit. Of course, the three second rule applied, so we were able to save most of the pizza. It's better with a little floor flavor attached anyways.

AAhh! The mammoth's going to get us!

We visited the Natural Museum of History which has the stuffed animals that are at least thirty years old. "Look at those buffalo's. They look like they need to meet the vacuum!" - Gabby. The kids were a bit concerned at why the real animals were not moving. Frijole Man, however, was fascinated by the mountain lions, jaguars, and other members of the feline family. They enjoyed seeing the dinosaur bones.

Poor Aunt Laura!

It was a quick visit to the fair this year. But, I got to go, the kids were happy (for the most part), and Eric survived. That's a good day for us!