Oregon State Fair

A week and a half ago I decided to surprise Evan with a trip...to the Oregon State Fair. He hadn't been since he was 3 or 4 and didn't have any idea what it was all about. He was excited to hear that they had rides...

but when we finally got there, all he wanted to do was visit the pigs, cows, horses, donkeys, sheep, goats, and then there were chickens, and more cows, and donkeys, and all kinds of animals, but we had to see each and every one of them. Then I got thinking, "We may never get to the rides," but we did. I wanted to go on this great big Ferris wheel but Evan wanted nothing to do with that. The picture alone will have to do. It was cloudy, and looks worse in this picture than I remember it being. It never rained. We got lucky!

Evan and I watched this ride a few times before getting the courage to get strapped in and be launched like a reverse bungee-jump-ride into the sky screaming our little heads off. We asked someone to snap this picture of us.

Silly you....that's not us. Are you crazy?! That's some other crazy people who paid $25 bucks each to have the wits scared out of them. We just watched from the ground. But I had ya, didn't I?

Oh yes, the little biggies from the first part of our visit. They really were cute. You could tell there had to be babies in the pen because people were gathered around like they were giving away money. I knew that was the place to look.

Evan loved the rides, and I loved the smile on his face while he rode them.

The "Fair-lift," was Evan's favorite ride, and mine too. It's long, goes slowly enough that you can enjoy looking at everything, and we got to be together. We got the 'round-trip pass' and was really glad we did. It's nice to have a ride back at the end of the day...

A self-portrait of me and favorite boy. He didn't like that I had my arm around him because he said, "I can sit here by myself, you don't need to hold on." I know. I wanted to hold on.

No, he didn't want to ride it, he just wanted to watch it over and over as we sat on the bench and had our snack. I give it 2 years and he 'll be in line for that one.

Oh yes, more animals...the petting farm. Of course.

I decided we'd stay 'til dark. We are HERE after all! Might as well see it all. We saw the Lumber Jack show. Evan loved the guys doing the log rolling.

We watched the magic show, which was really quite good. I think my favorite part was when Evan noticed the assistant lady and asked me, "IS that Lady Gaga!?" Yes, she came to work at the magic show at the Oregon State Fair just for us. Too funny. Evan loved that the magician cut the Lady Gaga lady into 8 pieces and then she came out and was even wearing a different outfit. He was good! Evan was sold on magic.

We grabbed a sugary dessert...a funnel cake of course, and sat down once again...this time it was the Chinese Acrobats. I don't know how many times I said, "Wow," or "Oh my gosh," but it was really something. 4 Chinese guys using every core muscle there must be in the human body to do things that don't even seem possible. I was impressed. That's one of them above, using core strength and balance. I was blown away when he was only using one chair, but then they would bring another, and then another. You just can't believe it! This was my favorite show and the perfect ending to the night.

2 hours past bedtime, and and an hour from home. I banked on the fact that he'd fall asleep in the parking lot, but NO...he talked all the way home. He loved it. (Not as much as Great Wolf Lodge, but loved it.)