Fair Day! (Friday, 08/07/09)

Again, it was yet another vacation day for me!

We woke up; I made waffles while the kids watched videos on tv. Lydia headed off to go give plasma around 10. I put the kids down for a nap at 11. When they woke up, I cooked brats on the grill fro lunch… yum!

We had been given free tickets to the fair, and decided to use them! So around 3, we headed off to the Ozark Empire Fair. We ended up getting great parking spots! After getting in, we headed over to the livestock. On the way, we bought a $3 cup of lemonade, refills were $1, so we figured that it would be our best buy for drinks.

We got to see horses, ponies, and dairy cows. While visiting the cows, one of the girls watching them let Mysia and Malachi pet two of them. At first Mysia was hesitant, but when she overcame the fear of this big creature lying in the straw, everything was okay. Seeing Mysia petting the cow got Malachi interested, and he ran over to join her. He's a bit rougher than Mysia, so we had to keep reminding him to be gentle.

We then headed off to an area that had the baby animals. We saw little chicks, ducklings, piglets, bunnies, and baby goats. They had a tractor tire filled with corn that the kids loved playing in. When we came across a baby miniature horse, Malachi tried climbing the fence to get in!

Mysia had said that she wanted to ride a pony. Sure enough, they had pony rides. We waited in line, and was finally able to encourage Malachi to want to ride. When I was paying ($4 per rider), Mysia backed down! Well, I couldn't just tell Malachi no, so he went ahead and rode. He did really well, and enjoyed it. After his ride, there was an attraction nearby called "Mutton Bustin""! It's the kid version of bull riding. Open to girls and boys, youngsters attempt to ride the unpredictable sheep for six seconds! Our kids wouldn't participate, but it fun to watch!

The heat was getting to us, so we headed to the E-Plex (an arena that that has air-conditioning). We walked around looking at the crafts and the photos that peopled had entered for competition. It was good to get out the heat, and we really enjoyed looking at the items set out. We also went over to look at the booths. Mysia and Lydia got some jewelry, and I got to talk to a guy about tornado shelters. The had a kid section, so Malachi and I went over to look at the Natural History Museum items while Mysia got her face painted for free.

As we headed back outside, we were greeted by a brass band from MSU. They were good, so after their performance, we followed them over to the area were the lemonade was $1. We got treated to three more songs. We were hungry, so we decided to get us some "tornado taters", potatoes cut in a twisted fashion and then fried! Think of it as unique potato chips! That filled us up enough, and as we were leaving the stand, we came across and interesting sight… A wedding couple heading over to another lemonade stand! They were in their wedding attire, and getting pictures take as they purchased their drink and shared it. Only in the Ozarks I guess! Talk about a redneck wedding!

Mysia had seen a carousel, so we agreed that she could have a ride. The ride had a sign that announced it took three tickets to ride. At the ticket booth, you could buy 4 tickets for $5… no single tickets sold! What a rip off! Well, we went with it, and Lydia bought the tickets. However, the lady gave Lydia the tickets, but not the change! Lydia discovered this when she came back to the kids and I. Lydia went back to the booth, and the lady gave her the money without even asking how much Lydia had given her… she knew!

Anyway, Mysia rode the horse, and she was very happy about it. However, when the ride was over, both Lydia and I agreed that it was time for us to head to the car. On the way, we got us some pineapple whip! Oh so yummy! Brings back memories of when I used to work at the fair, pineapple whip was my favorite!!!!

We got home around 7:30, and boy were we tired!!!!

~Matt