Sad days at the Fair.....

Well, the fair is supposed to be a happy week.

The past couple of years we have gone, spent a ton of money of gut wrenching food, bought way too many game tokens and come away with crazy prizes that clutter up the kids' room, ogle over the pygmy goats and rabbits that we can't have, and generally have a superbly memorable time!

This year...not so much.

The anticipation was there...from taking the shuttle bus, to eating cotton candy and snow cones and going on the ferris wheel. However, this year did not go as planned. Both of our poor kids got sick. JJ on Tuesday and Laine on Thursday. They were sick from a bug, not from rides or food...just bad timing for this crazy little stomach flu to hit the Jenkins' family.

We like to get to the fair early and spend the morning looking at exhibits and then doing rides and kids stuff and then some more walking around, looking at the animals, eating throughout the day, and then usually some more rides. Laine loves to stay late - it's such a treat to see all the rides lit up as it gets darker.

So, thinking back over the past few days....I would have to say this was one of the best times we've had at the fair...huh???? I know.... how could that be? Well, we didn't feel rushed since none of us had a ton of energy to be "up" all day, so it was a nice relaxing time. The kids did a few rides - we didn't have to wait in any long lines and the weather was nice, not unbearably hot like it has been in the past. We got to view a lot of fun things that our friends entered in exhibits - it was lots of fun looking for them and seeing them win ribbons! We ate very little, so 1) we didn't spend lots of money, and 2) we didn't walk away feeling like we ate a weeks worth of food in just a couple hours. I would have liked to have had some goodies, but nothing tempted me. We saw most of the animals and it was unusually uncrowded...not good for the Fair, but good for those of us that don't like big crowds. I worked at the Lynden PTA food booth on Wednesday night, which I have to say was way more fun than I ever anticipated. And, I can't leave this without saying that I think we saw two of the best exhibits...the reptile tent and the Farm exhibit just bast the Young Life food booth - it was outstanding!

So, even though we had to cut our two days at the fair short after both kids got ill, I do have to say that it was a great time for us and it's a great way to "end" our summer! Oh, and the kids say they are definitely entering things next year, so be sure to be on the lookout for them!