The Fair

The company I work for decided to host their company picnic at the Stanislaus County Fair today. It was an awesome idea. They gifted us with 3 gate passes, 3 bbq lunches, 3 unlimited ride wrist bands and two parking passes. Technically we were supposed to get 1 parking pass but when they asked if I would like a second 1 I said yes, because it's always good to have a spare.

Turns out it was the ideal plan. We went a little before the picnic (which was scheduled during the hottest part of the day) and walked the through the air conditioned buildings, checked out the art, the exhibit booths and the plants. We also made quick stop to buy Laylabug her first cowboy hat and to get something to drink. We also checked out the rainforest exhibit which Layla liked a lot.

The picnic was really informal. We had BBQ and soda. By we, I mean me and Jon, Layla refused to eat lunch and only had a cookie. They had face painting which we opted out of as Layla isn't a huge fan of stuff on her skin or sitting still.

After we ate I said hi to a few people and then we made our way out. It was obvious that Layla, who skipped her morning nap, was going to need to go home and sleep. We contemplated calling Nana Lorrie but as I really wanted to do the rides part with the baby we decided to take her home and let her nap instead. On the way out we checked out the petting zoo in the 4 H area which Laylabug loved.

We got our hands stamped, went out to the car, drove home and there was napping. Then 3 hours later we packed back into the car and the cranky baby from earlier was much more adapting so we decided to go back. We used our 2nd parking pass to park, our hand stamps to get in and went to enjoy a much cooler hour of fair-time.

We got corndogs. Layla didn't want to eat her corndog so taking advise from a girl friend of mine I wrapped it in a paper towel and stuck it in the stroller. We got wrist bands and we started riding rides.

Layla's first ride ever was the Jumping Jumbo (which is a generic Dumbo Flying Elephant ride). She rode with Daddy and Mommy took pictures. Then we stode in line and rode the Cars Route 66 ride. Daddy took pictures that time. Then Daddy and Layla rode Jumping Roo (a kangaroo ride) and then we put her back in the stroller and there was a brief fit because she wanted more rides.

We made her get into the stroller anyhow and walked to another part of the park. She immediately stopped crying when we started moving. She drank some water, ate some left over corn dog and we walked around for awhile (think of it as a Disneyland test run).

Then she went on the a Dizzy Dragon with Daddy, and a choochoo train with Mommy and we ended the night with a ride on the carousel with Daddy. Funny thing about the last ride, as we were walking there Layla was chomping down on her left over corn dog. Jon said "do you want to give your corn dog to mommy and ride a ride with daddy?" and she literally threw her corn dog on the ground and started waving and pointing at the ride.

That's my kind of kid. She loved things that went fast or that spun. She got off that spinning dragon with an ear to ear grin. Unfortunately the camera battery was low so we didn't get as many pictures as I like. I mean I only got 90 or so today. Which if you know me isn't very many.

We didn't head home until around 8:30 and then there was a wash down, a snack and some quiet time before bed. I think she finally crashed about 9...happy and silly as ever...

it was an awesome day.