Earlier this month when Kara and I discussed who would be taking the children to the fair, the plan was for two adults to go out to the fair with the children and one adult would stay home with Lincoln. (Kara, of course, would remain on bed rest as she has brilliantly done for the past seven weeks.) Then my twin called and said she was coming to visit and she wanted to attend the state fair. She even decided to buy a ticket to attend the Jo Dee Messina concert. I haven't been to a concert at the state fair in years and I like Jo Dee Messina, so I decided to join her. My sister flew in Tuesday afternoon, the day of the concert, so we decided to just attend the concert that evening and then attend the fair with the children on Wednesday.
The easiest way to accomplish these two goals was for me to pack up the four kids and take them to Wasilla where my younger sister Karla lives and have her babysit the children while my twin and I attended the concert. Then we would spent the night at Karla's and go to the fair the next day before returning home. Jake and Viva thought this was a great plan, but Bentley had reservations about it. He knows my sister has two labs and he isn't a big fan of dogs.
The biggest drawback to my plan was Lincoln. He has never been away from home overnight. He has never been left with any adults other than immediate family. I really wasn't sure how it would go. Fortunately my sister loves babies and was willing to take him on despite his lack of experience away from home.
And how did he do?! He screamed for a while, but then he calmed down and was okay. He went to sleep in a playpen right on schedule. Lincoln is a champ. So is my sister. Karla goes on record as Lincoln's first babysitter. The older three did great, too. They watched DVDs and were well-behaved. (As far as I know!) They were in bed when Jean and I returned, although they were not asleep; they were very quiet and soon fell asleep.
Jean and I had a great time. Despite getting lost on the way there (two wrong turns), we got to the fair grounds and we enjoyed the concert. We made it back to Karla's home logging another two directional errors. No big deal.
The next day we arrived at the fair right at opening time. We had to wait in line 20 minutes to get in which is RIDICULOUS. Don't those folks at the fair know that Alaskans do NOT do lines? It's one of the top ten reasons we live in Alaska. There aren't very many people so we don't have to stand in line.
For our first fair activity we headed to the carnival rides. After looking at all the possibilities (and eliminating the many rides that they weren't tall enough for), they chose to do the roller coaster, the flying vehicles, and the merry-go-round.
We got in two rides before it was time to high tail it to the lumberjack show. Lincoln was quite attentive during that show. I was impressed with the lumberjacks' speed, but they weren't as brawny as I expected. It's just as well they weren't more brawny because it'd be harder to climb poles and roll logs if you were a big guy.
After the show we went back to do the last carnival ride. Then we...wandered around?...ate lunch! I tried to talk the children into corn dogs or some kind of traditional fair food, but they wanted hamburgers and hot dogs. Bentley ate the patty and Lincoln ate the bun. After lunch it was time to find the BMX stunt show which was next to the miniature golf course. Bentley knew this because he'd done both activities last year at the fair and he wanted to do them again. For sure. Right away.
We watched a few bike stunts. They all looked similar to me. Bentley, Jake and Viva wanted to golf, so we headed over there while Aunt Jean went shopping. Bentley hit the green first. He took five strokes to get the ball in the hole. Jake then got on the green and did a hole-in-one. Wow! I was quite surprised. Viva went last and I don't think she ever did get the ball in the hole on the first green. Fortunately we had the course to ourselves, so it was no biggie if we played a little irregularly.
After the first hole, Bentley's game greatly improved. He got at least one hole-in-one and a few more holes only took two swings. He was pretty good. Jake's game went downhill. His grip on the club was most unusual and it didn't aid his game. Viva was entertaining, but not particularly skilled. Maybe when she's six?
After golf I asked Viva if she wanted to get her face painted. She really, really wanted to do it when we visited Disney World, but the prices there were outrageous and the weather too warm for make-up. It was only $5 at the fair. Viva chose a unicorn design. I asked the boys if they wanted their faces painted. They said no, but they wanted to watch Viva get hers painted. After Viva's face was painted, Bentley changed his mind and requested a King Cobra design. Jake insisted he did not want face paint. I was pretty sure he'd change his mind because we've had this problem before. As soon as Bentley's design was on and a long line started forming, Jake insisted he needed a bee. Fortunately, the guy controlling the line was really nice and he let Jake jump the line.
It was about time for the pirate show which Viva was adamant that we see and Bentley was adamant that we skip. (He had a bad experience in Las Vegas on the Strip at a pirate show.) We located the pirate show and found seats. Bentley insisted on sitting behind my sister using her as way to block the stage view. Crazy kid. As the show progressed he started watching it. Jake and Viva chatted up the couple next to us.
Sometime during the afternoon we took a quick tour of the farm animal barn. It was so stinky that I thought Lincoln's diaper needed changing, but it didn't. We saw the giant pumpkins which were in the same barn as the animals. We saw a few acrobatic tricks on a lawn near the barn, but the crowds were too thick for small children to get a great view. We took a quick look in a building with some more exotic animals--a monkey was there--but it was quite crowded (no room for strollers) so we left. It was odd that there was no room for strollers in this building because it was the Kid Zone building.
During our fair visit Viva requested popcorn, plain. It wasn't very good, but Viva liked it. Bentley wanted butter on it, but Viva said no. I purchased Jake and Viva ice cream which they shared with Lincoln. I bought fried cheese curds. Bentley wouldn't try them. Viva didn't like them. Jake thought they were pretty good. Lincoln chewed on a couple pieces.
Lincoln did not ever take a nap even though I reclined his stroller. He never even yawned! He got a little grumpy if we stayed in one place too long, but mostly he just enjoyed all the sights. He likes getting out of the house and having new experiences.
When we headed back to the main gate to leave, Bentley stated that he needed a souvenir. He said he got lots of souvenirs last year when he went with his dad to the fair. Really? I asked what kind of souvenirs and he said key chains and stuff like that. We looked at a few booths, but there really wasn't anything of good value that we saw. Then I spied the "No Pebble Mine" booth and they has some small items that you could take in return for a small donation. We scored two flexible, folding Frisbees. Finally I got the okay to leave.
We found the van without any problem. Then we did find a problem. The van's passenger door was wide open. It appears I left it that way when I was packing the stroller up seven hours earlier. No one came by and closed it. No one came by and stole the iPad in my tote bag on the floor. And, amazingly, the van started--the battery had not been run down by my forgetfulness.
Did I mention that the weather was fantastic? It was sunny, but a little cool. It was a perfect fair day.
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