The Fair!

For living in a community where the entire school calendar revolves around the fair, it is only fair (no pun intended) to have one blog entry dedicated to it. This year's fair was the best yet. Kristen is finally old enough to ride rides by herself and I finally appreciate all the quirkiness of the town I call home! Can you believe this is the first year I finally tried an "elephany ear"? Where has that yumminess been my whole life? I now understand why people say it's worth the ticket price just to go for the elephant ears!

This year Kristen eagerly awaited the fair coming to town. As the rides were being assembled on the fairgrounds she shook with excitement. Then finally the day came....the fair was open! I made her wait from Wednesday all the way till Thursday! I know, I am a bad mom;) We took Kobe with Will and Kristen came with me. Joe and Carlie came later on their own daddy-daughter date. I went with $100 cash and came back with $12. Wow!

Anyhoo....the first ride Kristen wanted to go on was the Ferris Wheel. Sure, why not? I was feeling adventuresome but as we got closer and I realized how high up it was I started feeling less brave. But if Kristen wanted it, by golly I was going to let her. We sat down on the seat and as soon as the guy put the bar securely in place over our laps, I knew I had not used the best judgement. Perhaps it was the sign that said, "Do Not Rock" that made me realize that yeah, we were kind of swinging in the breeze. As we started our uphill climb, Kristen immediately freaked out crying and screaming, "I want to get off". Yeah, me too sister! What was I thinking?

We spent the rest of the ride with our legs intertwined holding onto the lap bar for dear life! I was on the verge of an anxiety attack as they stopped the ferris wheel when we were almost at the top so they could let more riders on. I looked over at Kristen and saw tears shooting out of her eyes and realized that I would have to be the strong one! So I did what all psychotic moms do when they are freaking out...I turned it into a game. Up, up, up, up, up (close your eyes as tight as you can) then down, down, down, down, down(take a cleansing breath) then up, up, up, up, up (close eyes tighter) then down, down, down , down, down. The whole ride kind of felt like a contraction, cleansing breaths and all.

By the time we had spun up and then down and then up and then down, too many times to count, we were thrilled to get off the ride. We had trouble finding our land legs because we were both shaking from terror....but we did it! We conquered the ferris wheel...barely! I think some of the kiddy rides would have freaked her out if it hadn't been for that ferris wheel. Everything else was cake compared to that so she had a blast the rest of the time. Kristen and I loved spending our time together, alone. I am realizing how fast she is growing up. It was fun to have one last hurrah before she started school.