The Fair, Parade, and a Barrel Train

For the opening day of the Eastern Idaho State Fair there is always a parade. This year Eli's and Livi's Grandpa Lilya entered his barrel train in the parade; our girls were two of the lucky riders (among lots of other cousins). We figured it would be too long of a ride for Livi to ride the whole time, we were afraid she'd get bored, so we kept her with us, sat at the parade half point, and when the train arrived at our location she got to ride with Eli for the rest of the parade. They both had so much fun, in spite of the heat and the crowd.

I just thought this was a cute picture of Livi-it must have been when the fire truck was passing

And here's part of the train, Eli's in the pink shirt

That's Grandpa driving the train

It's hard to tell but Livi is sitting next to Eli in this picture. You can also see the entire train, if only in part.

After the parade was over we headed to the fair. I think we spent most of our time looking at the animals; I know that was both of the girls favorite part. Livi was particularly fond of the pigs and Eli fell in love (again) with the rabbits. At one point we almost ended up with a third child. Livi saw a baby who was just a few months old and fell in love with it. The mother was nice enough to let Livi give the baby a hug but then Livi refused to let go and started insisting it was her baby. She really wanted to take it home! Hopefully that's a good sign for whats to come! We took them through the petting zoo, which was sort of a let down to me since the only animals they had to pet and feed were goats. The girls didn't mind, though, and loved letting them eat out of their hands. Livi really liked them and even tried picking them up to hold them a few times.

By the end of the day we were so hot and tired we opted for some delicious Reed's Dairy Ice Cream, well, except Eli, who has a weakness for cotton candy! We sat in the Dairy Pavilion, my old stomping ground. It ended up being a wise choice saving this for last since it ended up being so messy. Then the girls got to run loose in the show arena for a while before we made one more round through the horses and pigs and headed home. As always, we had a great time at the fair and were glad Grandpa and Grandma got to go with us. They seemed to enjoy themselves as well, though I do feel bad since Livi was such a Grandma's Girl and my mom ended carrying her most of the day. So thanks for your help mom and dad! And I can hardly wait until next year to enjoy the fair, and my ultimate favorite fair food, the Teriyaki Chicken and Ham Fried Rice again--YUMMM-O!!

I saved this picture for last mostly because there's a story that goes with it. Unfortunately, my computer isn't recognizing my video camera at the moment so the story will have to wait until I get that working. I guess that means there's another fair post coming eventually, but, suffice it to say, for now, that Sandy and the turkey in the picture ended up drawing quite the crowd!