The Howie House: Picture Post: Fair Fun 2012

In October, we took the kids to the State Fair. I have such fond memories of going to the Fair as a child, so I get excited about taking the kids each year. I figured this would be a fun year, because Aubrey and Jude would be able to ride some of the rides together.

We decided to start with the Merry-Go-Round when we first got there. David and I had to take turns riding it with the kids because we had Alaina and the stroller to stay with. (By the way, Alaina doesn't make an appearance in any of these pictures, but she was there. I think she enjoyed her first trip to the fair, but it was pretty uneventful for her ;)) I rode first with Jude. He was really excited about picking out a horse to ride, and he really loved sitting on the horse at first.

But then it started moving. And he got a little nervous.

And then he fell apart and dove off of the horse into my arms. I hated that he was so scared, but I couldn't stop laughing hysterically. I held him the rest of the ride.

Next, it was David's turn to ride with Aubrey.

That went a little better :)

Aubrey had a blast!

Aubrey wanted to ride some more rides, so she picked this little car ride that just went around in a pretty slow circle. We thought that would be tame enough for Jude and asked him if he wanted to ride with Aubrey, and he said he did. We put them in the car of their choosing, and they were both really excited to get into the car together. Aubrey even had her arm around Jude the whole time. How sweet are they?!

But once again, when the ride started moving, Jude's smile started to disappear.

And then he lost it. Poor guy!

Aubrey had been talking about going down the "big slide" with Daddy all year. You can see the slide from the Farmer's Market, and I've heard her say MANY times that the next time we went to the fair, she was going to go down the slide. (She was too nervous to go down last year.) So, we were going to do the slide next. When it came time to actually do it, though, Aubrey changed her mind. I was a little disappointed, because I used to go down this slide with my Dad, and I really wanted to see Aubrey and David come down together. Of course, we weren't going to force it, so I figured none of us would be doing the slide this time. Until Jude decided that HE wanted to go down the slide with David. I knew the slide was going to scare him, but David thought it would be fine since Jude would be with him the whole time. So against my better judgment, I watched Jude and David make their way up the stairs.

And here they come!

This slide literally takes your breath away, and needless to say, Jude was NOT a fan. Since I didn't want the poor boy to be traumatized from a trip to the fair that should have been fun, we decided Jude was done with rides for the day. He pointed to his stroller after the slide and never asked to get out again. Haha!

Food was next on the agenda! What's a trip to the Fair without some delicious fried food...

...and some corn. Our kids were CRAZY about that corn!

There is a smaller version of the "big slide" that Aubrey decided she would like to ride. The only problem was that David couldn't ride with her. He was allowed to ride BESIDE her, but they couldn't ride together. She was ok with that, so they went for it. She wasn't a big fan. I'm thinking it's a good thing she didn't go for the big slide this year after all! Jude will more than likely forget about the Big Slide Scare of 2012, but Aubrey would still be talking about that to this day and would probably never set foot on that slide again. Ha!