Texas State Fair 2012

The night before we left for the fair, I got online and planned a wonderful day that included all of our favorite stops: the petting zoo, the pumpkin carver, Big Tex, we were even going to go to the story tent because Witten loves books so much.

As a general rule, we try to go to the fair on nice cool days, and in the middle of the week so that it's not as crowded.  This year however, I've only been back at school for 3 weeks, so I figured it would be frowned upon for me to take a day off just to go hang out at the fair. 

Had we taken a day off, it would have been yesterday.  That happens to be the day that Big Tex kicked the proverbial bucket.  This was the tribute we saw this morning on the way to Fair Park.

Witten was already asleep when we got there.  That was probably good because fair day is always a long day.  We were a little worried because he was in undies, not a pull up, but he was dry.

Parking costs seem crazy to me, but we are always fortunate enough to get a decent place next to a gate.

Our first stop was to the bathrooms.  This became the longest, least popular stop of the day.  This particular potty stop lasted about an hour.  It was full of arguing, tears, and NO PEE!  Needless to say, we were ALL frustrated at this point. 

We tried to cheer up at the John Deer tent.  Witten did enjoy sitting on the tractor, but he was pretty traumatized by the bathroom incident.

We saw some Chinese dragons on our way to get some lunch.  (The bathroom took so long that by the time we were done, it was already time to eat.)

 Witten loves corn dogs, so we got him his first State Fair Corney Dog of his very own.

 He LOVED it!

 Look Mom...I at all of it!

Daddy decided to try some new fried concoction.  I'm don't remember what it was, but the boys loved it.

We had another lengthy trip to the bathroom that didn't go over very well.  Then, we stopped at the new Big Tex.  It didn't really have the same Wow factor as the old one, but hey, you can't leave the fair without a picture with Big Tex!

We always love the arboretum.  It's a nice place to cool off and see some trains and pumpkin carving.

This strange little pot man is always there to with a big goofy smile.

Of course, there's always the obligatory picture of your kid sitting on the elephant's trunk..

and our beautiful ferris wheel.

This year, there was a Chinese lantern exhibit.  It was only $5 to get in before 6.  After 6, it went up to $15, but they didn't kick you out if you were already in there.  We got there about 10 till 6, and walked around some while we waited for it to get darker.  It was kind of pretty, but kind of weird.  It wasn't really my thing, but it was ok to look at, and I think that Witten really liked it.  Especially once it got darker and the lanterns lit up.

They did a little tribute to Texas by putting these Longhorns up.

And, I have to admit, they were kind of pretty once they lit up.

Witten enjoyed watching the parade after the lantern exhibit, and I nearly got my head taken off by a float while trying to get this picture. 

I've got to say, I wish that we had forgone the potty training for the day, and just had more fun.  We didn't make it to ANYTHING we had planned other than the lanterns, and I really regret that.  We'll know better when we potty train the next one.

State Fair is all washed off, and we are ready for bed.

We have a photo very similar to this from Witten after his first time to the fair, so we of course had to get one of Reese too.  We're looking forward to many more fairs with these two munchkins!