It’s County Fair Time
Not that we want the grandkids to grow up faster than they already are, but we have been so anxious to start taking them to some events we hope they might enjoy. We took them to the UNL Rodeo in April at the Lancaster Event Center. That wasn’t probably as interesting to them as we had hoped. Emma was concerned about the bathroom situation. Unfortunately the restrooms at the Event Center contain not only two or three toilet but there were probably 12 of them. All with loud flushers and the bathroom was equipped with air hand dryers, very noisy as well. A no no in Emma’s book. She finally ended up going pee outside behind one of the buildings on the grounds. That’s okay; we’ll try a rodeo again next year.
We thought taking the girls to a County Fair would be a good adventure for them. Something new and different. The Lancaster county fair is way too big, lots of walking. So we settled on the Cass County Fair. It was the perfect size. After we picked the girls up from home, we stopped at Chick-fil-A to get lunch and headed to the fairgrounds. We detoured in Murray to their village park to eat. The park was small with some picnic tables, swings, wood teeter-totters and a spider shaped jungle gym, and we had it all to ourselves. After we ate, the girls wanted to play. One of the swings was an old board swing like they had when we were kids. I told Emma that so she started calling it the old-fashioned swing. She and Margaret both enjoyed swinging on it and the other swings. The wood teeter-totters were old, no handles to hang on to but Margaret wanted to give it try. They were shorter than ours so when you went up you were off the ground quite a ways. I would push down so she could go up. It was going pretty good until she started to lose her balance. She did good though, she hung on until I lowered it but that was enough for her.
We finally got them loaded up and continued on to the fairgrounds. Before we even parked the girls could see the midway. Margaret’s first comment when she got out of the car was “it smells here”. We told her that it smells like a Fair. It was hot, sunny and dry here so we lathered them up in sunscreen and headed to check out the rides. We stopped at the first restroom and thankfully it had just the plain flush toilets and a regular paper towel dispenser. Emma gave it a thumbs up. The first ride Emma saw was the one she wanted to ride. It was a Tilt-A-Whirl that was all painted in purple and sparkled. We suggested walking down the midway to check out all of the rides before deciding which ones to ride. As we walked down, one of the booths was a fishing pond for little kids. Emma really wanted to give it a try. It’s one of those where you hook a fish and that’s the toy you get. They had lots of cute stuffed animals on display but I’m sure you all know how that works. The fish with the best prizes were probably in the middle where most kids don’t fish which was true for both of the girls. They were excited and hooked the closest fish they could. The attendant opened up some boxes right in front of the girls and told them to pick a prize. They both picked the same spiky pink rubbery ball. A 50 cent toy that cost $5.00. Grandpa and Grandma will know better next time for sure.
Then we stood for awhile debating which ride we should try and we finally decided that we would start with the carousel, something slow that doesn’t turn quickly and stays on the ground. Didn’t want to start off our day with someone puking. Ken bought some tickets which didn’t last long (but that was okay. It was really too hot to stay on the midway for very long). I thought it was nice that they let adults ride with the kids at no charge. I got to ride with them on the carousel and even though Emma was a little cautious (holding on with both hands) she really enjoyed the ride. Margaret on the other hand had no problem waving to Grandpa as we went around and she spent a lot of time looking up to see how this contraption thing worked and checking out the other riders. It was a good first experience. Across the way was a big slide where you had to ride down on gunny sacks. That was their next choice. Margaret rode with Grandpa and Emma rode with me. They really liked the ride and Emma thought it was funny that I lost my hat coming over the last hump. From there we went back to the carousel and rode some different animals. Emma rode a Dalmatian and Margaret rode a gold horse. Margaret wanted to drive one of the cars on the track, sounded safer than her driving the jeep at home (haha).
At Emma’s request she and I went down the big slide again. And again I lost my hat . . . giggles from Emma.
By then we were out of tickets and it was time to get out of the sun. Emma pointed out the sno-cone stand and so they each got a strawberry flavored one and we found a picnic table in the shade.
Right next to the picnic tables was a free min-golf area. After they finished their sno cones Ken took the girls golfing. It really wasn’t Margaret’s thing, she was more interested in the turning obstacles on the course. Emma enjoyed it and was ready to go from one hole to the next. She did spend some time trying to figure out if she should golf left-handed or right-handed.
We stopped at the duck races and Margaret gave it a try.
The best part of our walk around the fair grounds was when we were about to head into the livestock barn. Margaret pinched her nose shut because she said it smelled. It reminded me of Aaron at Yellowstone. We told her to “suck it up” and she did with no problem. She got used to it pretty quickly.
In the barn we got to see cows, goats, sheep and pigs. Margaret got to pet a baby goat and a black sheep.
While the girls and I went to the restroom, Grandpa went to buy some cotton candy. It was fun to watch their eyes open wide when they first tasted cotton candy. They both decided that they really like it.
That was enough for our day at the County Fair. We headed to the farm where the girls got to hang out in the tank again to cool off.
The next day we all went to work in the garden. I was watering and the girls took Jillian’s old wagon and hauled soft cantaloupe and over ripe cucumbers to the chickens. Ken cut them into pieces and threw them to the chickens. When we were done the girls decided that the wagon needed a washing. They said they wanted some “soap and some polish”. They did get a spray bottle with soap and water in it and a hose with a spray nozzle. They had a great time!!
When the weather got too hot to be outside it was Emma’s turn to pick a movie . . . guess which one? Frozen
And of course, they had to go to the camper to visit Uncle Blaise.
It was so much fun having the girls here. Looking forward to the next visit with the whole family.