Mirror Mirror on the Wall, Who is the FAIRest of us all?

So, yesterday we had a choice between the State Fair and the Children's Museum. Nicolas won, and we went to the fair. It was hot as hell. And it's the end of October. Anyway, here we have monkey jockeys that are riding dogs. Where else besides the Fair will you see something like that? It was cute nonetheless. After the first little race, they asked for volunteers from the audience to "help" with a race. We volunteered Nicolas, and they chose him!! He got to wear a goofy hat and cheer on one of the dog/monkey teams. The two kids that "volunteered" got to get their picture taken with the monkey (a $10 value!). The one they gave us turned out better than the one I took. Here's some pictures from the monkey race.

Next we hit a building to escape the heat for a bit. All the boys got new sunglasses

Johnny and Nicolas had fun on the bumper cars

And a huge slide... Johnny's favourite part was climbing the stairs to the top... and when Nicolas said "let's do that again!" Johnny was more than happy to oblige. Haha!


Nicolas played his favourite carnival game of all time

Nicolas sure loves the slides... this is the end to a Pirate maze type ride.

We then found another building for KIDS! It was full of things for kids to do... building blocks, Plasma cars, hay stack maze, crafts, and Max foud some animals to ride... those Monkeys have nothing on him!

Nicolas had fun on a few kiddie rides and the house of mirrors (that was hard!)

After some more outside time, we hit the last building... the petting zoo. They had a ton of animals... a zebra, giraffe, kangaroo, emus, gazelle type things... plus the typical farm animals. Max and Nicolas loved feeding the animals. And check out the newborn pot belly pigs!

This picture is to give the false impression that Max was happy and cheerful all day

And that we were happy and cheerful all day (the hotter it is, the grumpier Mommy and Daddy get)

Just to prove to my kids later on that I really was there

The funniest thing happened to us on the way to the Fair. In case you're not aware, we live in a developing town that is/was farm land. So all around is are farms. With cows. (Gotta love the "fresh" smell that prevents us from leaving our windows open at night). Anyway, it's very common to see trucks on the little highway that leads up to Phoenix (we're about 15-20 minutes from "town" (ie Chandler) carrying cows and horses. Well, we passed one said truck carrying cows (I assume to the slaughter house). I pointed them out to Nicolas as we passed the truck. I guess one thing I never thought about is that the cows are probably stressed out being in a truck (on a hot day) on the way to their deaths (OK, I realize they don't know where they're headed). So, to make a long story a little shorter.... we ended up with this nice splatter on the side of the car as we drove past the cows....

The poor things must have had some loose bowels. I guess I find it funny because it's Johnny's car and not mine. :)

OK, one last thing... I have to admit I learned something new about my husband (and men in general) while at the Fair. As we were walking along, Johnny spotted a guy with his wife and kid(s)... the guy was wearing a NY Jets jersey. (In case you didn't know... Johnny is a die hard Jets fan). So as we walked past this total stranger, Johnny says J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets. The total stranger turns to Johnny as he's still spelling out J-E-T-S with his hand outstretched and gives him a two handed handshake and says "HEY! How ya doing?!?!" like he's just run into his brother at the fair. The exchange lasts a total of a few seconds... neither one really stops... they heartily acknowledge each other as they walk past each other... and then part as total strangers once again. It was totally bizarre to watch.