What's a trip to the fair without cotton candy, deep fried oreos, and near death experiences?

I was really excited to take the boys to the fair this year! They were both old enough to sit in the wagon and actually enjoy some of what the fair has to offer.

It all started off with some fun times in the animal barn, looking at cows, sheep, baby chicks, and horses.

Christopher spent a lot of time in the huge tractor tires filled with corn. He wanted to feed the baby cow, but we told him the farmer had already fed him for the day.

Then we went straight to the pony rides. This was, by far, my absolute favorite thing to do at the fair when I was growing up. Who am I kidding, if they would let me do it now I would still jump on one and ride around and around!

Take a close look...notice something funny about Christopher?

Yeah, that was him last year, and this is him this year!

Can you believe how much older he looks! And I thought it was pretty funny that he just happened to get the same (or at least looked exactly the same) horse two years in a row.

Then our fun trip to the fair took a turn for the worst when Chris (big chris, my husband and father to my children!) noticed that they had a sheep riding game. Is this sounding like a bad idea yet? Just wait. He insists on going over to the tent to check it out. They have a sheep "rodeo" for kids under 6 years old. They strap a rodeo vest and helmet to them and put them on a sheep. No saddle or reigns to hold on to, just wool. They set the child on a sheep, let the sheep out of the gate, and off they go...child bouncing violently until they fall off and hit the ground. Sounding like a stupid, dangerous thing to do yet? Well, Chris thinks this would be a blast for Christopher, and Christopher agrees because he trusts his dad to not throw him under the truck...or sheep. As much as I disagreed and begged, everyone there assured me that Christopher would not hit the ground and the cowboy would run along side to pick him up before he fell off. I agreed to that. That's not what happened. What happened was my little guy...2 1/2 years old...put a death grip on this sheep, they let him out of the gate, and he held on for a good 3 seconds. He hit the ground. My heart stopped. I wanted to run out there and pick him up and hold him forever. He walked over to us, stars floating in his eyes, and said "I fell off the sheep. Guy picked me up."
He ended up winning second place and got to stand on the podium and talk into the microphone for everyone to hear. (I think that was his favorite part)

I'm still not over my devestation from what I saw, but Christopher seems to be fine.

I did have a long discussion with Daddy Bear about this and we will be making better choices in the future.

So after all that drama, we all needed some extremely unhealthy food to calm our nerves. We stopped at the cotton candy window and fried goods window to stock up on goodies before we went home. Have you ever had deep fried oreos, by the way? I know what you are thinking...G.R.O.S.S.!!! That is what I thought last year until my (diabetic) friend made try one. Imagine a funnel cake, then put a warm gooey chocolatey oreo cookie inside of that. That's deep fried oreo. Heaven my friends!

Here is the difference between being a first time mom and now. Christopher would have never been able to taste the deliciousness that is cotton candy at the early age of 9 1/2 months, but I feel bad for Gabriel when everyone else gets to have something and he is left out of all the fun. He got to have his first taste of cotton candy...and do you think he loved it? Um, yeah!

I am so glad the fair is done and over with this year...that was more than I could handle!

I have lots of things I need to put up on the blog, so hopefully I can catch up this week :)