First Country Fair!

Because Walter has taken the F.E.M.A. C.E.R.T. (Community Emergency Resource Team) training and been certified as a HAM Radio operator he was given the opportunity to volunteer at the Community Emergency Resource tent at the Stanwood-Camano Is. Fair. And because he was volunteering he got free tickets for himself and his family! Woohoo!

So on the day scheduled we bundled ourselves up against the rainy forecast and made our way to our family's first country fair.

Walter and I were excited to share the fair experience with Padon and while we got him pumped about it he really was kind of timid. We bought tickets for the rides and then were perplexed about which ride should be Padon's first ride. The carousel, you might say; the Ferris Wheel? No, like idiots Walter and I agreed that the "tea cup" ride might be fun. Well that swirling booth took one severe centrifugal force turn and Padon freaked out, bursting into tears. And as a parent strapped in, knowing the ride has a time limit, what do you do, but hold onto your three year old and try to comfort as well as you can as the ride sucks you in and spins, sucks you in and spins. Dumb!

There was no more riding the rides for a long time after that. We had ruined the idea of rides. Luckily the fair had a lot more to offer. Padon, Sophia and I dropped Walter off at the volunteer tent and Padon got a fireman's hat. Which was really great because it had started to rain big fat rain drops and the hat, especially on backwards, worked great to deflect the rain.

We moved onto find what free samples we could get and what cool thing we might get with our free ticket prize voucher. We saw the pigs, cows, chickens, and goats; got free chocolate milk; and our prize voucher awarded Padon either an inflatable toy or a brass bracelet. He chose the bracelet that sadly we lost before the day was over.

We stopped to try out cotton candy, the first time Padon had ever had it.

I kind of thought he would have been more wowed at how cotton candy disintegrates sweetly in your mouth but when I asked him if he thought it was good I got this pacifying face.

We stopped to play one of the games that a toddler can't loose. I paid a gal $2 so Padon could pull a duck out of the wading pool that said on the bottom what prize he won. He was very impressed to receive an inflatable blue dolphin which lasted about two hours before he bit a hole in its nose and it deflated and I threw it away. On our walk around we saw this guy "riding" this chicken. He really was funny. He played a very serious character although he would make funny comments and would move and walk the chicken like it was real, which just had Padon fascinated.

When Walter was done with his shift we swung by and picked him up to go around the fair again. Disappointed with Padon's lack of interested with the rides and still holding 17 tickets in our hand we prodded Padon again to whether there were any rides he would like to go on. And gratefully he picked out the fun house. Which in a nontraditional way only consisted of a plexiglass-mirror maze, a stair case, fun house mirrors and a spiral slide down the outside of the building. I was disappointed and Padon LOVED it! We went through 7 times in a row, which in itself is funny because it was raining and the slide was wet. By the time we were done the back of our pants were soaked from the rain, but Padon was unphased. And when I caught him on his 8th attempt to go through to say we were done because we were out of tickets he asked to go on the ride across the way. What?! We had finally hit the rides are fun button and were out of tickets. Oh well, next time.

Where was Sophia in all of this, you might ask. Happily being a 7 month old baby; watching the happenins, sucking on my hood strings, and drinking a bottle from time to time.