whobody loved the rides at the fair?

This past weekend was the Clayton County Fair.

I do believe that THIS is my kids' FAVORITE thing to do all summer. 

THEY. LOVE. IT.

Truly, they do. I know some people think the fair is lame...but, not us! Seriously.

We all love the fair.

It is so much fun to take the kids and see them enjoy everything.

They love to see and touch the animals

watch the animal shows (for about 5 minutes)

eat junk for supper

and then have junk for dessert

and then a little more junk for a snack

watch the live music

watch dirt bike races

watch bull riding

watch the tractor pull (for 5 minutes)

sit on and pretend drive the tractors and lawn mowers on display

....and, most importantly, RIDE THE RIDES!!!

Let me be clear here. Jason and I are all about 'setting the bar low'

for our kids' expectations for a 'good time'!

I think that one of the best parts of living in and raising a family in a small town/ rural area like this is that they will hopefully be able to appreciate the more simple joys of life.  Don't get me wrong...we take them on vacation....and visit big things like zoos...and Disney World....but I want them to be able to still get excited about the little things too....like visiting our neighbor's farm, or throwing rocks in a stream, or even traveling to a nearby town to simply play at a park.  They even get super excited about the 'circus' that comes to Guttenberg (which pretty much includes people and a few dogs....).  I am SO happy that they are excited to see that 'one ring circus'....I would also love for them to see a GREAT circus someday too...but, for now....we are going to try to keep the little things in life exciting, because real life is much more fun when you can get joy out of your everyday experiences.  So far, our kids do not have to be wowed to have a great time!  WHICH is why we love the fair. (Really, it is a lot of fun for them....and because it is fun for them, it is fun for us...but, lets be honest...it really isn't about us!)

Back to the RIDES....whobody loved the rides at the fair??? Keaton, Lola and Nash did....Granted, there were really only TWO rides that they could go on...and a few bouncy houses and a 'fun house'.  They still loved them.  (as I said, we are all about setting the bar low. :)  Friday night, we got together with their besties....(Lily, Colton, and Tate) and we bought wristbands so they could ride the rides as many times as they wanted....and we could handle.

Nash insisted that I take a picture of his wristband.

They had a blast!!!  They ran from the swings to the bouncy house to the fun house to the slide to the bouncy house obstacle course to the 'spinney thing'...and then around again. It was so much fun to watch them enjoy each other...and their besties. I am so glad that they were able to do the rides with friends...so much more fun than doing them alone!!! There are no pictures of Cruz....he did NOT ride any rides :) except his stroller... Enjoy the pictures of the kids!

Can you tell it was HOT????

This last picture had a little back story to it... the 'deal' was that if we did wristbands on Friday night, that would be IT for rides at the fair.  Other years we have done a few rides a night...but them sometimes run out of time for other things (and have some arguments about which rides to pick each night).  SO....the deal was no more rides. Well....there was this train that was just for little kids...but it was broken down on Friday night.  When I was putting Nash to bed that night I asked him what his favorite ride was....he said the zebra train (even though he never even got to ride it). SO, when we saw that they were trying to get it going on Sunday night...Jason couldn't resist getting Nash one more ride. Those 2 just snuck away to go on this ride...and the other kiddos didn't even notice! Pure joy....

Well, there are my pictures from the rides at the fair. I still have a lot more pictures to go through from the animals and other parts of the fair. Hopefully I will get to those soon....