I can hear Big Tex callin'...

Today was fair day for Zack and Vanesa, so James and I took off work, and the whole family went to the fair together...minus dad:(  He couldn't come with us because he's still having trouble walking around since his accident.  We sure did miss him!

Hunter and Charlotte couldn't wait to get to the fair!  Hunter has been asking us to go almost everyday since early September.

We piled up into 2 separate cars and headed out to the fair grounds...cousin Zack rode with us.  The kids decided to watch Cars on the way out there, so Char is a little distracted in our car shot...

Right when we went through the gates, we decided to look at the horses and then came upon a dog show...

Charlotte had a hard time staying still for this, but luckily she has Aunt Katie who spoils her rotten...well, luckily for her I guess!

James and Nana went to get some coupons for lunch and the rest of us looked at the baby pigs, kittens, puppies, rabbits, and chicks...

After lunch we headed to the exhibit hall to let our food digest a little.  Charlotte loved putting her hand in the spas... 

Finally it was time for rides, and Charlotte was giddy.  She actually started saying "I so excited! I so excited!  Teacups!" when we pulled up to the fair. 

(I must have smudged my camera lens sometime after lunch because the rest of the pictures are really streaky or cloudy.)

Hunter was talking a big game on the way to the rides, saying he was going to ride EVERYTHING, but he took a little while to warm up to the process.  I love that I feel like I've finally gotten to the point in my parenting that I can know and appreciate the person he is and adjust accordingly.  He sat quitely for at least 30 minutes, watching Charlotte ride before deciding he'd take a turn. 

Charlotte's first ride was the flying elephants.  She LOVED this and was very upset when we didn't get right back in line after it was over. 

It was really sunny today:)

Charlotte loves the swings anytime we go to the playground, so I couldn't wait to take her to these swings.  She got upset, though, when I left her alone in there and kept this face on the entire ride...

 It was so sad, but I was so proud of her for walking out to us all on her own...

Next we went to this bubble/sea ride...

 ...and let me tell y'all, I felt my age on that one.  You'd never know it by looking, but it was extremely rough.  My body was hurting after it was over.

Char was begging to go back to the "eh-fants" again, so this time James rode with her...

Since Char kept asking for the teacups, I took her on the spinning bears (the fair's version of the teacups)...

That boy that rode with us was so talkative and sweet, but boy did he spin us fast!  This one was also a good reminder of my age:(

We found the animal train from two years ago, so Hunter decided it was time to take his turn...

And that's all it took.  After that, every ride we went to was for him.  The very next ride was the race cars that he rode all by himself...

He was pretty serious about his driving.

Then James took him on the monster trucks...

And the bumper cars...

After the bumper cars, Zack and Vanesa rejoined us, so all of the cousins took a turn in the spinning bears...

We were sunburned and exhausted by this point, so we went inside the car shows to cool off and relax...

Hunter wanted to go to the petting zoo, but we stopped to get some drinks and snacks to use up the rest of our coupons, and this is how my kids looked...

So we decided to head home.  We had a great day!  Can't wait for Six Flags in December!