Alabama National Fair!

Well, Scott and I took both of the kiddos, Evan and Izzy, and my little brother, Micah, to the fair Saturday night. One 12 year old, one 10 year old, and one 7 year old at the crowded fair with 9000 different people who are obviously more engrossed in their polish sausage than finding the start of the line, trying to walk the wrong way on the wrong side... that whole scenario equals a GREAT fair night! We had a great time, although we got separated half way through the night.  We ran into Matt, my older step-brother while we were waiting in line, and Matt, Micah, and I waited in line to enjoy a ride that Evan and Izzy did not want to ride.  While we were waiting in the extremely LOOONG line, next to the 14 year old future hookers and the Black-N-Mild couple who were WAY more engrossed in each other than being at the fair might I add, Scott took Evan and Izzy to ride a few rides around where we were in line.  We were going to ride the huge ride that was ABSOLUTELY amazing, and then we were going to meet back up with them. Or so we thought. 

After we rode the ride and found our feet again, we never saw them again for the rest of the night.  But, Scott knew I was safe with Matt and I knew he had Evan and Izzy having a great time, so we all continued to ride and we met back up at the end. Luckily, there was only about thirty minutes left until closing time.  And just in case you are wondering, I left my phone in the truck, so I could not call. Ironically, I had made this HUGE deal with the kids about the scary fair men and how creepy they can be and how the kids needed to find a police if they got separated from one of us. I even took the time to write each kid a teeny little post-it note with both of our names and phone numbers on it for them to put in their pockets and give to the police to call one of us if they got lost. It was a good thing Scott took his phone in, because my phone stayed right beside the rest of the un-used post-it notes in my purse the whole time.

While we were there, we ate a cheeseburger, corn dog, hot dog, french fries, chicken fingers, a really BIG turkey leg, a polish sausage, three sweet teas, one sprite, on pink lemonade, and two monster bags of cotton candy. We were stuffed! I think everyone kept switching food, because it was all so tasty, and we could not decide what we wanted. In the little farm section, we petted a camel, several goats, cows, a llama, and so many other things.  We saw a chicken that grew his feathers backwards, and for a minute, I laughed to myself as I thought about her laying an egg through his mouth instead of her... egg layer area. There was this one goat that had huge loppy ears, and it would steal your bag of carrots if you got close enough and got distracted. Evan was so fascinated with the baby goats and how cute they were.  Micah really enjoyed seeing the wolves, and I have to admit they were beautiful. Izzy liked petting the camel, and I think Scott just enjoyed everything.  He kept making strange noises to a goat there, and the goat would make the exact same noise right back to him.

One of many highlights of my night was when I GOT TO HOLD A MONKEY! I have always wanted to hold a monkey! I sat in a chair and the little monkey just hopped right up in my lap and put his sweet little hand over mine.  There was a photographer there, and when she flashed a five dollar bill over the camera, he would perk up straight and smile in his own little monkey way.  He knew that his Cheeze-It prize would come next, and then he let me pet him on his head. I think he was probably the cutest little animal I have ever seen... well, maybe besides my JoJo.

At the end of the night, we were fortunate enough for the fair to stay open 45 minutes longer than it was supposed to, enabling us to ride many rides without long lines.  We spent a wonderful night together, and the kids could not stop talking about how much fun they had! I have a lot of pictures, so I will post a few on here.