Big Fun at the State Fair

What a fun (and exhausting!) day we’ve had today! This morning was cool and breezy, so we packed a diaper bag full of snacks, loaded the boys into the car and headed down to spend the day at the California State Fair. This year the theme is “Hollywood,” and there are a bunch of different flats and backdrops that you can play in/around and take your picture with. (This is the part where I should both warn you and apologize for the fact that this is going to be a very long and image-heavy blog today!). Mitch had gotten the boys dressed this morning, and although I initially groaned when I saw they were both wearing extremely similar orange shirts, it ended up being SUCH a great thing, and I could instantly find both of them whenever they started to wander. It did prompt one especially lame vendor to yell out at me that he’d give us a discount for having twins…um, we don’t, thanks.



The "Twins" (and their big feet!)


I just love this picture


We started out in the kids’ carnival area, and Sawyer kept telling me that he wanted to ride almost every little kiddy ride, but we decided to skip it for the time being, and headed instead to the free petting zoo area. The petting zoo was SO cool (and stinky, naturally). There were all kinds of animals – the usual goats, sheep, and chickens, but there were also deer, llamas and even little miniature kangaroos! Sawyer happily pet a baby goat, but once he saw one of the deer trying to eat the whole back off of Mitch’s shirt, he got a little nervous and wasn’t all that into the animals anymore. We did wander through the livestock barns though, and Sutton was pretty impressed with the baby pigs.




Eyeing the deer that just ate his Daddy's shirt



How the boys spent the rest of their time in the petting zoo



Sawyer digging in a giant play bin of corn


Sutton peeking over at some exotic fuzzy chickens


Making animal tracks in the sand with Mommy


This is the "ride" he wanted to go on the most!

Since Sutton hadn’t had a morning nap before we left, we wanted to hit up all the cool kids stuff first in case he pooped out and turned into Mr. Cranky Pants, so we headed over to “The Farm.” We wandered around and collected stamps in our farm passports (which we then turned in to the rewards center for a nice healthy snack of carrots, an apple and an orange). Sawyer spun the Kaiser prize wheel and won himself a squeezy orange stress toy (which Sutton promptly tried to eat). We stopped at a bunch of the little displays at the back of the fair, checked out at all kinds of bugs, saw some waterfalls and a snake in homage to Indiana Jones, and posed by some of the cheesy Hollywood backdrops. Sawyer attempted to do the Smokey the Bear fire safety school, but he lost his patience and didn’t really care about how or why a fireman might use an axe. Luckily for him, they gave him his Smokey the Bear bandana prize anyway. Really, I think all he wanted to do was ride the fire engine anyway.


Checking out a python...he was almost as freaked out as I was



Sitting near the waterfalls waiting for the other boys


The old fashioned fire engine was a big hit


Signs said "Keep Off," but Mr. Fireman said it was okay :)


Peeking out of Spongebob's Pineapple House



Sutton about to get eaten by a triceratops in Jurrasic Park


We didn’t go through any of the exhibit buildings, with the exception of the “Bats, Rats, & Cats” (fur and feathers) room. They liked to look at all of the fuzzy animals, but Sutton got the most enjoyment out of trying to take a piece of food from the feeding dish of practically every rabbit cage in the room. Sawyer quickly discovered that he could open all of the rabbit cages, and he thought that was the most hysterical thing ever. Yikes! I had to gently remind him in front of a dozen people that just because we CAN do something, it doesn’t mean that we’re ALLOWED to. I could just picture the giant liberation spree as he would run around the room freeing all of the caged animals. Luckily he was distracted by the kittens, so I didn’t have to worry about the rabbits for too long. All-in-all we managed to keep the kids happy with snacks and ice cream long enough for us to get a pretty full day in before the kids were completely wasted, and we wrapped it up and headed home for naptime.


Sutton having a staring contest with the White Rabbit


The boys checking out some brand new baby quail


Sawyer living out his dream of "I ride a motorcycle when I get big" at the police booth, lights flashing and all. He also got fingerprinted for free, which was nice, but Sutton didn't have the patience.