The Fair, Revisited

Hey y'all -

The last time we went to the Western Montana Fair, Laney looked like this:

...and I vowed I would never come back. It's funny how you can put painful experiences behind you just long enough to repeat them. If that weren't true, the world would be populated by nothing but only children.

So last Friday, we loaded up and went to the Fair. And you know what? It was a hoot.

I did bear duty, because spinning makes your dad sick.

No, we didn't ride this.

Laney wanted to ride everything. These days, she's just a hair shy of the 36" height requirement for most of the kid rides, so she suddenly developed the world's most upright posture and stre-e-e-etched her way up to the clown's finger at the entrance to every ride. 

Here's an important bit of parenting advice I'd like to impart: If you enter a venue and they make you exchange real American cash for some other form of currency (tickets, tokens, Disney Dollars), just know that you're about to get screwed. It's an interesting bit of psychology that you find yourself saying, "Well, that ride's just 3 tickets" vs. "Holy crap that ride cost 3 dollars!"

Laney and Thor waited in line to ride the Ferris wheel (only 4 tickets a piece!) and I decided I would get Hagen a treat for being so patient, even though he couldn't ride a single thing on the midway. I got him a corn dog and a frozen chocolate-covered banana. He held one stick in each hand and went back and forth between the treats in what was I thought the grossest display of snacking I'd ever seen, until your dad got off the ride and suggested you add ketchup to the mix. Blech. 

Funny how you can have a completely different experience of the same exact place if you're able to see it through the eyes of your child. Turns out the Fair isn't a dirty, hot, densely-packed disaster of an event that reeks of llamas. It's a wonderland of twinkling lights and spinning rides and dessert bananas dipped in ketchup. 

Love,

Mom