Ohio State Fair Fun

One item that's always on my to-do list for summer is to make a visit to the Ohio State Fair.  Sadly, this did not happen last year (see - our baby was only two months old)...but this year -- different story! Macho Max is at a pretty good age for the fair.  By good age, I mean he's agreeable to most things (i.e. sitting in the stroller, animal viewing, fair food etc.). The fair is only in town for about ten days so the window of when you can go is pretty slim - but we managed to squeeze out some fair fun this past Tuesday.  Mama took the day off work, Grandmim and Grandpa were here and we all piled in for some fun! (While we were all sad Papa Rob could not go - we did text him some pictures of our fun all morning).   This turned out to be the PERFECT day at the fair...the weather was absolutely incredible and we got there so early it wasn't crowded.
Anyway - let's get to the fun!

 

 

Upon entering the fair, we were pleasantly surprised to see the Clydesdale horses!  Max was mesmerized by their size, long tails, and big feet (or was that me?).  He was mostly watching as one of them got groomed. Outside of their stalls, John Deere had lots of tractors and combines out for the kids to look at and you could even climb into one of them.

(did you know that the combine is what goes through the fields picking the corn?  me neither.)

 

The thing I was most looking forward to was seeing all the animals!

We are full time practicing animal sounds and recognition over at the Hauck's nest.

Max is pretty good at most farm animals (i.e. goat, sheep, cow, chicken) - and when we

rolled up the sheep barn, he was "baa baa-ing" with the rest of the sheep. 

It was so funny!  And the barn was so loud.  Those sheep are a crazy bunch!
And their eyes freak me out! And why do they have to wear those weird coats?

 

 

 

Next up....the cows!
I live for the cows!  And the babies!  Gah! 
This one was named "Gingham" and there was another one named "Swiss Miss"
Gingham the cow was super interested in licking everything.
Max was not interested in being licked.at.all. No thank you.
But, he did get super close to them and managed to pet a few of the bigger ones on their heads.

 

 

(my ZooKid teacher friends will appreciate the one finger touch that is happening here)

#geniousbaby

 

After all the wild and crazy fun with the animals...we headed over to my second favorite fair activity - the giant yellow slide! Now - here's where I make a dicey parenting decision.  The slide is technically for kids 2 and over.  Well....let's just say we didn't tell anyone that Max wasn't two and no one stopped us...so he rode down the slide on my lap.  Like a total champ.

At one point my butt was totally airborne and I screamed "oh my god" - but other than that it was totally fine. :)

 

 

We ate some lunch (egg salad sandwich, corn nuggets, and mac and cheese for the win)!

Then, of course we had to stop in the Agriculture/Horticulture building. 

This is my favorite building - they have flowers, vegetables, home brewed beer, hay bale mazes, Christmas trees and LIVE BABY CHICKS!!  We saw all of those things and Max even took a simulated tractor ride with Grandpa Tim. But, I think I've saved the best pics for last here because check out Mr. Max's mug in all of these fun farm cut outs.

He's a professional at mugging for the camera for sure.

 

 

(He wasn't quite big enough to pedal the actual tractor but he sure liked sitting on it)

 

(Future Farmers of America?! Does growing zucchini qualify us for this?! haha!)

 

 

We skipped his morning nap to make sure we got to enjoy all of our fair favorites...and

it's safe to say he was tired out.  Fell asleep in the stroller at about 12:40...and slept all the way home in the car).  However, did not want to sleep in his crib when we got home! What a stinker!

Can't wait until next year!

xo