A day at the fair.

Yesterday Robert and I took the girls to the State Fair of Texas (Hockey Boy had a choir commitment). The weather was gorgeous, and it was the last weekend for the Fair this year.

The traffic and crowds were predictably hectic, but we finally found a parking place some distance from the gate. Three trams were lined up to shuttle people to the entrance. As we approached them we realized the first two were full and were pulling away. The third was completely empty. I commented to Robert that perhaps we should just begin walking because we were likely going to have to wait some time for that one to fill up and leave. But the people working the tram motioned to us to board. They were exceptionally nice and helped us load Vivian in her stroller into the handicapped section. The parking lot attendant gave Vivian a free ticket to the fair, and then the tram left with the four of us as its only passengers and drove us to the gate.





We headed for the livestock area and saw some sheep and pigs. Robert picked up a fluff of sheep's wool off the floor and handed to Vivian. She fussed at him and told him to give it back to the sheep! Vivian kept asking where the baby animals were. When we came into the cattle barn, we saw several calves and stopped to show them to her. The rancher who owned them could not have been nicer. He untied one and brought it over to Vivian. She must have said to the rancher a hundred times, "May I pet her?" and "The baby cow likes me!" but he patiently responded to her each time.


The calf's name was Delight. She is a longhorn so one day her horns may be over 6' long! Isn't she a beautiful color?

We stopped for the requisite State Fair lunch of corny dogs. Vivian devoured hers! At one point I looked over and realized she was consuming her corny dog so eagerly that she was eating the paper.



We ventured over to the Midway. Dots wanted to play the games and win a stuffed animal. Robert bought her an arcade card that had 28 credits. She played a squirt gun game four times that cost six credits each time, but she won nothing.


Notice Vivian eating an ice cream cone. She thoroughly enjoyed it but was not happy about the mess it left on her shirt. We tried to turn her shirt around so the chocolate stains were on the back, but she wasn't falling for that trick. I ended up conceding to letting her wear just her undershirt (mainly because she pulled off her pink shirt every time we tried to put it back on her). Oh, the things I swore I would never do...

We left the squirt gun game and set out to find something Dots could play with only four credits. She stopped at a fishing game but lamented to Robert that it also required six credits. The man working that game kindly came over and told her she could play for the four credits remaining on her card.



She pulled out a fish and turned it over. The bottom of the fish indicated she could choose a small prize. The man whispered to her, "Let's put that one back and try again." The next one she caught gave Dots her choice of any prize! She excitedly chose a large orange Teddy Bear. We thanked the man profusely. As we walked away, Robert commented to Dots and me that he thought the man had been so nice because we were with Vivian.



We stopped to have our picture taken next to Big Tex. Big Tex is 52 feet tall and has looked over the State Fair of Texas since 1952. His cowboy boots are a size 70!



Next we decided to ride the Sky Buckets over the park. Vivian insisted on getting out of her stroller for this, and she was fascinated by the ride. The views of Fair Park, the Cotton Bowl and downtown Dallas were spectacular.







We stayed at the State Fair much longer than we had planned. As we left the park, Robert and I expressed to each other what a wonderful experience our afternoon had been. I had been apprehensive about how Vivian would react to the crowds and noise, but she behaved so well and really seemed to enjoy being there. We were especially moved by how generous and warm people were to Vivian. She's not really able to appreciate it, but we certainly did.