A Day at the State Fair

Monday was incredibly... um... out of the ordinary for us.  We took a day trip with Kenyon (leaving John at home with a grandma) and went to the Kansas State Fair.  The day was filled with firsts for Kenyon and it was a blast watching him experience so many new and unusual things.  

You've never seen real pain until you watch a conductor tell a three year old that the train is full and he must wait an excruciating 8 MINUTES for it to come back.  Might as well have been 8 years.  It was an aging experience for us all.

Once he got on the train he waved to everyone like an experienced pageant winner on a parade float.
I realize that is not what his dad wants to hear, but it fits the bill pretty well. 

 

Behold: a tacone.  My uncle used to own this food stand and I couldn't leave without eating one of these again.  Not quite as good as I remembered, but still worth the 5,000 calories.  

If you leave the Kansas State Fair without learning something about agriculture, you were blatantly avoiding 4,000 fun learning opportunities.  Everywhere you turn there are hands on experiences, demonstrations and other fun things ag-related to see.  Which is exactly why we drove two hours to the fair - to see the exact same things that we have in our yard already.  Sigh....

'Driving' a combine with his dad.  

Ice cream.  We were in desperate need of a sugar-induced high to keep up going the rest of the afternoon.

We had to play on all the fancy machines that were on display.

Another must-see at the fair: pig races.  You cannot leave until you see pigs wearing silks and running like greyhounds.  Kenyon had a blast watching but was sorely disappointed there were no betting windows at these races. 

You may have to click on the photo to enlarge, but there is a racing pig at the feet of the funny man that is chasing him.  I think Kenyon wanted that job most of all.

Behold: The world's tallest slipper slide.  (I just made that up.)  This thing was enormous and Kenyon decided he wanted to ride it.  His dad was brave enough to go with him.

Kenyon told the slipper slide attendant thank you for the nice ride and he gave Kenyon tickets to ride again for free.  We conveniently never made it back to this again.  Wes was not thrilled at the prospect of riding again.

He spied a much smaller, kiddie sized slide.
He studied it for several minutes.
(Please excuse the photog's fingers in the picture.  He's not used to a camera phone.)

We discussed him riding all by himself, but decided his mom could sit next to him for moral support...

It was traumatic for all involved.  It was much faster than we anticipated. 

Kenyon's face is priceless.

And a camel ride to end the day.