Fun at the fair

Before our big move to the United Kingdom, I figured we needed to get a big dose of Americana and nothing says America better than a local county fair!  So a couple weeks ago, Olivia and I headed to the nearby fairgrounds to check it out.

First stop was the animal petting area.  Much to my surprise, Olivia was scared of the animals and wanted to be held.  Usually she doesn't have any fear when it comes to animals.  However, I can't really blame her for not wanting to be near them as there were a lot of animals is a relatively small space and they were all very aggressive for food.  One llama clamped onto the back of my shirt with is teeth and wouldn't let go.  I drugged him around for about a minute until he finally released.  Fortunately, he didn't tear my shirt, but he did leave a nasty mess on the back.

Olivia was much more comfortable with the animals and actually wanted to touch them when they were safely in a pen.  We also wandered around looking at the other animals that were being shown for competition.  I'm worried I am somehow raising a little high maintenance diva.  We didn't wander around for too long because the floors of the barns were naturally covered in dirt and Olivia didn't like walking in it because it was getting her shoes dirty.  Oh boy...I'm not sure what we are getting ourselves into with this one!

Next up was the carnival.  Olivia was very fascinated with all the lights and movement of the carnival rides.  She kept pointing at them and yelling "Mama!".  She and I strolled through the carnival area while I tried to find her a tame ride.  We came up to a little train ride which she got excited about.  She loves trains, or choo-choo as she calls them, so it seemed like it would work.  Well, it did not have a happy ending.  Once I got her buckled in, she had to wait a few minutes while other kids got on.  During that time, she started to realize that she wasn't with mommy anymore and wasn't so sure about what she was getting herself into.  Right as the train started to move, she decided she didn't want to ride anymore but by then, it was too late.  She spent the whole ride screaming in terror.

Being the awesome parent that I am, I thought the whole thing was pretty funny and stood there snapping pictures away of my daughter screaming.  I'm sure the other nearby parents weren't impressed.  In order to calm her down afterwards, a corndog was ordered.  Fortunately, this was a hit!