Going to the Food . . . I mean Fair

Today my Mom, Lily and I went to the Texas State Fair! We had wanted to go yesterday, but it was raining, so we went today. It was the perfect day to go since it was still cool from the rains -- actually it was really cool. In the 60s all day. We weren't quite anticipating it to be that cold, but it sure was nice!!

I had been wanting to take Lily to the fair for a few weeks now and since it is ending on Sunday we figured we'd better go! I was curious to see how she'd react to the cows and pigs since she loves them in her books, but real cows and pigs don't look quite as cute as the cartoony ones in the books! I was really proud of her because she recognized the cows and pigs (we even saw a giraffe!) and waved hi and bye to them. She was a little shy and intimidated because there were tons of kids around on school field trips. I think if there were less kids she would have had a lot more fun!

Besides the cows, pigs, and giraffe, we saw sheep, goats, horses, zebras, donkeys, llamas, ostriches, camels, alpacas, goats, bison, chickens, and even more animals that I can't recall right now! I was pleasantly surprised at all the animals they had!!

But let's be honest here, the real reason we wanted to go to the fair was for the fair food!! The 4 major food groups of Texas are - fried, chicken fried, deep fried and refried. It is true, I heard it on the news! :) I was all excited to try the fried grilled cheese sandwich since that is my favorite food! But all the rage this year was the chicken fried bacon -- it took home the prize for best food of the fair, so of course we had to try that! We also had fried chocolate truffle, fried cookie dough and a fried snickers! All of which we shared since we just wanted to sample it all. I was kinda bummed that we didn't have room for the fried s'mores, fried moon pies, fried peanut butter and jelly, fried lattes or fried apple pies (just to name a few), we were full!

Here are the highlights of the day:

Lily and the cows

Lily and a lamb

Looking at the horses

A giraffe!
Chicken Fried Bacon
Yum
Even Lily ate the bacon and loved it!!

She actually liked it too much and tried to stuff a huge piece in her mouth!
Since it was so much colder than we expected, we had to buy Lily a sweatshirt, but all we could find was a size youth large! She looked so cute in it and will be able to wear it for years and years!
Fried Cookie Dough -- that was the BEST!
Fried Grilled Cheese -- It was actually a little too greasy for me
Big Tex.

Lily and I

Tasting grandma's corn dog. She was very open to new foods today!
I love her in that sweatshirt!

Trying to find her little arms in those big sleeves!
Her sleeve is draggin'
And to finish the day, a fried snickers!

It was a fun morning. Lily was pooped and passed out in the car on the way home. Once we found the car, that is. We looked at the markers in the parking lot when we got there, but even then I noticed that it wasn't very well marked (as compared to Disneyland). So we paid attention, knowing we may have trouble finding the car. And even after all that we spent 20 minutes walking the lot desperately searching for my car! I swear there for a minute I thought it had been stolen! Right when I was about to give up and call anyone for help, there it was right in front of us!