It is that time of year again -- time for the State Fair of Texas! Chip has been waiting a year to go back and have some more chicken fried bacon and I have been patiently waiting for the fried butter (I know, it sounds so wrong, but it is really good!). Oh and of course, there are the animals, rides and other fun stuff there too. With Chip's work schedule and Lily's busy schedule it is impossible to find one free day to hang out as a family. And since Lily just missed a week and a half of school being sick, I hated to have her miss anymore. So Lily went to school today and we picked her up at the normal time of 11am and headed straight to Dallas for the fair. I was a little concerned that she would be too tired -- especially since we had Ashley's birthday party yesterday during nap time, but hoped all the fun would keep her going.
At the fair! It was the perfect day. Fall temps finally hit North Texas and it was a beautiful 75 degree day. In fact it was chilly and in the 50s and 60s in the morning. Such a nice change after summer.
But it was still too sunny for Lily. She insisted on keeping her shade down.
For some unknown reason, Lily was terrified of the cows. So I posed to take a picture, hoping that would get her going, but it didn't work. There was a lot of loud mooing in there, but I don't get why it was so scary.
At the Little Hands Farm. We did this last year and it is SO cute. She gets to farm fruit, veggies and animals and then gets paid at the end with money that she can use to buy a treat! She picked trail mix since there were M&Ms inside. She loves M&Ms.
She watered the tree and picked her peach.
Fed the chickens and got an egg.
Planted seeds . . .
. . . . and watered them.
Chip and I in the farm -- photo by Lily.
As fun as all this was -- and right up Lily's alley, with all the pretending. She was a fussy pants. But we just kept going, hoping she would snap out of it. Of course as soon she got her trail mix, that cheered her up for pretty much the rest of the day.
Tending to the cows on her tractor.After all the farming, we were starting to get hungry. So we made our first stop for . . .
Chicken Fried Bacon
and fried okra. Yum!
Being cute and silly.
Next we went into the children's animal area, which is always awesome and always so crowded. But not only did we pick the best day to go, weather wise, we also picked the best day to go since there were no crowds!! No lines, no elementary school field trips, no buses full of senior citizens -- it was perfect!!!!
Feeding the goats.
Feeding the camel.
Lily and the baby camel. She loved all the baby animals.
Llama
Donkeys
Mommy pig and all her piglets. Lily was totally taken with all the baby piggies.There were so many other animals in there that I didn't get photos of -- baby bison, alpacas, emus, ostriches, kangaroos, swans, chickens, rams, sheep . . . . and more that I am forgetting. But it was time to go find more yummy food.
Yep, you read that right. Fried Margaritas! How awesome is this fair?
Chip and I split it -- it was strong and tasted very much like a margarita. I didn't hate it and I didn't love it either. They also had fried beer at the fair which I totally curious to try. Unfortunately by the time we found the booth we were full and tired and heard that it just tasted like warm beer, so we passed. Maybe next year.
This year's first prize winning food -- the fried Frito pie. It was DELICIOUS. I have no idea what a Frito pie is, but it contained Fritos, obviously, and chili. Which normally isn't my most favorite food. But fried up like this, it was great!
My personal favorites the butter and the cookie dough.
Cookie dough on the left and butter on the right. It is not really a fried stick of butter, like some people think. It is an inside out biscuit. There is way more dough than butter and it is delicious! The cookie dough was super yummy, as always. But it is SO rich. After I eat it, I am usually done for the day (That happened the last two years too), so if I remember next time, I am going to skip the dough and try a deep fried moon pie, or smore or pop tart instead! :)......
There are a few museums in Fair Park, but we always say we'll just come back another day to go to the Natural History Museum, Children's Museum, etc. since it is probably too much to do all at once. But when Chip saw (or actually, I pointed out since I am a good wife) the sign for the free Tom Landry exhibit, of course we HAD to go in.
Chip and the "game day clothes".
Superbowl trophies and rings.
The fedora.
Me, Lily and Big Tex
Chip, Lily and Big Tex
Big Tex's original head. Not really sure why it is in a tiny car?
Random art that I made 100 times better with my reflection. :)
The iconic ferris wheel. I REALLY wanted to go on this year. Last year the line was way too long, but it wasn't this year. But Chip and Lily weren't into it. So hopefully, someone will go with me next year!!!Finally we hit the part of the fair that Lily had been waiting for all day -- the rides! She was a little overwhelmed and undecided at first, but choose the Dora the Explorer swings to ride.
She LOVED them.
Next we rode the hot air balloon ride, that was a favorite last year.
You can kind of see the total look of fear on her face in this photo. As the balloons went down, our car would turn and Lily ended up going backwards as we were going down, and she was TERRIFIED. The guy saw and had to stop the ride to make sure we were okay. But Lily was SO freaked out that we had to get off. I didn't realize until she told me later what exactly had her so scared. Poor little thing.
Since we didn't ride all of the balloon ride, they gave us free admission into the fun house nearby. Woo.hoo. 
Lily had the best time at the fun house mirrors!!
You exited the fun house by taking a twisty slide down. I went first. I swear they waxed that thing up good. I flew down. Purse above my head, trailing behind me. Jetted off the slide, past the rubber platform at the bottom and landed on the asphalt in the middle of the fair with my skirt up over my head. I can only imagine how hilarious it was to the rest of the fair goers. Lily and Chip just saw my limbs flaing from above and opted to take the stairs down. That was a very smart move on thier part.
Time for some vegetables.
Finally Lily got in on the fair food and ate something besides goldfish crackers! Ice Cream (actually TCBY, but it was ice cream to her). She spotted it and made us stop.
Sprinkles!!Lily was exhausted at this point and asking to go home. So we started to head out, but then she changed her mind and wanted to ride the Dora swings one last time. I was glad she did since after the balloon ride she just wanted to leave the ride area all togteher and not try anything else. So at least she went back to swing again.
All pooped out after a long and fun day! 