county fair

On Saturday we decided to take Malakai to the county fair. He's not big enough for the rides, and there's no way I'm feeding him the over priced deep-fried food {they had deep-fried coffee, what does that even mean?!}, but I knew he'd love seeing all the people + colorful displays, the spinning rides, + especially the animals.

Right away he had a look of awe on his face as we passed through the games + rides to get to the livestock area. I love watching him see things for the first time. It adds something new to what was once old, familiar, or even annoying.

As soon as we walked in we saw the baby pigs. A lady was holding one up for kids to pet. Malakai was so focused on petting that little piglet, he did such a great job being gentle {with mama's help}.

We walked through to check out some of the goats + sheep. The entire time Malakai kept saying, "Hi, Doggie!" to all of the animals. He ignored us when we tried to tell him their real names.

We were careful to hold Kai's arm so that he didn't pull and hurt the animals, and so that we could pull his hand back if any of them tried to bite. They were all really friendly, none of them even nipped at his little fingers.

We noticed that in the next room there were cages full of birds {which we avoided, cause...ew.} and bunnies!

Kai obviously couldn't touch any of the rabbits, but he wanted to very badly. When Ben made an observation that the bunnies were all for sale, he had to pull me away and talk me out of buying one.

Then I was on the lookout for the teensie pygmy goats that Ben and I had seen the last time we went to the fair, 2 years ago. On the way we saw big goats and more sheep.

{look at these fluffy, curly-haired sheeeeep!}

I was disappointed that there were no lambs. What's cuter than baby sheep? Besides baby people... nothing! But the pygmy goats were pretty adorable.

When Malakai started petting this goat, he was gentle at first as you can see. We were assured that she wouldn't bite. Then Malakai started pulling on her hair! When we stopped him the owner said "you can't hurt a goat...well unless you poke it in the eye" and what did Malakai do next? Yep, poked the little goat in the eye! Still, she didn't even seem to mind. 

After washing hands for the 4th time we headed out to see the piglets one last time since we didn't get a photo. We didn't get to pet them again though, it was lunch time.

We decided to go find something for lunch too, but goodness fair prices are high! I brought Kai's food, so Ben + I just snacked on some fries to hold us over til we got home. 

We popped into a photo booth. My best friend + I used to get photo booth pictures every time we went to the fair in High School. When Ben + I went in 2008 I insisted that we do the same. 

I think it's funny that we kissed for the 3rd one and made silly faces for the last one both times. Does that make us predictable?

After that we headed to the larger livestock. This sweet little girl let us feed her miniature horse, Smokey, some leaves. I couldn't decide who was cuter, the horse or the owner!

Then we took a peek at the cows for a quick minute. I wish I knew what Malakai was thinking as he took all of this in. Well, other than "doggie, doggie, doggie!".

We went through the rides so Malakai could see all the sites. He was quite as he looked around, just watching as we went by all the spinning, laughing, whirring, + screaming.

Ben wanted to check out the indoor exhibits. He told me that he doesn't like fair rides and preferred to look at the exhibits even when he was younger. I called him a nerd, he agreed. Malakai enjoyed walking freely around the different booths for a while.

We walked through all the sites + sounds once more and then headed home. It was way less stressful than I anticipated. It helped that we got there about 20 minutes after the gates open, there was hardly anyone around. I'm looking forward to next year when he may be old/tall enough to ride some of the little kiddo rides. Never thought I'd look forward to the county fair...