The heart of it all

Yesterday we had some good 'ole Midwestern fun. We went to the county fair.

The fair came complete with plenty of animals AND stinky barns. In which my snobby daughter entered each one holding her nose yelling, "P. U." Nice. FYI, I have NO idea where she gets that from!

My kids were enthralled with the animals. Especially Turner. He is my animal lover! Expect when he walked around and growled at the bunnies. Then he laughed a snarky little laugh and would walk away. * No bunnies were actually harmed in the making of this blog.

Then we hit the fairway. And *back when I was a kid* either my parents were loaded or rides didn't cost what they cost these days. These days you have to sell a kidney to let your kid have any kind of fun at the county fair. We let them ride 2 rides each and we packed our dinner. (Hey, its been one of *those* kind of financial months, what can I say.) But we did have some ice cream for dessert that melted in exactly 7.2 seconds in the 90 degree heat. Yep, money well spent.

While these pictures would make it look like the kids rode speeding cars, I assure you this was one of those annoying kiddie rides that when it ends after 5 laps around you wonder how in good conscience they could charge a dollar twenty five to ride their death trap. But with smiles like these, the ride becomes priceless.

Then we moved on to something that I never would have dreamed I'd be doing. I let my kids go on their first roller coaster ride on a roller coaster that has travelled the country tagging along on the back of some RV. Well, the good Lord was smiling down on us yesterday because all three kids came off in one piece and actually smiling. They all thought they were so grown up. And me? I only had a mild heart attack.

And then to round out our stint as hillbillies at the county fair, we attended the *traveling circus.* It consisted of a short dog act, 2 camels and 2 Shetland ponies whom all danced together and the grand finale... 2 elephants. Before the elephants *preformed* (I was actually ashamed of myself for sitting and watching these majestic animals lay down and play dead... and hey... I'm not animal rights activist) the kids were called down to the fence and were allowed to touch the elephant. For free.

I gotta say. That was cool.

And it was a good thing that our friends brought their covered wagon. Because the brothers were hot. And sweaty. And covered in ice cream.

But you're never too hot. Or too sweaty. Or too ice cream-covered to get your groove on.

Yes, indeed. An Ohio county fair is certainly a rite of passage. Maybe next year we'll let 'em try a deep fried Twinkie.