Tuesday, September 24th

Tuesday arrived and although the weather had looked iffy, it was a lovely day - perfect fall weather, actually... cloudy but still bright out, and it even felt a bit cool.  The decision was finalized that we would head to the fair in the afternoon!  Of course the kids were barely able to concentrate on school, so we did only the bare necessities (math, reading, a bit of presentation prep for Passport Club) and a quick rest time - no chance of them sleeping, ha! - and then Grammie, me and the three big kids headed out for an evening of fair fun :-)  

I was planning to take Waverly with us to the fair, had the diaper bag all packed and everything... but when Nana suggested I just leave her home, I decided to take her up on that offer.  It was less of any amount of hassle in taking her (she's super easy), and more of how over stimulated she would be by the pulsing lights and music :-p  Side Note: I think her time in this bouncer is quickly coming to an end.  Please note how her feet dangle off the end by a not-insignifcant-amount! lol

Just like last year, we arrived about 15 minutes early and stood in line so that we could be some of the first into the fair when they opened at 4:00 p.m.

So excited to head in... not so excited to get their picture taken :-p  Victoria always insists on putting Linc in a full on headlock during pictures.  Sometimes he goes along with it and other times a certain amout of punching ensues...hehe.  Anyway, this was such a good pic of Gram I am still posting it :-)  Not too many great grandmas could or would be happy and eager to take their grandkids out for an evening at the fair!

The North Georgia State Fair is actually one of the nicest fairs I've ever been to.  This year they even had a sky lift installed, and it was the first thing we hopped on once we got through the gates.  The ride was long though - probably 10 minutes - and surprisingly chilly up that high!  Gram rode with Scarlett and Lincoln.

Me and Victoria!  Because I think flip-flops are all-season, all-occasion footwear, I was really gripping mine tightly with my toes and saying a prayer that they didn't fall off along the mid-way as our legs dangled out of the bottom of the lift :-p

I think we set a new record by making it a whole 25 minutes before we needed to buy fair food! haha  Corn Dogs, Round 1~

It was great - we were there early and had no lines for anything.  Grammie had splurged and so kindly purchased unlimited ride passes for the kids, so they got on and off as many times as they wanted!

At first they all rode everything together, but then Lincoln decided he'd ride some by himself.

They loved this kid-sized roller coaster - huge smiles from the girls and an epic "aahhh!" expression on Lincoln!

Linc was super, super bummed that he wasn't quite tall enough for the swings - they went really high though, and he's such a skinny dude I could see him taking flight and shooting out!  Grammie distracted him though, and they went to ride a couple of other things while I sat and the girls went on them three or four times.  I think this was definitely one of their favorites.

And then, a wonderful surprise - Jim showed up to the fair!  He'd been in meetings all day and the kids were SO thrilled to see daddy :-)

And Jim being Jim, he just casually walked onto every ride with the kids, no tickets needed ;-p  I assume that because the kids all had the unlimited-ride stamps, the fair workers just sort of assumed he did as well, and Jim is nothing if not confident and nonchalant, so they never asked as he breezed past them, haha.

By this point, I was starved and the kids were hungry again too, so we stopped for Corn Dogs, Round 2 as well as two huge smoked turkey legs for Jim and me.  The kids polished off their corn dogs and a little candy treat I'd packed for them and then proceeded to attack the turkey legs like ravenous wolves. 

They were so delicious!  I think I am going to look into ordering some (there are a few places online) for Thanksgiving instead of doing an entire turkey - we're none of us huge fans of turkey and these things were amazing.

After loads of rides and fun, the final two events of the night were the Wildcat - a permanent coaster that sits at the fairgrounds and we pass by almost every day - and only Scarlett was tall enough to ride it.  She'd was SO geeked to ride it but the line at this point was long and by the time she got up to go she was pretty terrified! haha  But she braved it out and went with Jim despite her fears and L-O-V-E-D it so much!!  Victoria was really disappointed that she wasn't tall enough to ride (only a couple inches short of the 48' requirement) but her and Lincoln, Grammie and I went to the farm animal area and fed some sheep and petted some bunnies. 

 When Jim and Scarlett were finished up they joined us to check out the actual petting farm barn where the kids had a blast feeding the animals!

By this point it was getting fairly late, so we decided we'd gather the troops and head home... however, Jim asked if he and Scarlett could stay for one last ride on the Wildcat.  So Lincoln, Victoria, Grammie and I rode the lift back to the front of the park and headed home, while Scarlett had a special extra half hour with daddy on the "big" roller coaster and sky lift ride over the fair :-)