The Great State Fair of Texas!

One of the best things about October is the State Fair of Texas! I used to go when I was a kid and have some fond memories of riding rides until I almost puked.  :)   I have a greater appreciation of all things Fair now knowing how much everything costs!  GEEZ!  The rides are crazy expensive. The food is crazy expensive. It is even crazy expensive to get in the gates!  They get you by charging "coupons" for everything so it's not like spending real money.  You really have no idea how much you've spent until you get home and look in your wallet and try to remember just how much cash you took with you in the first place.  The girls had a blast, as we knew they would. Megan was tall enough for any little kid ride she wanted to go on and there were a good number of rides that Em just squeaked by over the height limit. 

I wish I had a picture of these cars. They all say "Budweiser" on the back of them, in true NASCAR fashion. It's a kids ride ... sponsored by Beer.

Love it.

Sure they rode every ride they wanted.  They also got to play some games to win some crappy prizes. Here they are fishing for frogs. The games were even more expensive than the rides, which is just crazy. We paid $5 to play one game. But we played. They get you there too by charging credits on a game card like Dave and Busters.  You have no real idea how much you're spending unless you stop to think about it. It's kind of like currency conversion.  You never have more than a rough estimate in your head as you are forking over your money.

A friend has a picture of her daughter in front of this one every year they've gone to the Fair and I thought that was a neat idea. This is the sign at the Carousel. It is an old fashioned carousel and the horses don't even have seat belts!  *gasp*

Finally something FREE!  Well, admission to the petting zoo was free but you had to buy the food for the animals. The girls LOVED feeding and petting the animals. Bubby didn't go into the zoo with us.  It was nice to not have to worry about having him in there.  Grammy and Grandma were with us so they kept him outside while we took the girls in.

See! Bubby was there!

After rides and games and lunch and animals we were back for more rides before we left. The girls weren't big enough to ride this one unaccompanied so James hopped in with them.  I think he had fun!

Another of the fantastic things about the fair is the food! They have deep fried everything and I haven't had the chance to sample much of it because I was pregnant (and diabetic) last year.  I was skeptical of a few of the old favorites but let me tell you, fried oreos are THE BOMB!  I really thought they sounded gross but it basically tasted like a chocolate funnel cake.  Seriously.  I am already looking forward to next year so I can have them again!  We also tried the fried cheesecake, which was just gross.  Chicken fried bacon was good but I will spend my coupons on something else next time.  What will they come up with next year?  This year was fried bubblegum, which we stayed away from. Bubblegum flavored marshmallows, fried?  Yuck!  Then again, I thought that about the Oreos, didn't I?