County Fair

Ever since Brooks saw some carnival rides in a parking lot downtown earlier this summer, he has been talking about riding some carnival rides.  He was so disappointed when we I said we couldn't go to that downtown carnival this time because it would be too expensive.  I told him to save his money so he could buy some tickets to ride the rides when the county fair came to town later in the summer.  He would help me pick up toys to 'earn' money for rides.  So a week before the fair came to town, I bought some tickets at half price and told Brooks that fair time was almost here and he would get to ride some rides soon! We ended up going Friday night and he was super excited to go.  We walked around and looked at animals first. 
Both Brooks and Keely enjoyed the petting zoo.

 Brooks' and Keely's babysitter, Paige, was helping out with the animals, so I think that helped Brooks be a little braver in touching the animals.  Otherwise, I don't think he would have touched any of them!

 Keely liked the dog that looked like Cheyenne!

 Brooks got really excited when he saw the carnival games.  We let him play a few, and of course he chose the basketball one first!

 He made his first shot and we were thinking, great! he might actually win something decent! But then he missed most of the other ones.  I think he ended up making two or three.

 He got to pick out a prize, and of course he picked dice so he could roll them at home.

 Brooks chose skeeball next.  This one was a little harder for him.

 Blake helped him roll in the first game.

 Then Blake tried a few on his own and I tried some too.  We weren't doing too great! Thankfully Blake did good enough in the last game and Brooks was able to get a small prize.  He got a green snake that is shown in another picture, and Brooks has named him Cucumber.  He actually plays with him quite a bit and uses him as a fishing pole :)

 The last game he picked was the floating duck game where you just pick a duck and look on the bottom to see what prize you have won. 

 He won a ball at the ducks, and you can see the green snake around his neck.  He was having a blast!

 Brooks could have stayed playing games all night, but after spending $12 on just 3 games, that was our limit! We decided to have him pick out a ride to ride and use the tickets I had already spent money on.  He was not as excited about the rides when he saw them close up and we had to coax him pretty hard to pick one to try.  He finally chose the car ride where it just goes around in circles in a car.  Blake got him to pick a car and climb in and Blake even walked away and Brooks was still fine.  You can see him in the car right under the lightening mcqueen sign looking at Blake.

 Before the ride started, some kids in the car behind him started honking their horn.  I think this may have scared Brooks because he just lost it! He was crying and trying to get out, so Blake went in and got him out before it started.  We were disappointed he didn't stick it out and try the ride because he was so excited to ride them.  I think just having to ride by himself and the loud noises must have been just too much for him.  Oh well, maybe when Keely is old enough to ride with him, it will be better!

 After giving away the rest of our tickets to Paige since we obviously couldn't use them with a screaming terrified kid, I bought some cotton candy and we headed home.  Brooks got to try the cotton candy at home and sort of liked it.  I think he liked the idea of it more than the actual eating of it!

So overall it wasn't a terrible fair experience, we just had no success with riding any rides! The games were much more in line with what Brooks enjoys doing!