Taste of the Texas Fair (Fried Stuff)

I realize that the fried food phenomenon is of great interest to all fair goers these days. I'm not all that excited about it because 1) I don't really eat fried foods nor get excited about eating lots of crap or 2) it is not something that existed in my fond memories of the fair so I don't consider it a core part of my fair experience. Now cotton candy....that's a different story.

In any case, Mike wanted to document some of the crazy things we saw advertised as being available in fried form. While I was open to eating a bite of the fried cheesecake my parents got an am very interested in what exactly a fried margarita is, most of these things are not at all tempting in my opinion. Creative, yes. Edible sound, not so much. To each his own I suppose.

Without further ado, here is the Texas State Fair tour of fried stuff.....

Okay. Now this is classic fair food.

I think my stomach thanks me for not being interested in trying these fried dishes. What do you think? Any of it tempting to you?

Texas Day 2 - The Great State Fair of Texas!!

My plan was to write 1 blog entry a day last week. Didn't so much happen. The delay was meant to be as  I also have sad news to add. It is with a heavy heart that I tell you that Big Tex burned down on Friday. If you don't know who he is, you're obviously not a Texan. If you know who he is, then you must have revered him as a child, kept a special place in your heart for him and be as saddened by his loss as I am. My last viewing of him is captured in film below. RIP Big Tex.

Now on to more cheery stuff. This is why we left my favorite time of year in New England....to visit the Great State Fair of Texas! It was a yearly big event for our family and I haven't been back since high school. Every year I've thought about going back to Dallas during this time of year but it just didn't happen for one reason or another. Now, though, it was time to introduce my boys to a true fair experience...and Big Tex.

Our First (and Final) Picture With The Original Big Tex

Considering Dylan wouldn't last all day without a nap, we got to the fair as early as we could to get in as much fun as possible before we pooped the kiddos out. We drove to a DART rail station and rode the train right to the front gate of the fair grounds. It was actually my first time on the trains in Dallas. Kind of weird since public transportation was not something widely embraced when I lived in Dallas and I didn't get used to using it regularly until moving to Boston.

Upon entry to the fair grounds, we saw Borden Milk's Elsie
getting filmed for a news cast. She was beautiful!

First up, we headed to the petting zoo. I didn't see Dylan much of the time because he was racing around, trailed by Mimaw and Pipaw seeing as many animals as he could as quickly as possible. Mike, Cade and I hung back to take our time petting and feeding them. Cade enjoyed it, I think.

This camel really wanted to get to Cade.
Cade was really not sure about him.

My favorite animal of the petting zoo were the baby zebras.

While I went off to find a place to feed Cade, Mike and my parents took Dylan through the farm life exhibit. Dylan seemed not into it on their first go round but apparently decided he really liked it because that's all he wanted to go back and do most of the day. We were able to fit in another trip before leaving the fair grounds and this time I got to join him. There were several sections and in each one you had to do some "work" and then add something to your basket. For example, Dylan was given a bag of feed (corn) and gave some to the cows (statues of course) and then grabbed a carton of milk. At the end, he sold his goods to the store, was given a fake dollar and then could go to the store himself and buy a snack. It was pretty cute.

Tractor Trike

After playing farm and seeing a lot of fake animals, it was time to head over to the see the real animals. As a kid, my brothers and I didn't have a lot of interest in the barns but Dylan wanted to go. So we did. Once there, he was only mildly interested in the cows. He was somewhat interested in the hatching chicks. He was extremely interested in the toys that were there. You can take the kid out of the play room but not the love of toys out of the kid.

We quickly meandered through the creative arts building where my Mom and I have had entries in years gone past. Other than the lego installations, Dylan was not into and so we moved on. I got to pick our next activity and I chose the car building. I've been toying with the idea of getting a new car so thought I could do a little shopping. Unfortunately, the cars I've been thinking about were not represented there. It wasn't a waste of time in the least though because the boys had a great time playing in the showroom.

My parents had grabbed some corny dogs for their lunch while we were playing in the cars and then wanted to take Dylan to the bird show which they though he would enjoy. So, they went there while Mike and I found something to feed ourselves and Cade. We met up with them at the show where Dylan was less than impressed and I was baking in the direct hot sun. So, we moved on.

On the way to the bird show, my parents let Dylan play in a fountain.
When his arms came out, they had turned green! Yuck!

I stopped to nurse Cade, Mike wandered off to the Midway and my parents played with Dylan. When Cade was done, we realized we were close to one of the things I wanted Dylan to see so we took off and texted Mike where we were heading...to see the TreeMan at the Greenhouse. He was pretty cool and I was glad we caught the act. The Greenhouse was also filled with trains going around tracks everywhere and the boys were very entertained by that.

And what was Mike up to when he separated from us? He was off playing games and won Dylan a HUGE minion. He seems to have a habit of winning huge stuffed animals and are far from home. In Disney, we paid an arm and a leg to have a ginormous blue bear shipped home. It looked like history was repeating itself!

At this point, it had been a pretty long day and the boys were really tired. It was time to head back. But, of course, Dylan had it in him to do one more round of the farm set up. This time, Cade got to play too.

When I was a kid, we would stay at the fair all day long. We wouldn't leave until after the parade and fireworks show was over. I really wanted to see the night time show and show the arts and crafts tents but the kids were pooped. Just as a "maybe later" precaution, we got stamped so we could come back if we wanted and hopped the train back to the cars.

Dylan Holding Hands With His Minion

That night, my Mom and I decided to run back up to the fair to do some shopping. But not before putting this cute little guy to bed for the night.

The fair grounds are about a 10 minute drive from my parents' house so my Dad dropped us off at the front gate. The night time fire\water\laser show was going on just inside and my Mom and I got to see the last few minutes of it while we walked to the arts and crafts tents. We shopped 2 tents on 2 sides of the park, both had exciting purchases and then called my Dad to come pick us up. When we were exiting the park, we saw him pull up. Great timing! So, I got to do everything at the fair I wanted to do. Yay! I even sampled a bite of the fried food fare (fried cheesecake) that is so big now. I'll have another post featuring deep fried everything (hopefully) tomorrow. Oh, and as for the minion, I was somehow able to shove him in our large suitcase so we didn't have to ship him after all!

Texas Day 1 - Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens

Our travel day to Dallas was just that - a travel day. We spent the morning getting ready for the trip. Dylan went to school while Mike and I packed up (and entertained Cade of course) then picked Dylan up just a few minutes early and headed straight for the airport. This being the first time we flew as a family of four, Mike and I were a little nervous. But, it went without major drama other than a small delay taking off. The boys did great on the plane. It was challenging to keep a wiggly baby happy and entertained for almost 4 hours but I did. Dylan was easy as pie. After we were cleared to do so on the plane, we got out the iPad and Dylan happily played games for the whole flight. By the time we got to Dallas, the focus was dinner, letting Dylan and Cade enjoy their Mimaw and Pipaw and doing a little settling in. When you're in a place for a week, it is necessary to actually unpack. So, the running around fun didn't start until the next day.

My parents have a membership to the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens. My Mom goes there so much she considers it her own personal garden and was very excited to share one of her favorite places with her grand kids....and us, of course. Hey, I get it. Now that we have kids, we're not the main source of excitement anymore. I'm okay with that (for the most part).

Any who, even though the weather felt like summer to us, it was indeed fall and the arboretum had decorated accordingly with tons and tons of pumpkins. Since pumpkins are pretty much one of Dylan's favorite things, he was in hog heaven. Also of enjoyment was the special Chihuly exhibit which was installations of the artist's glass sculptures. They were breathtaking!

Chihuly Sculpture

A Small Part of the Pumpkin Patch

Pumpkin Hut

Mimaw, Dylan and Pipaw
Cade was snoozing when this picture was taken.

Swan Gourd Lake

Chihuly Sculpture

Dylan had a great time playing around the frog fountains.

Pipaw held his shoes.

Chihuly Lily Pads
Mimaw and Pipaw's favorite!

Infinity Pond Overlooking White Rock Lake

Mimaw and Dylan

After making a round of some of the arboretum, we had to get back to the pumpkin patch for a few more pictures now that Cade was awake and Dylan was getting mighty tired.

Me, Cade, Pipaw, Dylan and Some Random Kid
Big thanks to the mom who didn't let us have
our full turn after waiting in line for a photo op.

Family Pic

Mimaw, Pipaw and the Boys

There were also a couple of small world moments during the day. While at the arboretum, we ran into a parent of one of my high school friends and a parent of one of my elementary school friends both of which were volunteers there.

Day 1 was fun and more leisurely than the rest of the week. We had to take it just a little easy to recuperate from the travels and to rest up for day 2 which was one of big excitement for me - a day at the great State Fair of Texas!

Back to Reality

Well, we're back from Texas. It was quite the whirlwind trip and I haven't even seen all of the 1000+ pictures that we took. Once I get through some of those, I'll pick a few to share.

We've been back 5 days now and, as of tonight, we're officially unpacked. What can I say, we hit the ground running upon our return home and are a little behind with some of the smaller details. Our flight landed at 4pm last Wednesday and we didn't get back to the house until dinner time and then it was bed time for all of us. We were all completely exhausted. Whoever said vacations are relaxing obviously never vacationed with children or with me who feels the need to cram as much in as possible.

Thursday morning as we were all waking very late, Mike felt the onset of a migraine and was out of commission. So, it was up to me to get everyone ready in a super condensed amount of time, Dylan dropped off for school and then figure out what to do about that work thing I had already missed for a week and a half. Yep, it was back to reality and our crazy world. On the way to work with Cade in the back seat, I called up my mother in law who very graciously agreed to come over at noon after I picked up Dylan for school and take over until I could get back from work. I thought I at least could get some email checked with the baby....boy was that a silly thought. So without much done other than holding and feeding a baby, I was almost ready to head back to pick up Dylan and got a message from Mike that the worst of the migraine had passed and he would be reporting for duty for the afternoon. Whew!

So this was the first time I'd picked Dylan up from school which was awesome. His teacher brought him out to the car so I actually got a few interesting nuggets about his day at school (usually we know nothing other than what he had for a snack). When Dylan saw me, he got a huge grin, ran to me and gave me the biggest, longest hug I think he's ever given me. It melted my heart. My little boy was ready to spend some time at home.

Anyway, that was just the beginning of our welcome home. It set the tone for a crazy last part of the week and we spent the weekend just trying to catch up with a few basics like going through the mail, returning a few phone calls and getting the yard mowed.

Which brings us back to another work week and tonight when I'm going to start documenting this wonderful trip before I forget any important details. So more to come soon!

All's Quiet

It's 6 am and I'm sitting in a dark, quiet house with only the kitties awake to keep me company. About an hour ago I was awakened by Oliver tripping over the monitor cord and knocking it loudly to the ground. I got up and checked on him. He's not doing well. It makes me very sad. After picking him up and snuggling with him a while, I realized that sleep wasn't going to happen again. Between thinking the worst about what might happen to Oliver soon and the logistics of today running through my head, I realized sleep wasn't happening anymore and I should get up and do something productive.

See, today we leave for Dallas. It will be the first flight our family of 4 will take together. Travel solo is somewhat stress inducing with the packing and preparing that needs to be done to be away from your life for a week and remembering all the things you need to take with you to be comfortable and appropriately dressed. Add in 2 kids and the details multiply like mad. I have a long list sitting beside me of all the last minute things that need to be done and things that need to go with us. I have no idea how I'll possibly get all this done before we leave. I know somehow though, it will happen.

In any case, in trying to not think about Oliver and his health while I laid in bed for the last hour, I realized that it's been 1 year since we moved. Wow. A year ago, I was huge bellied pregnant and unpacking boxes upon boxes trying to get us settled in our new home. Of course, we were also dealing with all the stuff that comes with selling a house and buying a new one. Let's just say it wasn't the least stressful few weeks, or months rather, of our lives. But, with all the headache that went along with it, there was also a new exciting beginning for us. With a baby on the way and a completely new town and environment, our lives were going to have a bit change.

And, here we are a year later. Cade is here and a wonderful addition to our family. Our lives with 2 kids are more chaotic than I could have every imagined. So chaotic that me, someone that never voluntarily gets out of bed in the morning, is excited to be up before the sun to have a little time to blog. We are running non stop. But the busy also brings a lot of happiness. These kids make us laugh more than I thought possible. Sure there are times that the whole parenting thing is frustrating but the joy far surpasses any of that stuff.

As far as settling in to our new environment, we definitely have. We really struggled leaving the city and moving out to the true suburbs. I've always been a city girl and loved it. So it's with great surprise that I am loving the suburban lifestyle. It doesn't hurt that our house is absolutely perfect for our family and is so comfortable that I have a hard time leaving it. At some moments I feel as if we've done a great amount of work to the house and am extremely proud of all the projects we've been able to accomplish in a very busy year. And, just a moment later, I'm staring at the unfinished or projects not yet even started and am a wee bit frustrated with progress. I try to focus on the "done" and not stress over the "to be completed" list.

With Dylan starting school, I also feel very much a part of this community. In the last couple of weeks, we've met tons of parents and have seen them around town. We also feel more in the know about community events and happenings and participate in them as much as we can. It's a sense of family belonging that I haven't experienced ever. I mean, I've felt it from the childhood end of it but haven't really been part of a smaller tight knit community like this in my adult life. Certainly not at college where I went to one of the largest universities in the country, nor when I moved to Boston and entered the city lifestyle. But now in the burbs, we are part of a real community. It's cool.

Ok, Cade's awake. Off I got to a hectic day. Wish us luck on our travel today and I'll check back in here with tales of fun from the great state of Texas. (Note, I'm not even having time to proof this so please pardon any errors.)