Yesterday we made our now ANNUAL trip to the California State Fair :)

Starting when my mom and I moved up to Northern California when I was 7, it's been a fun thing we almost always made a point to do until I was about 16 and had more boy-related things to do with my time ;)

Last year, she and I took my girls for the first time all together and it was a great time. It had it's moments of course, which is usually when we hit the wine garden, and this trip was no different. But I'm still SO glad we went and that this is turning into a new tradition for the 4 of us :)

It was Kids Day! Which meant all the kids got in FREE and all the rides were only $1 instead of the usual FOUR DOLLARS PER RIDE PER KID! Can you BELIEVE THAT?!

We ate lunch just before we got there and arrived about 45 minutes early still! Which meant that we were parked SUPER close and under the solar panel shades!!

We got all sunscreened up, loaded up 4 bottles of water from the ice chest in my trunk, packed a backpack full of snacks, and headed for the entrance.

There weren't as many people as I was expecting so that was great! We got in JUST before they opened, bought our ride tickets and got right in line for the carousel.

It was PERFECT timing :)

I bought just enough tickets for everyone to have 5 rides and said they could pick out which ever ones they wanted but only had those 5 tickets. It seems to work out pretty well, there's never any crying for more as long as they know the program ahead of time.

Teen even used one of her tickets to take Lil Miss on a little roller coaster :) She's such a sweetheart.

While they were on the coaster, Flower Child rode the swings :)

I'm so thankful my mom could go with us! Since the older girls naturally want to go on bigger rides {and so does she ;)} I sent them off to use their tickets, while I took Lil Miss on hers.

Some I went with her on ...

LOVE this picture of us on another roller coaster! She LOVES roller coasters :)

And some were the smaller rides that are just right for her age and she TOTALLY enjoys ...

but the older girls would just not have the patience to stand around for.

Which is totally understandable. So I'm really glad my mom could go with us and we all got to enjoy our time.

We planned to meet up at the big cup size ferris wheel when we all ran out of tickets so we could ride it together and plan our next adventure.

They had a great time and rode a bunch of cool big kid rides ;)

And I tried to listen to all of that and NOT focus on how much ferris wheels FREAK ME OUT.

It worked ... until somebody moved and I started yelling "NO BODY MOVE! WHAT ARE DOING?! SIT STILL!!!"

They just laughed and started mocking me ... ah the love ... can you feel it? ;)

After the rides were done and the fun was had, we headed for the exhibit buildings! Every year they have 8 buildings filled with all kinds of neat stuff you totally never thought about before that moment. Last year it was the history of cartoons (pretty cool actually!) and this year they had the history of fairs :)

The building was filled with little known facts, thens and nows, a list of all the foods they have fried (DEEP FRIED BUTTER YOU GUYS), all the food items available on stick (ALIGATOR) ...

A bunch of Put Your Face Heres ...

And what would a state fair exhibit be without the patron saint of state fairs and channel 6 ...

Huell Howsner :)

You might not know Huell ... but if you live here in California (or are entirely too curious) you should check out California's GOLD on PBS, or look him up on YouTube ... He's AMAZIN! LOL

I know for sure we were the youngest people there that even knew who he was, let alone were excited to take MULTIPLE pictures with his cardboard likeness :)

In the arts and crafts building we saw AWESOME quilts, scrapbook pages that apparently win awards now, and the girls made some leather key chains :)


Then we went out side to the 9/11 exhibit. Every time we see it I get choked up. They have an awesome tribute set up. This is when I learned that Flower Child had no idea what it was. I was beyond surprised that they'd never even talked about it in school! I'm partly to blame as well though, I hadn't thought to ask her, I just assumed they talked about it.

So as we walked out to the car to refill our water supply, I asked what she did know. Basically she thought that "people stole planes and shot at some buildings". I set her straight, gave her some basic information, and tomorrow I'm going to show her some of the more important things caught on tape and we'll have a good discussion about it.

After we grabbed 6 more bottles of water from the car, we decided to have some fair food!

We decided funnel cake was a must :) We got 2 and shared.

It was MORE than enough and SO so good!

Next we went into the Australian Adventure Tent. They had a neat little set up with pirates and all kinds of Australian animals ...

including a 6 MONTH OLD JOEY!! ISN'T HE ADORABLE?!

They had a big kangaroo, an emu, and 2 baby wallabys :)

Conveniently located next to the Australian tent was WINE COUNTRY :) and it could not have come at a better time ;)

So my mom and I sat and enjoyed about 5.5 whole minutes of quiet while they went to the bathroom and then we were off to the baby animal nursery!

The state fair works closely with the local 4H clubs and they aim to attempt to have a live birth every day during the fair. These little baby lambs were only a couple of days old :) We also saw a 2 day old baby cow, baby goats, and a video of baby pigs born earlier that day!

I didn't think much of it until Flower Child looked up and saw one shoot out. I have never seen a more true look of ABSOLUTE HORROR on a child's face. LOL I wanted to make sure she was ok so I leaned over and informed her that YES that is where babies come from but NO you don't have to lick them clean ... you know ... in case that was the part that concerned her ;)


Then there were the county exhibits ... and a whole lot of Put Your Face Heres ... a lot more than just the 2 but I'll spare you lol

Then we sat and had an apple and asked what Lil Miss wanted to see next. She proved that she does, in fact, hate me ...

she asked for the GIANT BUG EXHIBIT.

And it was like my nightmare ...

Not only were they HUGE ... they were animatronic ... and they made NOISE. MY LORD, THE NOISES! GAH! My skin is STILL CRAWLING ...

After that I decided I needed something fried to calm nerves :)

We grabbed our various dinners ...

and copped a squat on the grassy knoll.

After we were done and beyond full, we went to the farm exhibits.

They had a Bird Bingo where the kids took bingo sheets and had to find the birds out in the little mock wilderness area. They got a coloring book, and I got 5 minutes of peace ;)

She was very proud.

The farm area was actually really neat and very pretty :)

At about this point it was 7:30pm and we'd been walking for approximately 7 HUNDRED hours so I decided it was time for dessert and then time to hit the road.

We went back to our little place from last year, Deep Fried EVERYTHING. And oh yes, they have just about everything.

Flower Child requested deep fried brownie, and my mom and Teen were going to split deep fried cookie dough but ended up getting a deep fried snickers instead. Totally understandable mix up of course LOL

I am SO mad at myself for not going back and getting a picture of their menu ... seriously. Deep Fried CAPTAIN CRUNCH CEREAL. DEEP FRIED PEPSI. It was CRAZINESS!! I will for sure get a picture for ya'll next year!

There were some tough and EMOTIONAL moments, but all in all it was a great time and I'm so glad we went :) I love how it started as a tradition with my mom and I and is now continuing on to my girls too! I can guarantee they'll have these memories for a lifetime :)