The Fair

Last Monday, we managed to make it to the fair. It's always around Eli's birthday, so a fun tradition for him. In fact, the first time he went to the fair, he was 9 days old! Can you believe 1st time parents took their newborn baby to the fair?! (Me-yes, Lance-no). One of Eli's favorite things to do is to ride the gondola which goes up over the midway so you get a great view of all the rides, games, etc. This year Caleb & I rode too for the first time. Very fun! Next we let them ride some totally overpriced rides- but they enjoyed the 3 rides they got to do (next year we will come on buddy day when you can ride 2 for 1)!

I don't think Caleb was tall enough to ride this ride, but we sort of sneaked him on anyway!

Oh, how I love these 2!

Next we ate some fried fair food. I've decided, despite the newest fair food craze - the best value is the funnel cake and I've hardly ever been disappointed. $6 for this and we all shared. Eli wanted cotton candy @ first, but then decided that the funnel cake was equally delicious. Caleb did not want any at first, but then gave in and decided he liked it as well!

Since it was getting late and it was a school night, and I was 9 months pregnant - we made the boys choose between the petting zoo/ baby animals & the cars @ the Expo center. Any guesses what they chose? The cars. So off we headed to the Expo center. While there we saw this butterfly house exhibit. It was a huge net that housed over 5,000 butterflies! $3 to get in and of course they both wanted to go, so Lance took them while I waited outside.You can see the butterflies clinging to the top of the net. Eli liked it okay, but Caleb was the one that really loved it. You couldn't touch the butterfly wings, but they could land on you and crawl on your hand. Eli didn't want any part of this (he has crawly thing issues - can't say that I blame him), but Caleb was all over it. Lance kept helping him get butterflies on his hand. This is quite possibly my favorite picture to date of Caleb!

As they left, the workers checked their backs to make sure that no butterflies had attached themselves and would be leaving with them. Then Lance walked all the way back across the fair (since we parked in free parking) to get the car and meet us out front (since I am with child you know!)

So fast forward to the next morning when my husband went out to his car to leave for work. What do you think he found in his car? That's right a beautiful blue swallowtail butterfly. Unbeknownst (I've never used that word before!) to us, we had smuggled that butterfly right out of the butterfly house. It was amazing! We figured it had to have been on Lance's jacket or in his bag and traveled all the way across the fair, back to the car with him. The boys were thrilled with their new pet and named him "Switcher" because he was 2 different colors when he opens and shuts his wings. He stayed with us for a whole week . Then we took him back to the fair on the last night (just kidding, but that is what we told Eli because he was so upset at the thought of the butterfly dying). So that is our fair story! A great memory for us!

Tara