A Surprise Day Trip

To the North Carolina State Fair!

Though we had no idea until we saw billboards on our drive down, the weekend we were down in NC for Brent to preach at Salemburg was the same weekend that the NC State Fair began. Our plans changed with several of our family not feeling well, so we were headed back a little earlier than planned. Brent and I talked on and off Monday morning about what to do especially since the weather looked like it could be messy. Eventually, we headed in the direction of Virginia, via a road that took us near Raleigh... and the fair. 

We haven't not been to the fair since the year we got married and were living in Wake Forest. This was a first for our girls as neither has been to a large fair, like the State Fair, either. Rachel was so funny as we were circling around the outside of the fair trying to find a place to park. She kept asking me things like "How big is this fair, Mommy? and "Is that the fair too?"

 We began in the Village of Yesteryear, as it began to pour rain about 10 minutes after we walked through the gate. This was a great first stop. Rachel got to see tatting (using knots to form a design) and the girls received a tiny tatted flower. We also saw stained glass (Rebekah kept pointing at the colored glass), metal ornament making and cornhusk dolls being made among other things.

Rachel was invited to try on the metal worker's hat. Here she is modeling it for us!

Sister hugs at the fair

Driving her sister

For our family and friends who are Carolina fans...

For my Grams who is a big Elvis fan...

                                                    

Along the midway

Seeing the Giant pumpkins with my little pumpkins!

 My grandfather grows the Giant watermelons like the ones shown in this picture. He usually loads his in the back of a truck and travels around showing them. My girls haven't gotten to see the melons this size yet, so of course, we headed to check out what they could look like.

Rebekah was fascinated by the baby chickens and ducks

 We thought it would be neat to ride the Ferris Wheel as a family until we found out it cost $5 Per person to ride! I did get a picture for Rachel since she was so interested in this ride!

 

Rachel getting weighed: 30.9 lbs

Rebekah and I getting weighed together

 Brent and I grew up not very far from Mount Olive, NC and we really like Mt. Olive dill pickles. In fact, don't buy any any other kind for Brent. Our girls, yes, even Rebekah, love dill pickles too! So, when we found out we could get jumbo pickles for $0.50...Yes, Please!

 

How tall is Rachel?

Our little flowers!

 

 Before we left the fair, we stopped to get an apple cider freezie. This is apparently one of Brent's favorites at the fair. There was a bluegrass band next to this, so we took a much needed break for our feet and listened for a little while. This picture I snapped of Rachel while she was dancing to the bluegrass while keeping time with her pencil and ruler from the Forestry service exhibit

 One of my favorite things at the fair is a candied apple. I remembered seeing a LARGE case of them, I thought in one of the first couple of building we went in. Brent thought it was in one of the buildings on the opposite side of the fair and he was right! He was so sweet! Because he knew I was really looking forward to a candy apple, we backtracked until he found that building for me. The picture below shows how many layers this apple was covered in (layers of chocolate, graham cracker and marshmallows-YUM!). By the way, they had apples with about 3x more toppings than this one at this booth!  The picture above shows the sky as we left this last building to head to where we were parked. Yep, we got SOAKED! No storm thankfully, just rain! We had dodged to rain all day or made it to the nearest building only getting just a little damp. Not this time!!! We were so wet. The girls were so funny-when we did get to a shelter they both look at me with their little faces dripping like we had just washed their hair and just grinned at me! I wish I had a picture to post of this part, but Brent was too busy scrambling to keep the camera DRY in this downpour! We finally got back to the van, got the girls in dry clothes and headed back to Virginia.

 

We had a great afternoon at the fair. It was fun for Brent and I to be able to attend again and to be able to share the fair with our girls. It was a great family day!

Our family, October 15, 2012