Vanessa visited a county fair for her first time yesterday. (We live a couple hundred yards from the Franklin County Fairgrounds and we've never gone.) Our friends Becky and Megan joined us. Megan enjoyed being snuggled up to her mommy in her sling while we walked the main drag a few times, checked out the animals in the 4-H barn, went to a petting zoo, kind of watched a clown show, enjoyed an overly sugary elephant ear (the best kind, right?), won a ginormous blow-up princess gavel, and -- best of all -- RODE A PONY!!!!!!
The bison eventually made it over to greet us. The llama and deer remained eager for attention and carrots. There were all kinds of cool animals at the petting zoo – llama, bison, a rare miniature cow, a huge python, a huge tortoise, a pig, a kangaroo, the standard goats . . . Vanessa went up to pet the animals but she was a little hesitant in having the animals eat carrots from her hand.
The pony Vanessa picked out was the only black one. There were four or five ponies, all brown and white except for Midnight. Vanessa didn't have to think about it, she went straight to her and hopped right on and was so proud to be sitting tall and holding on tight. She gave Midnight gentle touches and we talked about the coarseness of her mane. They became instant friends. Vanessa loved to point up to the tent and announce that it was a big umbrella.
Vanessa was also interested in the rides, but her mommy didn't feel like she could get on and go in circles with her. Vanessa would point to the ferris wheel and talk about the "circle going up." We could've done the ferris wheel but her mommy was afraid the little daredevil might get the bright idea to stand up or climb all over the seat. :)
The Franklin County Fair is quite small compared to the Gallia County Fair, where we are from. I'm sure that has something to do with the area and there being lots of options for live entertainment and outdoor festivities here in the Columbus area. The FCF still had the smorgasbord of food vendors, though, and we went there thinking we'd eat all the junk we could get our hands on, but once we came down from the elephant ear sugar high, we were ready to go home to cool off and drink lots of water. Then for some reason a salad sounded the best and Vanessa was happy with cottage cheese, pineapple and toasted pita bread. :) Maybe more grease and junk next time . . .
