{"id":1273,"date":"2010-10-25T00:19:04","date_gmt":"2010-10-25T04:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.handsful.com\/?p=1273"},"modified":"2010-10-25T00:27:15","modified_gmt":"2010-10-25T04:27:15","slug":"deep-fried-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.handsful.com\/wordpress\/archives\/1273","title":{"rendered":"deep fried fun…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DSC_5072\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The NC State Fair. A childhood MUST for both Randy and I. The kids went a few times when they were little, before we moved to FL in 04. Now that we’re back in NC, we were so excited about starting up our fair tradition again. Despite waking up to RAIN, we pointed the truck in the direction of Raleigh. <\/p>\n

The Fair has several things you just have to do\/experience. Animals. Rides. Food. Not necessarily in that order. <\/p>\n

\"DSC_5037\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There is always a poultry exhibit…lots of cages with lots of roosters, hens, and turkeys. We all decided that the huge red dangly thing off the turkeys beaks would drive us crazy. Just saying. <\/p>\n

\"DSC_5025\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The best part of that exhibit hall is the table full of precious little baby chicks and ducks to hold. They’re so fluffy!!! :) <\/p>\n

\"DSC_5029\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSC_5048\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In the large animal exhibit, we saw cows, pigs, and goats presented for auction and judging. There’s also a milking area where you can pay $2 to milk a cow. Marley, Payton, and Lainey wanted to try it. Abbey remembers that a cow almost kicked her in years past, so she thinks they have something against her. Ethan passed on the opportunity, too. He was more interested in those rides coming up. <\/p>\n

I decided not to post the pics of the kids actually milking the cows…in case anyone is squeamish. Did I spell that right? <\/p>\n

\"DSC_5062\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The prize for milking a cow is a carton of NC State milk. Lainey has yet to ask about where “brown milk” (as she calls it) comes from. <\/p>\n

\"DSC_5068\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Randy – the horse whisperer. Not sure he’s getting his point across. <\/p>\n

\"DSC_5075\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Proof I was there. Yes, it was raining when we first arrived, but it soon cleared to partly cloudy and the temp was great! <\/p>\n

\"DSC_5133\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After watching some pig races (I did mention we’re in North Carolina, right?), we were able to feed a few animals. <\/p>\n

\"DSC_5142\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sliced carrots. They probably would have preferred the fried oreos. Sorry dudes. <\/p>\n

\"DSC_5143\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Abbey was very excited to see llamas. She loves llamas. <\/p>\n

\"DSC_5145\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Marley has such a way with animals, this goat is being lulled to sleep by her. <\/p>\n

In case you’re wondering about the post title, the fair has gone completely deep-fried crazy. They’ll batter and fry anything. ANYTHING. <\/p>\n

\"DSC_5078\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We saw fried snack cakes, candy bars, moon pies, oreos…(okay, we tried that last one. I don’t recommend it). <\/p>\n

\"DSC_5077\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Really? Does bacon need HELP to be more unhealthy? I mean, I love bacon, who doesn’t? But should we really deep-fry it? <\/p>\n

This one was new this year. Help me understand this…<\/p>\n

\"DSC_5120\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A burger, with all the trimmings, between 2 glazed doughnuts. I can’t even imagine. And, there were people in line for this thing?! <\/p>\n

\"DSC_5119\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I won’t say we didn’t have our share of fair food, oh we did. Marley loves the roasted corn. Abbey had a candy apple, like she always does. We ate at our usual sit-down booth sponsored by a civic organization – they have the best buttermilk biscuits :) Cotton candy, fudge, funnel cake, polish sausage, french fries from Al’s, etc. It was all good. <\/p>\n

\"DSC_5088\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Fun house = fun for Payton and Marley. The 5 big kids (including Randy) rode some crazy rides. I was content to hang with Lainey during those. Us girls rode the ferris wheel and I tried hard not to imagine falling out. Heights aren’t my thing. <\/p>\n

\"DSC_5103\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ethan gets his speed on…<\/p>\n

\"DSC_5097\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The girls are giddy with fair happiness. <\/p>\n

\"DSC_5121\"<\/a><\/p>\n

heh. heh. <\/p>\n

\"DSC_5082\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What a cute sheep, I think I’ll take her home. <\/p>\n

\"DSC_5083\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Anyone hungry for a burger? Just kidding…<\/p>\n

\"DSC_5116\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For those not in the know, Payton’s nickname with his friends is Tater. Randy got that started a while ago, we don’t remember how! <\/p>\n

\"DSC_5197\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Yes, Abbey is inside a big plastic ball. <\/p>\n

\"DSC_5175\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A big hamster ball on water. <\/p>\n

\"DSC_5186\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Where the goal is to try and stand up.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_5194\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, Marley connected with her inner-hamster and mastered it. <\/p>\n

\"DSC_5167\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Lainey decided against being a hamster, and went with being an artist. She painted her own pendant of a horse. Sweet. <\/p>\n

All in all, we had an amazing time at the fair. We squeezed in everything we possibly could and – though I’d kinda hoped we wouldn’t – we stayed till the fireworks at 9:45. <\/p>\n

\"DSC_5209\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Which meant we’d get home around 1:30am. But, it was so worth it. I have great memories of going to the fair as a kid. (I even still have a small, silver ring with an engraved “D” on it – they sell the EXACT same ring at the fair today, I saw it!) And, our kids will look back on this crazy day and smile. I just know it. They’re already talking about next year. :)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The NC State Fair. A childhood MUST for both Randy and I. The kids went a few times when they were little, before we moved to FL in 04. Now that we’re back in NC, we were so excited about starting up our fair tradition again. Despite waking up to RAIN, we pointed the truck […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-trips-vacations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handsful.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handsful.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handsful.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsful.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsful.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsful.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1273\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handsful.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsful.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsful.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}