The Coolest County Fair

We again made our trek to Colorado for the annual half-marathon Aaron runs with my uncle. And on our way, we again stopped by our adopted parents' house (they're actually my dad's cousins) for some fun at the fair! They have the coolest county fair! The town (or maybe it's the county?) owns & runs all the rides so there's no creepy carnies! AND it's so incredibly cheap...25 cents a ticket and no ride is more than 2 tickets! Also? You don't have to pay a dime to get in. Or a penny. It's free! My kids love it and they love Bruce and Shirley, so it's a win-win all the way around! :)

Anna asked as soon as she woke up if we were going to Bruce & Shirley's for the fair. She was ecstatic when I said yes, but wasn't very happy when I told her we had to wait for Daddy & Jacob to wake up before we left! Once we got there, we still had a few hours before the fair opened. To kill the time, she serenaded us with a lovely song or two:)

I love this girl and her blue eyes :)

I was right about needing running shoes. Jacob was so excited!! The first thing he saw was the carousel. He could hardly contain the excitement!

And then he couldn't contain the excitement and he just started dancing and jumping around!

Of course, he dove head first off the horse once we got on there and decided he'd rather ride on ME! And besides being cheap...these rides are L...O...N...G!

I think Anna's favorite was the airplane ride. She had a lot of fun and it was just her speed.

Laughing at Shirley.

The gentleman running the ride kept telling Anna she better hurry up and catch the girl in the airplane ahead of her. Anna thought that was just hilarious and she would hunch over the steering wheel and "chase" her.

Oh no. Jacob found cars...just his size. And they move! I had to stop him from climbing between the bars to get in there while the ride was still going!!!

He's in heaven!

I'm too cool Mama!

Wait a minute...why is it stopping? Why is Mama coming towards me? She realizes I'm not getting out of this car...EVER, right? Right?! RIGHT?!?!

Oh, whew! I just got to pick another car and go again! This is the best place ever!!!

The first night he rode at least 6 times in a row. There wasn't a line, so he could always get right back into another car. The second night was a lot busier, so we tried to avoid the cars...and the meltdowns that insued when he realized he couldn't get right back on. He just doesn't get that concept of "wait your turn"! :)

Anna had fun on the cars, too. She had fun on everything. Including the BIG swings that went really high and really fast and even made Mommy a bit nauseous!

She especially liked the cotton candy! She said her favorite thing of all was watching the horses (there was a rodeo as well, so we got to see a bit of barrel racing and some roping). A girl after my own heart!!

Too cute pink shades!

Driving mini-cars is evidently hard work!

And thus deserves a funnel cake and some Sprite!

She really liked the "merry-go-round", too.

There wasn't anything about our visit to Bruce & Shirley's that she didn't like! Plus, we got to go to the pool! Now she asks every day if we can go to the fair. Good thing the state fair is coming up in a few weeks!

THE county fair :)

I had more pictures than I thought from Thursday night!

Anna got her face painted (it's a rose in case you can't tell...hey, it was a fund-raiser for the cheerleaders!)

She loved the swings. It was hilarious...as she would come around to where we were standing she just wiggled her eyebrows and looked out of the corner of her eye at us! It was comical!!

Jacob was enthralled with all the movement and lights. He had fun just riding around (either on Daddy's shoulders or in the stroller).

The train. And this was not a slow train! Seth and Addie graciously (really, I think they enjoyed it!!) agreed to take the kids. Jacob...he wasn't too sure about it. Anna LOVED it!

That would be a white-knuckled death grip Jacob has on Seth's shirt. He's not sure what to think about things.

See Jacob's hair? That's how fast that little train was going!!! And it went around like 20 times. It went around about 5 times too many for Jacob's liking!

Anna also rode these little cars. They had little bells on them and the people running the ride gave high fives as the kids came around.

Before we left, Jacob had fun pulling Seth's hat off and on. Over and over and over!

"Whatcha think Mama? Am I ready to work for KDOT??" :)

The kids weren't very cooperative with this picture, but oh well. Thanks Swiharts for the hospitality! We had so much fun!!! :)

We're back and we're still alive

We're back from Colorado. Please don't fall out of your chairs and hurt yourselves, but I don't have any pictures to post yet! I know, I know. What's wrong with me?! I'll tell you what's wrong. It's those stupid batteries! I think I got 2 pictures taken (the first day we were gone, of course) and then the batteries died. Did I take extras or the charger? NO. But hey, I remembered my pillow. Gravy. Anyway, my wonderful cousin (who has an AWESOME camera) is mailing me a CD with the hundreds of wonderful pics she took (maybe not hundreds, but close!). So now you'll just have to read my boring words with no pictures...for now.
We had a great time, even if it was fast and we were on the move! We spent Thursday night and most of the day Friday with the Swiharts in western Kansas. FUN TIMES! :) And they took us to the county fair!!! Anna has a blast...well okay, we all had a blast! It's been a very long time since I've been to a county fair. And the coolest thing was that all the rides were run by the local people...no scary carnies (no offense, but come on!). AND the tickets were a quarter a piece! A QUARTER!!! So thanks for the wonderful time, Swiharts! We loved it.
Friday found us driving to Denver to stay with my cousin and prepare for the big race :) Which consisted of grilling and playing one measly round of cards (I'm not telling who won!) and sending the racers off to bed fairly early (by Stinemetz standards, anyway). They were up before dawn (that should be illegal) and the rest of us left a lot later. We made good time and no kids threw up this time! (Last time we went up Anna got really sick, we think from the quickly changing altitude?). We found a good spot close to the finish line and waited for Uncle Bill and Daddy to round to corner. They finished! :) My hat's off to them...everyone knows (they should anyway!) that I'd never come close to running 13.1 miles!!!!! After cooling down, we headed out to eat with everyone (some college friends came to watch--Thanks guys!) and then back to Ange's for Aaron's famous year-long nap. Jacob enjoyed using their giant lab (a gentle giant) as an obstacle course and Anna had fun playing with Isabel (so sweet of her to play with Anna!) After supper we headed to Grandma J's for the night. It was wonderful to spend time with her (wish it could have been longer!!)--I think the kids did a sufficient job of entertaining her! They were in top form with their silliness. We took her to church Sunday morning and then headed home after lunch. I have to say I didn't enjoy driving the whole way back in one day! It was really nice to break the trip up on our way out (even if it is only 8 hrs all together!)
Okay, that's enough. I'm so tired it's not even funny. So WHY AM I NOT IN BED AT 1AM?!?!?!?!? B/c I am my father's daughter! :) Here's to an uninterrupted sleep and late risers come morning.....HA!