The Del Norte County Fair

For several months now Ian has been looking forward to the county fair.  Last year it was a huge hit, especially when he got to ride on the truck ride with Kate.  We drove by the fairgrounds several times before the big day to check out the rides from a far.  Ian decided he really liked the "spinning wheel" (ie ferris wheel) and could hardly wait for Saturday to arrive.  

Ian and Brendan and I went in the morning to see all of the animals which was a big hit.  Ian had fun oinking at the pigs and mooing at the cows.  He also got to wander through a hay maze and found lots and lots of tractors to sit on.  We finished the morning by wandering around all of the kiddie rides, scoping out what we were going to do when the rides opened after nap time.  I also had Ian stand next to the height chart to determine if he may have a hard time getting on the rides because of being too short.  I showed him how to stand on his tippy toes to look bigger if anyone gave him a problem (with a little bit of a stretch he was pretty close to the mark!)

Later, after a record short nap, we headed back to the fair to ride the rides.  We met Kate and her family and went to get Ian his "ride-all-day" arm band.  Well, when the woman at the ticket counter looked at him she looked skeptical and asked me how old he was.  "Three." I calmly said - figuring a little white lie was much less painful than a 2 1/2 year old melt down because she wouldn't give him an arm band.  She wasn't yet convinced so she asked him to stand by the height chart....  Well, with Ian on his tippy toes and me gently lifting him up a bit from by his armpit he was close enough for the woman to give him an arm band.    She didn't really look convinced that he was truly tall enough but must have realized how desperate he was to go on the rides and how desperate I was to avoid a huge melt down!

Ian rode every ride that he was big enough to get on and had a blast.  He needed to be 6 inches taller for the ferris wheel so that will have to wait until next year which he is already talking about!