Labor Day Weekend

I grew up in the small town of Ellensburg, Washington.  Every Labor Day weekend, Ellensburg has a big fair and rodeo.  It is one of the biggest rodeos in the country, so people come from all over.  The fair is probably a typical small town fair, with carnival rides, crazy people running the carnival rides, lots of yummy fair food, and barns full of animals.  As a child and teenager, I spent the entire weekend, except Sunday, at the fair.  We were in 4-H, so we spent all year cooking and sewing and canning and then entered all our finished goods into the fair.  We also ran an Elephant Ears booth with our church, so we would all work shifts at the booth and eat lots of Elephant Ears.  Fair weekend was a time that we met up with friends we hadn't seen all summer.  We rode all the rides and ate the yummy food.  We counted all our blue ribbons and tried to figure out how much money we had made.  I usually worked in the 4-H concession stand as well, which I loved.  I don't know why I thought it was so fun, but I loved taking orders and filling drinks and serving up the hot dogs and corn on the cob.  I have great memories of going to the fair. 

This year, in an attempt to share my love of the fair with my children, we spent Labor Day weekend in Ellensburg.  The weather was cold and yucky, but it didn't stop us.  We first went to the Parade.

My mom said it was the same as always and not that exciting.  But maybe that was why I loved it--it was the same as always:  lots and lots of horses, a few bands, the high school cheerleaders, smiling girls on floats who seem to be "royalty" of some sort or another, loud firetrucks and old fashioned cars with waving politicians--yep, same as always.  We especially loved the scottish bagpipe marching band and the Shriners with their little cars.  Those old men driving around the tiny cars in formation is so cute--just little boys in old bodies.  Here's William hanging out with Grandma and watching the parade.

Later that afternoon, Grandma kept William while I took the rest of the kids to the fair.  I decided to travel light, so I didn't bring my big camera, just my cell phone.  So the photography isn't all that great.  In hindsight, I wish I would have brought my camera, and captured all the fun we had.  Oh well.  Maybe next year.

We went on lots and lots of silly carnival rides.  We've never let our kids ride the rides at the fair before, so most of these rides were new to them.  They loved them of course.  The carousel, scrambler, spider, little roller coasters, fun house, and the giant slide are just some of them we went on.  Everyone's all time favorite was the Gravity ride, which you get on standing up and leaning against a pad and then it spins really really fast and you stick to the wall by centrifical force.  I thought for sure it would freak them out, but they all loved it, even Kate.  It was hillarious.  Honestly, I haven't laughed so hard in a long time.   

We also went through the Pioneer Village where we toured cabins, visited the General Store and bought candy sticks (now 25 cents instead of 10 cents) and panned for gold.

We even found some!

We watched a magic show (and both Kate and Ben got to be volunteers up on stage), walked through the animal barns, and even ran into an old friend of mine from elementary school. 

Highlight of the day:  Elephant Ears.  They are still SO good.  It was a super fun day!  Thanks to Grandma for keeping William!