The fair website lied to us this morning. It said that the carnival opened at 8am…turns out it doesn’t open until 10am. We got down there at 9 to hit the rides early – to no avail. However, the good-time-police granted us access to the fair for free (not collecting admission tix that early) and we found ourselves wandering into the line for a free pancake breakfast (something that is apparently an annual tradition, only discovered by us this year). Turns out we had a pretty good time.

We were able to see the early rounds of barrel racing, enjoyed the food, ran into some friends, wandered the animal barns, and found ourselves ready for the rides at 10 sharp. Oh, the other surprise? At $3 per ride per person, the rides are arguably more expensive than a major theme park. Ezra was able to hit a train-meets-flinstones ride, then we headed over for his very first roller coaster experience. After a little trepidation by his parents (aka: us), Ezra and I went on the dragon themed roller coaster – and had a lot of fun.

Another big rain event this late-afternoon. It’s been really good for everything out here – really hard to believe how green everything is for August. During the storm, we were playing inside and Ezra put a CD in the player that is the music that he goes to sleep with. He immediately commented (jokingly) about it being night time, ran and got a blanket, then asked if I would lay on the floor with him. We pretended to be asleep while the music played. Ezra laughed. I wished for it to be true.