Muscatine County Fair 2011

Aria and I went to the Muscatine County Fair today. She was all kinds of excited, mostly about seeing animals, rides, and cotton candy-in that order. Even though the temperature read God-awful Hot degrees, there was enough of a breeze and enough shade that it really wasn't all that bad.

Our first stop was to the little kids farm they have set up in the barn. It is more or less a petting zoo. Aria took a pic of me petting the donkey.
She was too afraid to pet the donkey herself. She said it was too big and she was not big and brave today.

She did enjoy seeing the chick, though, and they brought a bunny out of its cage for her to pet. She also was big and brave enough to pet the miniature pony and to feed the goat by throwing peanut shells right at him.

We went to the barns next, and I was totally envious of those animals. Although it appeared like they were lazy and hot, the barns were actually cooler than my house. All of the animals had gigantic fans on them. They all had lots of water. At that moment, I wanted to be a cow.

Or a sheep would do too. Baa.

After we saw all the animals, and I was treated to which animals were stinky and which ones were not, Aria really wanted to ride on rides. The first one she went on was her all time favorite-the gator roller coaster. If this is how she is at three, then I can imagine the rides she'll want to go on as a teenager.

Whhhheeeeeeeeee!

The next ride she went on was the elephants that rose in the air. I thought she'd be scared because she wasn't expecting that, but she wasn't. She liked that ride. Afterwards she went on the cars and there was a little girl who was afraid to go on the rides herself. I asked Aria if she would go in the car with the little girl and her grandma thanked us. I told her that last year it was me asking bigger kids if they could sit with Aria, so it was all good.

No reason to fear, Aria is at the wheel.

Aria went on the planes, which was another ride where she got to go high. She absolutely loves that now, though she still wasn't big and brave enough to go with me on the ferris wheel.

Aria the fighter pilot.

It was during this ride that she left her hat and I had to go back and get it from the seat of the plane. I told her that we didn't want to lose her hat and she held it to herself tightly and said,

"I love it.

I want it in my life."

Which was the most hilarious thing she said today.

After that ride, Aria was pretty much done. It was 90 degrees and it was after lunch time so we left the fair. Of course, before we left I got her a huge bag of cotton candy to eat at home.

It's gone now, naturally.

Another Ariaism:

Rod asked Aria today if she was being a smartypants. Aria said, "No, Daddy, I'm not wearing pants. I have a naked butt."