Labor Day Weekend

As long as I can remember (and probably many, many years beyond that) in Elko we have always had the Friday going into Labor day weekend off. Our fair is always this same weekend, so Friday is "Fair Day" and thus a vacation day from school. Our day started off at the parade. The route was changed a little than what it normally is due to Idaho Street being torn up by construction, but it was fun just the same.

The kids really enjoyed the parade. Clay wasn't too interested in the bands though that marched by. He covered his hands for each of them.

After the kids had a late nap (because we met up with James' Mom and a friend when they were driving back to Tahoe for some lunch) the whole family headed over to the fair grounds. I can honestly never remember going to the fair. My Dad (and later my brother) would play in a golf tournament every year on this particular holiday weekend. So it was fun to get to experience something like this for the first time with the kids and James.

The kids enjoyed a lot of rides at the little carnival that was there too. This flying saucer ride was Clay's request. And then of course once I put him in and got him buckled he freaked out and wanted to get out. Since Lizzie was sitting next to him I told him that he would be fine and that if he got scared Lizzie could hold his hand.

This ride had each saucer that alternated if it was in the air or close to the ground. Of course Lizzie picked one that went right up in the air at the beginning. As you can see from the picture Clay was not okay with this. He even started to yell that he wanted to get down.

Eventually Clay did relax and enjoyed the ride a little. However about halfway through the ride we spotted them and Clay was clinging onto Elizabeth's hand. She was being a great big sister too and trying to make Clay feel better.

Another one of the rides Clay requested, the merry go round. Clay was not tall enough to go on alone so I got to go with him to make sure he didn't fall off the horse.

The roller coaster was the same situation for Clay. This time James went with him. Elizabeth rode by herself. She kind of liked the ride. It was really bumpy and shaky and with each lap Lizzie was sinking lower in the seat. From my vantage point I really though she was scared and upset, but once the ride was over I found she was fine.

Poor Analyn was too small for all the rides. I am so glad though that we have such mellow kids when they are still so young (obviously Liz and Clay are no longer mellow at all though). Analyn was perfectly content to sit and watch as the other kids went from ride to ride.

The last ride the kids went on was the saucer ride again. As you can see from the pictures Clay took this turn on them a lot better than the first one. They both even insisted on having there own saucer to ride in.

After the rides we enjoyed the food. The kids enjoyed some shaved ice and some really fresh lemonade. James disappeared while we were working on our shaved ice and came back with a funnel cake. That was another first for me and the kids. I never cease to surprise James with stuff I haven't done yet. We also let the kids pick out a souvenir at one of the booths too. Lizzie and Clay both wanted a plastic ninja sword. Now I am rethinking my sanity in letting them get those. I got Analyn this adorable crown. She thought it was great for about a minute and then went off to do something different.

As if our day wasn't full with enough fun stuff to do we went to a store after we were done with the fair. Elko is expanding a little in the retail area and that day a JoAnns opened here. I have been waiting for this store to open since about March so I was beyond excited.