A Sunday at the LA County Fair

We had planned on going to the LA County Fair on Sunday, September 25, for weeks.  It was the only day we could all go, and we were all looking forward to it.

We got the phone call early that morning that the kids' grandmother had passed away after a very short battle with cancer.  We were devastated.  Their dad, my ex-husband, asked that we please continue with our plans.  He wanted the kids to be at the fair that day, rather than at his side.  He was going to be busy and he wanted them having fun.

We spent the morning talking and crying, and as the afternoon approached, we all felt ready for a nice outing.  It was such a beautiful day.  Warm, but not hot.  Perfect fair weather.

Danielle, Abi, Adam, and Tessa ditched us, first thing.  They got their ride-wristbands snapped on, and they were outta here.  I love, love, love, love this picture of them!  Don't know what's up with the guy behind them video taping the back of Adam's shoe, though.

Hugo in full daddy-mode.  Hugo gets to be Lee's riding buddy, and I get to be the camp photographer and waver.  It's a role we're all happy with.

Especially when it comes to Ferris Wheels.  Not my favorite ride in the park.  I love looking at them, with other people on them.  Strangers.  People I don't know.  But you won't get my body on one, and it takes every bit of strength I can muster to let my family go on them.  There's just something about putting someone precious to me on a very tall ride that was just put together by a drug-addicted drunk person.  I always check the ground for nuts and bolts, just to be sure.

Completely by coincidence my sister Lori, brother-in-law Matt, and their two kids Brienna and Troy planned on going to the fair Sunday too.  Except they weren't doing rides (both of my sisters share my opinion of carnie-engineers).  So, we decided to meet up later, after the ride portion of our day came to an end.  After we were there for a while, she called me and said that Brienna (who is just a year younger than Abi) was bored out of her skull in the Knights and Princesses exhibit, and she wanted to do rides after all with our big kids.  So they all met up and Bri ditched her family and joined her cousins, and then Matt, Lori, and Troy hung out in the kiddie area with us doing the rides for Lee and Troy.

Which means Hugo was ditched.  Lee had himself a new riding partner.  Welcome to my world, Hugo.

Who do you love more in this shot?  Hugo, or Lee?  Troy wanted to go back to the Knights and Princesses exhibit so that he could show Lee what they had there.  It was so cool.  Total dress up in knight and king costumes, a lot of sword play, and even role playing with the adult actors who were dressed up as knights, or knaves, or kings, or whatever Medieval character they wanted to personify.  I don't know.  I imagined every last one of them were geeky Internet video gamers.  They just had that look.  But they captured the imagination of the little boys, so kudos to the gaming nerds for a job well done.

We actually stayed in this area for quite a long time.  My other sister, Misti, called and said that she, my bother-in-law Joe, and 10 year-old nephew Elijah were coming to the fair too.  We didn't tell Lee and Troy.  When E-Man arrived, he snuck up on the little boys, and they were completely unfazed.  It was as though they expected their cousin.  Elijah grabbed a sword, donned some armor, and the three had a ball playing.

Sadly, though, my battery died, and I didn't get any pictures of Elijah, Brienna, Matt, Joe, Misti, or Lori. I did get a picture of Lori eating funnel cake, but I decided not to share it.  It was yet another picture shot poorly, and it didn't come out well enough to share with the world.

I took this one earlier in the day.  Since the fair is kind of dirty, I had Lee wear older shoes.  It was a good call.  Take a look a them.  No, really look.  Look at the right shoe, then the left.  Now, back at the right.  Notice anything?  He is wearing two different shoes.  His mom gave him his shoes to put on, clueless that they weren't a matched pair.  Poor kid.

It was a fabulous day.  It was so good getting out like that, but we all agree that the thing that made it even better was having family join us.  We had a beautiful day together, and with the loss we had that morning, we all seemed to appreciate it even more.  Thank you, everybody, for making it a special day.