Fair Food, Fair Rides and Fun

This is what Cait looks like when you spin her around

Cait needed to be 46" to ride some of the rides

The first week in August brings to my hometown the Monroe County Fair. Something as a child we would spend everyday at, eating dinner, riding rides, visiting with friends and just a million memories.

I grew up with Kim and Amber, the daughters of my mother's best friends. Kim was the oldest (yes I said it) Amber was the youngest and you got it I was the middle child of our relationship/friendship. The two of them was the closest I had to sisters. All three of us couldn't be more different but the value we put on our friendship was something you could never measure. We shared the fair and the ability to walk by ourselves away from our mom's. Cotton Candy was something that my mom let me have for breakfast at the fair, along with lemonade shake ups, french fries and gyros...3000+ calories in one day those were the days!!! We would ride rides all day long...you know the ones that make you throw up in 2 seconds now. We would wander through the animal barn as kids looking and feeding all the animals, as teenagers checking out the farm boys. I feel that I was able to pick things up at an early age like: if you date a farm boy, you could end up marrying a farm boy, which means you will be working on the farm with the lovely smell of manure drifting through the air. I dated a few though, I felt it was part of the process to get it out of my system. I love those memories and my girls that helped me make them now we all three have girls of our own...making the same memories with them as we did as kids.

Tony and I had our first official date there after meeting at Cross Country Camp, it also was one of my first girl fights thanks to the famous ex-girlfriends of Tony that I battled with through my high school years :-) At least with the farm boys the only thing between us was their steer or their hog. When we were kids we would walk the circle it almost guaranteed that you saw everyone there that night whether you wanted to or not! That is what I got for dating a City Boy....

Years later I make sure to take my kids to the fair every year. I talk to them about my childhood memories, have them ride the rides (I now question the construction and look at the carnies who put them up in a day), eat cotton candy, hot dogs, fries, lemonade shakeups and of course gyros...yes I still eat 3000 calories when I am there. Life is all about excess, playing carnival games, winning stuffed animals and this year the lucky prize of goldfish...affectionately named Loopy and Looney. Loopy unfortunately at the time of writing this blog suffered an untimely death and we gave him a water funeral. The kids blame me :-(

All in all new memories commingled with past ones...

Gia and Cait Bug BFF's

My nieces both decided that puppies were a must this year. My niece Arika and Julie got these cute little puppies in March this year. For Julie I think this is a good start for me to get a Great Niece or Nephew and I think with Arika being the youngest she has someone littler to play with. Gia was jealous that Zora got her own photo shoot...so I shot some of her this weekend.

Gia, unfortunately will not sit still and her favorite past time is to lick Cait. So we tried and I think I got a few that I love, but Cait had the most fun. If you ever need a dog babysitter Cait is your girl, she loves them, mothers them and likes to feed them graham crackers (which Gia later regretted eating) Tony and I are fighting this everyday as that is all she talks about and I think it will be at the top of Santa's list this year.

Swimming Monkey...Independence from the Swimmies!

There is something special about Tennessee in the fact that both of my kids have learned how to swim there. I think it has a lot to do with being in the pool everyday with them and they want to be just like every other kid :-) We started the week off with swimmies and declared our independence from them by the middle of the week. She was swimming underwater by the end of the week. Living on a lake on the weekends you always have this fear of a life preserver not performing (like has that ever happened :-)) that they fall off the deck before they put their preserver...you know the state of delirium all of us parents seem to experience with our children.

The best thing about Cait was the whole time she was swimming to me she would be yelling, laughing, telling me she was drowning or that she wasn't going to make it. Cait is so loud like her Momma that everyone knew what was going on. If I recall I think my Dad taught me how to swim in Tennessee too...I will have to ask him? But she did it and in lightning speed, with Cait if you blink you might miss something amazing...

Hitting milestones are a huge part of being a kid and also a parent...this little one is blowing through them this year, maybe it's just because she is my baby and I want things to slow

down :-) When we were driving to the lake this week, Cait told me she wanted a sister, Cam said no way...I just looked at Tony and smiled. We have been blessed with two of the best children that a Mom and Dad could have!