Yesterday we went to the Puyallup Fair. We all had a lot of fun. 🙂 We met Mary, Milton, Aaron & Carissa Vance. The boys had a lot of fun playing with them.
We got there early, so we looked at cows, llamas, goats and pigs. The fairgrounds have been under construction for a while, but now they are all finished. They have a new exhibition hall and a Pig Palace. In the Pig Palace you can see two pigs, one who’s just had babies & one who will have some (hopefully) during the Fair. Since we went toward the end of the fair (it ends on the 25th), we were able to see both pigs with their babies. The second pig had given birth on Saturday, so her piglets were just two days old! I thought that was really neat. We got to see some bigger piglets, and then the new ones. The mama pigs just laid there. I suppose that is because the piglets kept coming over to eat! It was fun to watch them. It is amazing how intricately God has made each of His creations. 🙂
After we saw the pigs, we went to the petting zoo. Nicholas was probably the only one really interested in this! He got to pet two bunnies (they were babies, I think), a goat & a sheep. We also saw some baby quail that had just hatched. 🙂
Jef found the ticket booths, so he called and we all headed over there. Of course we got in the wrong line, so Mary was done long before we were! Sometimes (well, ok, a lot of the time) people are oblivious to others! The people in front of us were discussing things with the ticket lady, didn’t have their kids there to get the dizzy passes, and just took FOREVER! We bought Jonathan & Daniel dizzy passes first, because we thought Nicholas would be ok with the five rides he’d get to go on with the ride tickets that came with our fair tickets. 
Jonathan, Carissa & Aaron heading off to the rides!
The kids all played together, although Carissa kind of got left out. The boys really like Aaron. 🙂 They went on all sorts of rides. They rode the canoes, the SUPER BIG slide (there is also a BIG slide ;)), Jonathan went on the roller coaster, they played in a couple of fun houses, Daniel rode the Flying Tigers, Nicholas rode two carousels, Jonathan went on the Tilt-A-Whirl, and all sorts of fun stuff. We ended up getting Nicholas a dizzy pass because he wanted to keep riding rides. 🙂
After we played for a while, we decided we were hungry. So we split up with the Vances and went hunting for food. We got scones, and Jonathan & Daniel received two in each of their bags!! We stopped by a Mountain Mist kiosk because they have really good water, and we were thirsty!! We’d brought a water bottle from home, but it had been empty for a while. 🙂 While we were there, we saw Mike, from our old church. He was nice and let us fill up our water bottle. Then the other guy talked to us about the water. It was only $6 a bottle, with a $7/mo. rental on the cooler. Since we’ve been having sediment appear in our cups lately, we decided to buy the water! (we are kind of copying Kamali & Tina because they just got a water cooler, too :D) There were three coolers to choose from, one that just cools, one that cools & has room temperature water (why would you want that?!) and one that has a cooler & a hot water tap. I almost got the hot water one, because I like the idea of “instant” tea, but decided I’d rather pay $7 instead of $11. 🙂 Now we are officially Mountain Mist people. 🙂 Mountain Mist gets its water from an artesian well in Sumner. That means it is fed by the mountain, right? 🙂 Jef’s grandfather found artesian wells in that area, so he might have found this one! 🙂 So the deal that sold us was this – we get three months free rent on the water cooler, three free bottles of 
water, and three CASES of bottle water (that’s 72 bottles of water!!!). 😀
After we bought the water, we got an elephant ear. Boy was it yummy! Just the right amount of crispy & soft. This is the nice lady who made it for us. We took a picture in case anyone doesn’t know what an elephant ear is. I love these things!! Anytime we go to the fair, or down to Ruston Way on the 4th, I have to have one. 🙂
We decided we should get some real food, so we headed off to find a Marlowe Burgers stand. We found a really big one down by the Blue Gate. They had everything! They even serve breakfast! We got curly fries, chicken nuggets, two cheeseburgers (with lettuce, tomato pickles & mayo), and a mountain dew to share. We were almost done eating when the Vances called to say they were back in the park. 🙂 We went to meet them & got to listen to a family of folk musicians. The family is large, and they only have one daughter. She is Miss Oregon or California (I can’t remember). So she was not with the family at the fair. They played cello, fiddles, guitar, keyboard & drums. They even did some dancing. 🙂 It was fun to watch. We only saw the very end of their program.
Once that was over, we were off to the rides again. We stopped at a place that was supposed to have catch & release fishing, but it was closed. Oh, it was supported by Mountain Mist. 😉
The kids rode more rides, and had lots of fun. Milton had to leave, he needed to do some work (he’s a self-employed court reporter) before the day was over. Somehow we got separated from Mary, Aaron & Carissa. But we went on rides & then as we were thinking it was time to go, we saw them at the snokone stand!! So we were able to say good-bye and close off our day (closure is very important, you know ;)).
After we got snokones, we walked toward the front of the fairgrounds. I hadn’t seen the new buildings yet, so we walked toward them. The kids were horribly thirsty, so we stopped and bought a bottle of water. No one will fill up your bottles for you, and you can’t use the places who are selling water, either. Those places always have a water cooler, and you can get free samples, but they don’t let you fill up your water bottles. Now, when Daniel can stand there and drink four refills of his cup, an amount that would equal our water bottle, I don’t understand. Actually, that is one of the reasons I liked Mountain Mist. I remembered at the Spring Fair they let us fill up our bottle. 🙂 Is that customer service? I don’t know.
Anyways … 🙂 We walked through the new building, and I mean THROUGH. We didn’t stop anywhere, or look at anything (except the cool sewing machines that can embroider stuff!!!). 🙂 We just went straight – in one side & out the other.
I like the new buildings & the new food court. It looks nice. I think it will help with traffic, too, because people have places to sit now, and the food stands aren’t all higgldy-piggldy all over. 🙂 Them there’s technical terms, ya know?
We went to see the Mounties horses. The Mounties are putting on shows, but not on the day we were there. Their horses are all beautiful. There was one with a star on his forehead that I especially liked. The kids liked the horses, too.
After the horses, we went through the rabbit & poultry barn. We saw some newborn chicks and partridges, peacocks and a mikado. The bunnies were really cute. There were some black & brown ones that looked like those fake ones you put in your yard. 🙂
All in all, a fun day was had by all. 🙂 Nicholas was so tired, he fell asleep on the way home!
Thanks for reading!
