Puyallup Fair

It's been several years since I've been to the Puyallup Fair and for months I'd been telling Kevin that I wanted to go as a family this year. Well, Kevin has been ultra busy tuna fishing (he's only made it home one time for nine hours in the last ten days!), so I finally gave up on him having a chance to go before the fair ended. But not to miss the fair altoghether this time, I talked my mom into going with Abby and me and we took off to the fair last Friday.

We had a wonderful time! Abby LOVED all the animals, lights, people, rides, sounds, etc. We were at the fair for five hours and Abby behaved so well the whole time, even with missing her afternoon nap. One of the highlights was Abby's first time in a petting zoo.

In the picture above, I'm helping Abby pet a rabbit sitting in a shoebox that was being held by one of the workers. Abby did enjoy petting the soft little creature, but I soon realized that she was having more fun "kicking" at the girl's leg than actually petting the bunny. Later, when we tried to see a monkey show, Abby was more interested in the crowd than the monkey. And another time, when Abby was looking at some baby chicks in an incubator, she became distracted with the little girl looking in on the other side! It was really funny to see what actually got her attention and intrigued her.

We spent some time looking at rides. I enjoyed the fact that Abby was young enough to simply enjoy watching them and had no desire to actually ride them yet! It makes for a much cheaper trip and a less whiny child that way!

And I'm very proud that my daughter is a Vita-Mix booth lover like me. Okay, most of you won't understand this story, but years ago I spent many summers with my cousins down on their farm in Oregon. They were very much into 4-H and so we would always get to spend many days at the county and then state fair. My cousins are also very frugal and always ready for free things, so the Vita-Mix booth soon became a favorite stop (er, actually stops) of the day while at the state fair. Vita-Mix is a heavy-duty blender that makes soups, smoothies, or whatever in practically seconds! It truly is an awesome machine and I hope someday to buy one. In fact, I'm kicking myself for not giving in and buying one earlier on in my marriage when we had more money, because I realize how handy it would be to have now that we have a child and it would even make making baby food much easier. I'm hoping that by next fair time, we'll have the money to buy one.

But back to the story, so why would my cousins and I be drawn to this booth? Because of free samples, of course! ;o) And these aren't just skimpy, tongue-tantalizing samples either. Everyone gets an almost full-sized dixie cup sample, and if there happens to be a small crowd at the time, you might even get two! They always do the same three samples over and over again (even this many years later) - the tortilla soup, the fruit smoothie and the mocha frappachino. I loved and love all three. They also do the same jokes over and over again and that gets a little old when you become a "regular" at the booth. So, whenever we were bored and tired of the meat and cheese sandwiches my aunt had brought along, we'd head across the fairgrounds to the Vita-Mix booth. Looking back, I am terribly embarrassed. I'm sure those Vita-Mix salespeople were so annoyed at my cousins and me. We tried to act so nonchalant and even like we were truly interested in the product (please, like anyone would think three unsupervised middle school-aged children were potential buyers of a $400 product!!). I think we even stood separately sometimes so they hopefully wouldn't notice it was the same three kids back again. How pathetic! At least I know that one of my cousins later bought one as an adult, and I plan on buying one someday. That's some consolation, I guess.

So, anyway, my mom and I happened across a Vita-Mix booth at the Puyallup Fair so of course we had to stop for a tortilla soup sample that the gentleman was making. Next up was the fruit smoothie and I decided to let Abby try a sip. After one taste, she wouldn't let go of the dixie cup! So after prying it lose from her teeth, I quickly fished a spoon out of the diaper bag and began feeding it to her. She downed the cup in no time and clearly wanted more....and since there were still six or seven samples left, I obliged her. =)

Anyway, I truly hope my daughter doesn't one day frequent the Vita-Mix booth multiple times a day like I did, but it was fun to see her enjoy the smoothie so much and makes me very anxious to have my own Vita-Mix. Sigh. Someday.