alameda county fair

june 24th

the alameda county fair is awesome.

here's why:

1. it's 2 minutes away from my parents' house

2. the weather is mild and breezy

3. it's not scary! pleasanton has to be one of the least scary places on earth.

of course, i am just comparing it to the san joaquin county fair which...

1. is way on the far side of stockton

2. is held during the hottest time of the year and when i was little i even got heat exhaustion and looked so bad that my grandpa still talks about it to this day

3. it is totally terrifying, 'cause it's in stockton.

one of the reasons that we were excited about this year's county fair is that we heard there were kangaroos there that you could pet! we asked when we entered the fairgrounds and the lady wasn't sure if there were kangaroos or just kangaroo meat. (ew!) well, we found out one way or the other. 

stay tuned.

the baby animals were a big highlight last time and they did not disappoint us this year!

these week old piglets almost made me think about giving up bacon!

the momma pig was busy keeping all those babies in check.

don't you love the stripes? 

and oh boy, i can imagine how thirsty she must get after nursing 12 pigs!

and this momma cow was busy with her baby too. 

it seemed like all the animals were using their mammary glands.

higher daddy! i can't see the pigs!!!

hello. no more complaining from me about nursing, nice work momma pig! i felt such a connection with these new mothers since i had just finished feeding my own little pink piglet! these baby pigs were just 4 days old. :)

well, when we got to the petting zoo, one mystery was solved. there weren't kangaroos, but there were wallabies! even though you couldn't pet them, they were still very fun to see up close.

and for some reason this little guy was locked in with the wallabies.

then they let him out and shelby got a chance to love on the baby goat for a minute, 

but then he was off like a flash!

somehow in the big petting zoo, this little guy and his sibling found their momma's milk 

in less than a minute and started eating immediately.

shelby thought it was so funny.

but i started thinking, man, what if my baby could chase me down and start eating?

get over here mom!

 

this petting zoo made the whole trip worth it. 

look at how sweet this little goat was to miss shelby.

daddy look! these are his horns.

 

the fancy petting zoo also had deers and a llama too.

petting zoo=heaven

then it was on to the other extensive animal exhibits, with big birds, baby birds, bunnies, huge mutant rabbits, reptiles, guinea pigs, and our little animal rescue girl was in love with them all.

ah yes. then it was time to eat. daddy found out that in fact, there was kangaroo meat for sale. as well as lion, scorpions, bugs and the above meat on a stick. ready for the animal? well, it's one that is not cute so trevor didn't feel bad eating it: alligator. he made me try it too. aren't i so adventurous? i don't recommend it AT ALL. the only time i have felt like that was when i was morning sick with shelby, one bite created an immediate gag reflex. it was just so chewy! the taste was just bbq, but ugh, the texture was just like well, like taking a bite of an alligator! sorry to gross you out, but i'm just trying to make sure no one else makes the same mistake and lets their husband dare them to try this! it ain't worth the street cred.

after the alligator incident, we headed over to the rides, and on the way we found the pony rides!!!!!

this pretty pony was named cinammon and lucky miss shelby had the whole place to herself! 

my little country gal.

each time around she made sure to high five with daddy.

and since she was all on her own, she got to go around for as long as she wanted! 

that's a lot of high fives!

all good things must come to an end. 

thanks for the memories cinammon. hope your life of walking in a circle is fantastic!

after the ponies we saw this crazy looking thing, the bobble lagoon. it made me very claustraphobic to even look at it, but i think if mr. steve clegg would have been at the fair with us then he and trevor would have definitely tried this out. we stayed to watch a guy try it and he just kept falling! these balls had a high degree of difficulty. it was so funny.

the nemo ride called to shelby and she did a great job steering, clearly.

lucky little cora got to be on a ride almost the whole time!

she loves her stroller!

of course we had to play my mom's very favorite game, the water shooter where you blow up a balloon. there has to be a better title than that. anyways. trevor won, but shelby got the prize.

then we had to give it to cora because the balloon popping scared her and she started sobbing! so sad! grandma and the penguin made it all better real quick.

just like last year, they had a ride that was from michael jackson's neverland ranch, creepy! 

shelby chose the cheetah for her spin on the carousel. but i like to mess with her and kept calling it a jaguar or a lion or a kangaroo and oh boy calling animals by the wrong names makes her mad!!!

these disney cars-themed monster trucks were fun. she really thought she was driving!

shelby loved this "fishing for sharks" game. 

who wants to fish for just fish anyway? that would be lame!

her prize for fishing for a shark? a dophin! makes sense? maybe?

c'mon dad, LET'S GO!

let me just narrate this image: 

"PLEEEEEEEEEEZZZZZ I WANT TO GO ON THE STRAWBERIIIIIIIEEEEZZZ!!!"

NOW.

so nice daddy did just that! 

trevor is saying, we want to spin! we want to spin!

he told me that because she made him get on this ride that he was going to spin it like crazy. fine with  shelby, she wanted to go fast! heh heh heh, have you seen my husband's forearms? she wasn't ready for how fast this berry could go!

and then right before it was going to start a little lone rider boy got put in their strawberry. poor kid put his hood up and had no idea what he was in for! you can just see his scared little face as they spun. 

luckily the kid's dad was right next to us and he thought it was very funny that they were going so fast.

 trevor's tactic worked perfectly because shelby was cured of liking this ride after strong daddy whirled that berry around. you could hear her asking to get off by the end!

until next year alameda county fair! 

thanks for the amazing gyros, tacos, and fun family memories!