My sister's visit--Day 4--The Washington County Fair!

For the last 44 years, the Washington County Fair has been held in Richmond, RI, during the 2nd week of August.  Growing up just through the woods from the fairground, it was a family tradition to go to the fair.  I've continued it with my kids--we love riding rides, eating fair food, seeing all of the animals and 4-H exhibits...it's a great time that we look forward to every year.

This year we were so excited that Christine and her family would be able to join us!  We met up just around noontime and bought bracelets so that we could ride the rides all day (well, except for the rollercoaster, but we managed to ride that a couple of times, too!).  Thank goodness for my kids--they went on rides that the grown ups either didn't want to ride or were too big to ride so that their cousins could enjoy the fair!

My kids were psyched to be there

Biiiig squeeze!

Up in the Ferris Wheel

Taking Judah down the big slide

Christine and our dad--she's enjoying a Del's lemonade, which was almost the state drink of RI--it was beat out by coffee milk. :)

Jack, enjoying the fair from his stroller

Luke, just happy to be with Eli

Pep and 5 of his 7 grandkids

Do you remember the great guinea pig saga of '08?  When Steve found out that he was deathly allergic to guinea pigs and we had to get rid of the NINE guinea pigs that we had (started with one, got two more, they were pregnant and along came 6 babies)?  Well, we gave guinea pig #1 to Patience's friend, Katie.  Princess went to the fair, and won best in show!



The baby animals are so cute at the fair.  Here's a calf:

And some adorable piglets!

Luke really, really loves Eli.

Here's a shot of Steve eating a doughboy---sooo good!

We had to take another ride on the Ferris Wheel--what a view!

Ready for the Tornado!

Getting ready for the BIG rollercoaster--Luke was SO excited that he was tall enough to ride this!!!

This ride was called the Polar Express--it went round and round in one direction, then slowed down and went round and round in the opposite direction--backwards.  The kids LOVED it!  I think we went on this ride at least 4 times.  I love this picture, even though it's blurry, because you can tell that Steve and Patience are having a blast together!

Luke, getting ready to ride "The Pirate Ship".

Christine and her husband, Dave, actually left the fair for a while, and took Judah & Jack back to my parents' house so that the boys could nap.  They met back up with us around 6pm--just in time for the ox pull!

This was my dinner--heaven.  I'd been waiting 3 months for this.

Okay, this post is getting quite long, so I'm going to finish up the fair photos in a separate entry!