What did we do this week?

We went to the state fair!

Twice!! (Thanks Tif for the extra tickets)

The Oregon State fair is held at the fairgrounds here in Salem that happen to be not far down the road from our house, so we had to go.

We went once last year, but the boys were a little younger and not really into it (especially Logan who was only 6 months and Clark was in his I don't like to be close to animals stage), but this year was so much fun. Both boys absolutely loved it.

With Brian not in school this year, we could go during the day and during the week which is really nice. We went Tuesday morning and spent a few hours before heading home for naps and then Brian took Clark back that night (since we could get back in free with our hand stamps) for some more fun. Then our friend Tif had extra free tickets from work and since Clark had been bugging us non stop to go to the zoo park (what he calls the fair) again, we took Tif up on the offer for free tickets and went again Thursday morning! Crazy but so much fun.

With so much time spent at the fair this week, there are more than a couple of pictures to share so I did collages of the main events to save it from being a really LONG post, so here you go:

The petting zoo was the boys absolute favorite I think. We had to visit every time we were there. Along with the normals goats, sheep, baby pigs and Llamas, they also had deer and a kangaroo you could pet as well. Clark and Logan LOVED the kangaroo (Clark even tried to pick him up to take him home with him, but the Kangaroo really didn't like that and jumped away). Clark also like the deer and Logan enjoyed all of the baby goats. It really was a lot of fun to watch these two run around and pet all the animals.

The reptile tent is right next to the petting area as well and they had lots of cool things to look at as well. The big turtles were the favorite there, but they also like the alligators, snakes and lizards. Logan likes to look in any cage and Clark likes the snakes as long as they are in their cage (they had some snakes sleeps or moving around in the trees above the cages and Clark really didn't like those...but Mom can't blame him because she really wasn't a fan of the up close encounter with the snakes either.)

Then, also next to the petting zoo, is Kidsville which is an area that the kids can experience different things Like driving little tractors, panning for gold, milking cows and cleaning out the stalls (I didn't get a picture of Clark cleaning up the fake poo, but he is a great stall cleaner!)

Clark loved milking the cow and trying to lasso the cows. Logan liked riding the tractors backwards and while Clark enjoyed playing in the corn kernels (instead of sand in a box, it was corn) Logan really didn't' enjoy the bear feet in the corn at all!

Thursday we found the science tent and spent at least an hour in there while the boys explored. Logan loves the air tubes with the balls especially if he could get the balls to fly. Clark had a great time with building lots of things, even tried working with screws and bolts, and both both boys loved the magnet wall that had parts to build tracks for marbles of roll down. I am pretty sure we carried Logan out screaming when it was time to go and only got Clark out of this area with the promise that we could go pet the animals next. It was a really fun place and even Mom and Dad found some challenging tasks in the science area. (There is also a random picture of Clark eating his snocone in this collage as well. This is Clark's favorite thing to eat at the fair and he calls them ice juice and is convinced he needs one every time we were there.) Finally a few more random pics from our time at the fair.

Clark went on a few rides this time (he really doesn't like ones that move fast still...freaked out on the little car ride he wanted to do, but he was brave and went down the big slide on Dad's lap-no pics of that though since it was when just Dad and Clark went). Clark did love the little canoe ride though and rode that one a couple times. Clark and Dad also did the sky tram ride at Clark request and Clark enjoyed that quite ride over the entire fair.

We also saw Smokey the Bear at the fair and the boys wanted to go meet him. Clark freaked out when he even got close to Smokey. Logan, however, eventually went to meet him. He wasn't quite so sure of the big bear, so he took his time getting close. Smokey played peek-a-boo with him until Logan finally decided he was okay to talk with. It was super cute to watch. We did and saw many things I didn't get pictures of. The boys loved seeing all of the animals in the livestock barns. Clark's favorites were the chickens I think, but the horses were close second. Logan like the BIG pigs and the goats. It is so fun to watch these two get excited about things. Overall, the did boys great at the fair. We enjoyed our quality family time, played a few games, ate a little food and had a wonderful time exploring the fair. Then we all enjoyed nice long naps when we returned home! :)