WNC Mountain Fair

Adam and I are huge fans of the WNC Mountain Fair.  So, it should come as no surprise that Kenly is a huge fan as well.  She rose the carousel when she was a month old.  I won her her first stuffed animal from the fair on that same trip.  It is a bit of a tradition around the Brand household.  Every year when they start setting up the big tents and the rides, we squeal with excitement every time we drive by.  When we finally visit, we're all so excited that we could be described as "disgustingly cute."  This year Mops and Pops joined on for our annual visit to the fair.  The first thing that Kenly wanted to do when she arrived was ride the carousel.  So, all the ladies paid for a ride and off we went.  Since I'm pregnant, I didn't attempt to mount a horse.  I might not have been able to dismount.  (None of these pictures have been edited.  I just wanted to get them on the blog before Whatzit arrives and I lose about two months of memories because I'm too spent to put them on the blog.)

I love that Kenly is wearing Benny Bunny like a scarf in this picture.  He goes everywhere...even the fair.

We didn't want to keep up with a stroller, so we used the most original form of transportation--Daddy's shoulders.

Adam really wanted to catch a pig race.  We've always wanted to go, but somehow we always just miss race time.  Adam and I put on pig hats.  Kenly would have none of that nonsense. 

We watched a few pig races, a goat race, and a duck race.  I think the "Indian Runner" duck race was my absolute favorite.

Aren't these ducks amazing?

I was selected from the crowd to compete to be WNC's Hog Queen. I take jobs like these very seriously.  I have no issue making an utter fool out of myself.  So, I cheered like mad for my pig---#5 Ruddy Martin.

And of course he was a front runner.  At one point he even stopped to give the other pigs a sporting chance.  We had the "pot bellied pig' connection, so he won.  After all, he was racing for cheese curls.

I'm getting my prize.

I was supposed to be able to kiss a pig as my reward.  He wouldn't let me actually do it though.  :(

After the races, Kenly wanted to ride a few more rides.  I think she rode the "Nemo" ride about 8 times.  Thank goodness we bought our ride tickets in advance so that they were half off.

She loved on the Chick-fil-A cow.  She even scored a free kids meal.

I can't do rides that spin because I have awful motion sickness issues.  Mops gladly took my place.  It's a good thing because Kenly is really good at spinning that wheel.

She rode the train as well.  She was really bummed because she wanted to drive the engine but she got stuck in the caboose instead.

So, she took matter into her own hands.  When the ride ended, she hopped out of the caboose and made a bee line for the engine.  Forget getting back in line.  The girl knows what she wants.  Thankfully there was not a long line, and the ticket taker let it slide once we paid for a second ride.

Kenly has always wanted to ride the sky buckets.  This year we felt confident that she could handle the ride.  She loved looking down on the midway at all the rides.  I think she would have taken the sky buckets five times if we would have let her.

We took a few minutes to check out some of the animals.  The Brahman cows are my absolute favorite.

Then we headed over to the big top to catch a family circus.  It was the first time that Kenly has seen any type of circus act.  She loved it until the tent became really hot.  Then she was ready to leave.  We managed to finish the show

After the circus, Pops sponsored a carnival game.  Kenly had to catch three fish to win a prize.

She's an expert angler, so she had no trouble completing the task.

She even got to throw her fish back.

There was one small problem.  Forget picking out  a prize.  The girl wanted to keep fishing.  It's  hard to walk away when the fish are biting.

She finally settled on a penguin for a prize.  Daddy bought some water to cool his girl off, so her disposition improved quickly.

Meet Penguin Dozie.  That's this fine fellow's name.

We rode the sky buckets again.  Adam managed to capture a few family pictures that I adore.  He also got a few of Mops and Pops in the sky bucket behind us.

I love the fair at night, but there is still something magical about the midway, even in the bright sunlight.

We thought Kenly would freak out when she rode the caterpillar roller coaster, but she shocked us all.   She never stopped smiling. 

Then Kenly got a chance to ride the carousel again.  Have I told you how much I love these two? 

Thumbs up fun.

Back to the Nemo ride, AGAIN!

Kenly was able to ride the kiddie version of the teacups all by herself.

She was spinning that wheel like crazy.  We were luck to be able to catch her face in a photo since she was spinning so fast.

Two thumbs up.  She is driving a boat like Papa.

She spent her last tickets riding this ride.  We convinced her to put her hands in the air so that she could enjoy the thrill of the ride. 

I think she's starting to understand why the fair is so much fun.  I think we've created a fair junkie. 

That's not a problem.  We're already addicted to the fair, and I'm afraid there is no cure for the desire to have some good fun.