West Texas Fair and Rodeo 2015

We managed to get to the Fair earlier this week, much to the little boy's delight.  He remembered being in last year's tractor pull, and spent a few days brushing up on his cycling skills :)

He did way better than last year, 

and was quite proud to receive a ribbon for participating!

We moved into the exhibition buildings next to escape the heat and wind, and looked at the different entries for photography and art.  Some pieces of art were more recognizable than others for the little boy.

We looked all around the farm harvest/produce area, but couldn't find an exhibition of Texas-Sized Watermelons/fruit like last year.  To be honest, I think we were all a little disappointed.

One thing that was new this year, were the numerous "photo op" cut out deals that were placed along the main walk way.  The little boy ( and I ) stopped for a few shots on our way to the next building.  

We were entirely NOT surprised to see that Mamo had once again won several prizes.  One of her antique dolls even won the Chairman's Award! 

By now, we were feeling quite hungry but were a little unwilling to go out of the air conditioned room, back into the heat and wind to have the dinner that we had packed/brought along. So the hubs asked the lady in charge if we could use the little kitchenette corner in the building.

We were quite relieved when she said "yes".  At first I felt a little sheepish about eating in there, but yet too hungry to really bother with any stares we might have elicited.  One guy who walked in there with his family said to us, "Hey, that's what WE should have done!"

We were even entertained by the faint strains of the band playing in the next building.  ( We were glad they were in the next building and we were behind closed doors because the sound guys had the volume up really high!)

After dinner, we continued going through the exhibition booths, 

and got to pet a baby cow,

before heading onto the midway as it started getting toward dusk.

I love the color and sights and sounds ( and smells - what with all that roast turkey legs and funnel cakes etc ) of the carnival.  That combined with my favorite time of the day ( dusk ), was truly a beautiful sight.

My body ( inner ear? ) has started betraying me as far as fair rides go, and I can't do any of the outrageous rides that I used to love when I was younger,

but I was more than happy to accompany the little boy on a fairly tame roller coaster, a bear ride, a ride on the "Speedway", and down the Super Slide :)

Oh, and every ride was 1 ticket per person that night! w00t!

I'm glad the weather cooperated on the evening that we decided to go.  Till next year :)