For the last couple of years, Matthews company picnic has been held at the State fairgrounds in Salem. They pay for our admission, and have a huge BBQ for all the employees. Perhaps the most exciting part, at least for the kids that is, is that we also get a bunch of free ride tickets. Isn't that always the best part of the fair when you are little? Other than the greasy fair food, of course!
After we ate lunch, our first stop was the petting zoo. They offer a ice cream cone filled with food for $5.00, or something absurd like that, but people tend to get mobbed by the animals when they come in with tasty treats, so we skipped that and went straight to petting. There were all sorts of cute animals, like this deer:
And my favorites, wallabies! They were really calm, and so very soft. The kids spent a lot of time petting these little guys:
They had teeny tiny little paws!
Next up, a gigantic tortoise. AND...tortoise poop! If you have ever wondered what tortoise poop looks like, now you know:
This year they had a neat area set up to promote the new Lego sets, Ninjago. The little guys in the sets are all different colored Ninjas, and we found each of them built bigger than life size out of Lego bricks. They were really neat, and of course the kids wanted to get their picture taken with each one:
In the tent area, the kids watched a short video about the Ninjago ninjas, and then they got to go outside to build their own Lego ninja guy and learn how to spin it on a device that looked like a top:
Once they got that part down, they were ready for battle! Rowan and Killian chose to battle each other up on stage:
It was the best 2 out of 3, and Killian won, taking home the grand prize...bragging rights over his sister. They each got a Ninjago poster to take home, and we even made it out of the tent without succumbing to siren call of the gift shop we had to walk through to get outside.
We headed over to the rides next, and considering that Rowan is currently completely obsessed with lions, tigers, and other big cats, it wasn't surprising that this was the first ride they wanted to go on:
I love Rowans expression!
They choose the swings next:
More cute expressions captured on the bumper cars:
The kids were having so much fun riding rides that I had to join in too! Our first ride was the hang gliders:
It really felt like we were flying, and the kids loved it. So much that that they went on it together two more times. It went so high up!
At least, I thought that was high up, until Killian and I got strapped in to go on the super swing set:
This one was *really* high! I didn't get a picture of the entire ride, but Matthew took this one while we were zinging around up there....nothing but sky!
Happy to have our feet back on solid ground, we headed off to check out the animals. On our way, we passed this woman, who's dreads I was totally admiring until I got closer and realized they were really a wig. Still cool though!
We finally made it to the animals, my favorite part of the fair! We saw some ginormous cows:
And adorable little piglets:
I just love how they sleep with their arms around each other. So sweet!
We also saw these gorgeous curls:
Who belonged this this pretty girl:
A few hours later, our ride tickets were gone, our feet were throbbing, our tummies were full and there was nothing left that we wanted to see...another successful trip to the State Fair!
After we ate lunch, our first stop was the petting zoo. They offer a ice cream cone filled with food for $5.00, or something absurd like that, but people tend to get mobbed by the animals when they come in with tasty treats, so we skipped that and went straight to petting. There were all sorts of cute animals, like this deer:
And my favorites, wallabies! They were really calm, and so very soft. The kids spent a lot of time petting these little guys:
They had teeny tiny little paws!
Next up, a gigantic tortoise. AND...tortoise poop! If you have ever wondered what tortoise poop looks like, now you know:
This year they had a neat area set up to promote the new Lego sets, Ninjago. The little guys in the sets are all different colored Ninjas, and we found each of them built bigger than life size out of Lego bricks. They were really neat, and of course the kids wanted to get their picture taken with each one:
In the tent area, the kids watched a short video about the Ninjago ninjas, and then they got to go outside to build their own Lego ninja guy and learn how to spin it on a device that looked like a top:
Once they got that part down, they were ready for battle! Rowan and Killian chose to battle each other up on stage:
It was the best 2 out of 3, and Killian won, taking home the grand prize...bragging rights over his sister. They each got a Ninjago poster to take home, and we even made it out of the tent without succumbing to siren call of the gift shop we had to walk through to get outside.
We headed over to the rides next, and considering that Rowan is currently completely obsessed with lions, tigers, and other big cats, it wasn't surprising that this was the first ride they wanted to go on:
I love Rowans expression!
They choose the swings next:
More cute expressions captured on the bumper cars:
The kids were having so much fun riding rides that I had to join in too! Our first ride was the hang gliders:
It really felt like we were flying, and the kids loved it. So much that that they went on it together two more times. It went so high up!
At least, I thought that was high up, until Killian and I got strapped in to go on the super swing set:
This one was *really* high! I didn't get a picture of the entire ride, but Matthew took this one while we were zinging around up there....nothing but sky!
Happy to have our feet back on solid ground, we headed off to check out the animals. On our way, we passed this woman, who's dreads I was totally admiring until I got closer and realized they were really a wig. Still cool though!
We finally made it to the animals, my favorite part of the fair! We saw some ginormous cows:
And adorable little piglets:
I just love how they sleep with their arms around each other. So sweet!
We also saw these gorgeous curls:
Who belonged this this pretty girl:
A few hours later, our ride tickets were gone, our feet were throbbing, our tummies were full and there was nothing left that we wanted to see...another successful trip to the State Fair!