First State Fair Visit of 2012

So we made it to the State Fair on opening weekend on Sunday. It was rainy when we first arrived but cleared up and was beautiful. Here are some photos of what we did.

Of course, we checked out the Creative Arts building.

Me with the spotted cat photo.

The cutie patootie with the photo of him.

The boy with S.

Let me back up a second. The FIRST thing we did was go to the food building. On the way to that building, we saw Big Tex and heard him talk. LM is still talking about this. All of his teachers and friends at school have heard about Big Tex. It was clearly a highlight for him. Once in the food building, the boy and I had a cinnamon roll and S, who is trying to eat gluten free, had a tornado tater. Then we went to the creative arts building. On the way into the building, we ran into a co-worker of mine and his wife, as well as a couple of their friends. They had just been in to see my photos. When I saw him at work the next day, he said to me, "Don't take this the wrong way, but your husband is dreamy." Dreamy. That's what he said. Ha. Apparently, after we ran into them, a conversation ensued about how good looking my husband is. Of course, I totally think he is dreamy, but this whole thing cracked us both up. Funny. 

The photographer and the boy, who found a paci in his jacket. 

While in the Creative Arts building, we also saw our friend Jennifer Henry's three submissions that placed in different categories, enjoyed the butter sculpture about the Girl Scouts 100th anniversary, admired the quilts and other amazing entries in many different categories, including a cooking contest and the "glue a shoe" winners. After that building, we walked through some exhibitor buildings and headed for the cars. It seems one day I am going to eventually have to get a new car. So, we looked at some options. 

I'm sure the fact the boy was "driving" is no surprise to you.

The mirrors looked good too.

When it came time for us to collect actual info about the vehicles, LM did this.

Then we walked by the Chinese lantern festival.

I wanted to check this out, but after paying for entry, they want an additional $19 to go in here.Um. No.

So the boys made like butterflies.

After that, it was time for a snack.

And rides!

Here is a short video that is already way too long.

Why did I take this video? Because there are family movies of me doing the same thing as a kid. It's nostalgic for me. Reminds me of my childhood. So there.

Then, the slide with Daddy!

And then this happened. So, it was a good day.

We'll make it several more times before the end of the fair, we hope. But the first day is in the books for 2012, and we had fun.

See you soon.

First Visit to the Pumpkin Village

When we went to the Arboretum to take photos of Kim's family, S and LM went along and played in the pumpkins while we took photos. Then, we had some fun together!  Here are some photos:

This is where we first came upon the boy.

He had collected two sticks.

He was apparently wielding said sticks in the pumpkin village when he came across another young boy. S instructed him to say "hello" to the boy. LM decided this meant to "anoint" the boy on the head with the sticks. Ahem. Oh brother. They then exchanged pleasantries, so apparently it was well within "boy" code for "hello" after all!

The posed shot for Mama.

Oh these two are too cute!

This year, there is a "Cinderella Carriage"

Even the boy posed in the pumpkin carriage.

These little pumpkins became a "thing"...

LM started picking these up and pummeling them toward the ground. I told him he could not throw the pumpkins. So, he started just dropping them. I then said, "LM, you cannot throw the pumpkins or drop the pumpkins. You can ROLL the pumpkins..." To which he immediately said, "I KICK the pumpkin." Clearly I had not covered kicking. Ahem. I said to him, "Little Man, that's cute right now, but so won't be cute when you're seven!" Um, no - no KICKING pumpkins either.

He LOOKS innocent...

Uncle Mark took this one.

Kim had offered to take some photos of our family while we were there. The thing was, I didn't put on make-up. So, I waved off her generous offer. But, once in the patch, Mark asked if we wanted a photo and I thought, what the heck. And it turned out alright, no?

Oh - and rolling pumpkins included letting them go down the side of this pumpkin!

But seriously, how can I resist that face? 

We had a nice time for just a little bit, before we headed out to beat the heat and go on about our day. We are returning in a week or so with all the cousins for the annual pumpkin photo! I'll show you here, of course! It should be fun, too.

See you soon.

Kim's Family

Last weekend, when I rented that lens to try it out, I also took some shots of Kim's family at the Arboretum. They were very easy to photograph - here are some of my favorites:

Here is the whole group, with some Chihuly.

The Chihuly is still out there, so we wanted to try one spot where we could maybe have some Chihuly in the frame. These also turned out to be my favorite group shots. We did some on the stairs, and I didn't pay enough attention to people's heads moving or the girls not looking, and we did a big shot in sun - just to try it, and they are also not as good, in my opinion. But this set turned out several good shots, I thought.

This is the best of the "stair" photos...

We caught some good ones of just this family on the stairs, though!

Best of the uncomfortable sun photos.

But we caught some nice ones of Matt and Laura at this location!

Then some smaller group shots turned out well at a fourth location.

Mama and her girls!

Dad and the girls.

Mimi and Alexandra.

So sweet.

Sophia was done with photos by this time, though...ha.

We caught this cute one anyway!

Since Alexandra was posing so nicely, we took some others of her.

I loved having that rented lens. I plan to purchase it or another one like it sometime soon. It's quite the investment, though, so I'm saving my pennies and renting each one so I can make sure I get the one I really want to invest in. It was nice we had such great weather this morning - good light. It was starting to warm up by the time we ended, but it still wasn't too bad in the shade. It was fun to try to shoot a larger family unit - I haven't done that much! So, it was a great experience for me.

See you soon.