Hood River County Fair and My kids are dirty and smell bad

After ignoring the kids most of the morning, we decided to surprise them with a trip to the county fair. You should have seen the look on her face! Oh wait, here's the look on her face:

He was passed out. We call this the Jaco Taco.

This was pretty much your regular county fair, except instead of having a variety of fried food, the tents were predominantly Mexican food. One tent was tacos, one was quesadillas, one was burritos, and one was everything else. It was very civilized and nobody was in competition. You simply went to whichever tent had the dish you wanted. 

We headed down to the arena to see a barrel racing demo, and I saw a little girl and a pony. So, of course I told M there were pony rides and would she like to ride one. Yes, of course! I went up to the lady giving the pony rides, and she said, "aw, that's so sweet, you can watch the demonstration if you'd like."

Apparently this pony belongs to a four year old barrel racer and that was her polite way of saying that it's not a pony ride horse.

I met the four year old girl, and she was pretty cute. She was going to barrel race in her little tutu. The other two girls were her friends, and one is a rodeo queen! Yee haw! Feels like Texas. It was all very sweet and fun, and M was super happy.

 We headed over to the livestock show, then checked out the pigs and cows in the barn.

After, we took in some rides, gave the rest of our tickets away, and got the heck out of there. It was hot!

Jesse wanted to stop at the hardware store on the way home, so the kids and I decided to have a little fun in the store.

***Warning to grandparents: the following paragraph has graphic descriptions of your precious grandchild having an owie, but I promise that the ending is ok...***

It was all fun and games until she started weightlifting tape canisters. 

Next thing we know, one of them breaks, and she is gushing blood literally all over the store. By the time I got her to the bathroom and washed it off, I realized it was a tiny but deep cut. A band aid would suffice, but man that girl can scream. Fun is over, time to go home! (Wound is healing nicely and she got a new box of Hello Kitty band aids out of the deal.)

Back at the farm, Jesse decides to put his new tools to use. His goal for the weekend is to trim the giant tree enough to put a tire swing on giant branches above.

He spent the entire weekend under the tree. We had a tick check every day. He spotted about three of them throughout the process. I'm going to accept that checking ticks is going to be a regular thing out here, especially when they're under that tree. We talked about it at length and M has been shown what they look like. Not a fan!

The first time we visited the farm, we were driving back and I saw one crawling on Jesse's neck while he was driving. I didn't know what it was, so I put it in an airtight baggie. When I realized what it was, I wanted to show Jesse, but he was out of town. Two weeks later, I remembered I had it and pulled it out of my purse and handed it to him. He said, "It's still moving." "Can't be, I said, I pinched it about 20 times, and it's in an airtight bag." Something to ponder.

While Jesse was cutting into the tree, I found J in the orchard, staring at the pears. I asked him what he was doing, and he said he was looking for a purple one. 

Look at my kids. This is how the look all the time now. They're stinky and there is this dark brown stuff between every one of their toes that I can't get out for anything. No more flip flops on the farm for these two. Time to get them some boots!