A family staycation, part two

Finally the part two. It's taken a bit for me to get here ...

We wrapped up our week of staycationing with a trip to the Allen County Fair, or Buzz's Fair as we call it in our house. The girls wait all year for this to roll around and will ask at various intervals "When is Buzz's fair?" Yes, thoughts of a fair are nice in January.

Tuesday

All six of us descended onto the fairgrounds on Tuesday to take in the animals, rides and other fair sights (a clown on a Segway was Tracy's favorite). I commend the fair organizers for the petting zoo they attract. While the kids love the fair animals, this petting zoo really is a hit.

Featuring everything from two small kangaroos to four very large turtles and a skunk, it's almost more input that a small child's senses can take. What's best is that they have feed pellets and carrot pieces the kids can feed freely to the animals. Alena, Alivia, Trace and Alysse all loved it. No one was still one minute, moving from one animal to the next, not able to decide which animal was their favorite.

Our trip also involved the obligatory fair rides. These four are fearless when it comes to riding and would do so all day long if given the chance. There's even the occasional fit when the ride stops, everyone gets off and we want it to keep going.

Animals + rides = when you are 18 months old and so excited to take it all in that you just can't stand it.

Thursday

The older girls returned to the fair on Thursday with dad to watch a Buffo performance, eat ice cream and ride the big kid rides. They love this time with him and gives them a chance to do "big kid" things without having to stop for baby snacktime and diaper changing.

Trace and Alysse also seemed to like a day by themselves too. They had free roam of the house, were able to play with anything and everything they chose and life with two kids is a real vacation for mom when she's used to four.

Saturday

Our final new adventure of the week was Saturday's trip to church. Rewind four years and four children ago and Jason and I were fairly regular in our church attendance. Fast forward through crying, whining and screaming and not so much.

I've missed it. He's missed it. The kids need it. So we went.

Sitting at a stoplight on our way, as a battle was breaking out in the backseat and Alysse was doing her usual car squawking/talking, I had to ask out loud, "And we're taking this to church?"

We were and we did. We managed to last the entire service, were not told not to come back and left the church standing when we left. Neither Jason or I could tell you what the sermon was about, but we did it. And dare I say it's bound to get easier. The girls actually seemed to like the experience and Alena has talked about going to church this weekend.