State Fair of Texas

For the fourth (or possibly fifth?) year in a row we headed out to the State Fair of Texas!  I am not going to lie; even though there were great moments spread throughout- the State Fair was missing my two favorite things; the Kildares and the fried grilled cheese so in my opinion, it was a little womp womp (and not the best day of my life/best time ever like I say so many other times in this blog ;)).  That being said, we are undecided if we will be back next year :).  

When we got to the fair, I thought we should head for Big Tex immediately to make sure we got a picture while everyone was still in good spirits; however, I was forgetting that the lighting is terrible in the morning time, so I settled for this cute selfie with Big Tex's pants in the background.

We headed for the car show to check out the new 2016 Prius and while they didn't have it there, they had many red cars much to Emma's delight.

After bounding from red card to red car, Emma settled on this giant white van for her and baby Yoga and the five babies in her belly. Yes, you read that correctly.  There are five babies in her belly. Anyways, she named the van Gracie and kept reiterating to Wes that it would be wonderful for him to buy this for her and all her babies :).

She was quite sad when we pulled her away from her dream vehicle and even leaned in to give Gracie a kiss bye bye #thestruggleisreal.

We cheered her up with some ice cream and a family picture :).

This girl and her imagination, she is one of a kind :).

Next, we headed over to what we knew would be Emma's favorite spot of the day- the petting zoo!

And we were right, this girl was in her element.

I think she would love it if we lived on a farm and had goats and multiple dogs and cats.

LOVE this picture I got of her and the camel; he was so friendly and hungry maybe on the verge of hangry the way he was going after the food :).

While Emma was taking her time going back and forth to all of the animals, Everly and Wes made it through lickety split because girlfriend was getting tired.

She had fun along the way and was happy to be paired back up with Emma when they backtracked.

The minute Emma laid eyes on this pony, I could see her eyes light up as she declared him a unicorn.

The awe and wonder in her eyes was breathtaking as a parent; I just love seeing the world through her eyes.

I caught this angle where the light actually looks like a horn and both girls are looking in :); I think it will be so fun for them to look back on.

I have always been mildly afraid of zebra's so when the girls wanted to check it out, I kept my distance.

These two just make me happier than I ever thought possible.

Stare down | Everly Grace versus Alpaca :).

This sweet little goat loved Emma and Emma loved her right back.

Sharing plenty of food :).

Hand on the hip- I imagine that she is thinking 'ummmm, I am not sure I am going to share the last of my food with you, I already gave you some'.

Followed by, 'ok, ok you are really cute- here is some more food.'.

After the petting zoo, we went through the kids farming exhibit- but not before stopping to pose as a piggie, goat and farmer :).

The girls had a lot of fun taking in the farming experience, but I am not sure they are cut out for that lifestyle ;).

They were mostly excited about getting the snack at the end (which even brought out Emma's signature smile :)).

After resting for a bit, we got the girls a hot dog for lunch and this is where we discovered that they no longer make my favorite thing at the fair (the fried grilled cheese) :(. So I pouted. Just a little bit ;).

Somehow I pulled myself together and we got someone to take our family picture with Big Tex.

And just for fun, here is a look back at previous years :). 2014.

2013 (Evsie's was just a couple of months old!).

2012 (we only had one baby and were totally rocking the parenting gig ;)).

We made our way to the Dr. Pepper concert stage where the Kildares have played for the previous three years only to discover they just played the first week at the fair. Now, I was majorly pouting :).

But not Emma and Everly- they were oblivious that mommy's favorite band was not playing :) and they had a ball playing themselves :).

After the show, Emma was feeling especially motherly and was doling out the hugs and kisses to an unwilling baby Yoga.

Smooch a looch.

This sweet state fair employee saw the girls being super cute and asked if she could buy them a treat (don't worry I was supervising the whole experience - I didn't let the girls run off without me ;)); she really got a kick out of our girls.

We came back with the most ginormous snocone's you have ever seen.

Ev's reaction when daddy attempted to take a bite :).

We wrapped up our fair experience with letting Emma ride the elephants where she was so excited to find out that she was tall enough.

Super tall when you combine standing on your tippy toes with your three inch top knot your momma gave you ;).

Me and my riding buddy (Em's always ends up with me, Ev's always ends up with daddy).

Ready for take off and hesitating just a little.

This was her 'weeee' face :).

Her cautiousness gave out and she let excitement take over. I love seeing her excited and smiling like this.

Giving her elephant a hug and kiss goodbye :).

The girls fell fast asleep in the car on the way home so we drove them around while they continued to snooze and decided to head to our favorite little Mexican food joint for some yummy dinner (and to erase my pouting from earlier) where Ev's ate queso by the spoonful #getitgirl.

It was a fun (and delicious) ending to a rather mediocre day at the fair.