New Soccer Game and the Ottawa County Fair

As one of his Christmas gifts from his Uncle Chad and Aunt Kathi, Grant received a huge inflatable soccer set. We decided to haul it out last week, and Grant just loved it. You can assume by just looking at the pictures, however, that Uncle Chad and Aunt Kathi do not have any kids of their own yet, as the sheer size of the inflatable ball and goal makes any individual with a lack of storage space in the garage wince (the set also comes with a giant hockey stick and puck by the way). The alternative explanation is that, even though they knew it was enormous, Uncle Chad and Aunt Kathi intentionally sought out to purchase something this large, laughed at the thought of Eric trying to put the thing somewhere in the garage as they were wrapping it up for Christmas, but figured Grant would think it was super cool and it wouldn't be their problem to store! Just messing with you, Chad and Kathi - we still love you and totally appreciate the gift! (We are glad it doesn't require batteries and at least it was an inflatable sports set and not a giant inflatable snowman that some people so proudly display in their front yards during the holidays - don't get any ideas for this Christmas!)
Last night we decided to head out to the Ottawa County Fair. I have not been to this fair in years. If I remember correctly, the last time I went was when I was in elementary school. What was always great about this fair growing up was the fact that my dad used to have to do some of the electrical work. The last night of the fair was always a late night for him, but it was a great next morning for us, as he would come home with a bunch of fair food that the vendors were getting rid of!! Cotton candy, caramel apples, caramel corn...a little kid's dream, a dentist's nightmare! Anyway, it was a beautiful night last night, so we met up with some friends, Kevin and Emily, and took the kids to check out what the fair had to offer. We checked out the animal barns, and the kids got to pet all different kids of farm animals.
Trent and Grant loved sitting on the tractors!

And...they even got to go on one of the rides - the train. The look on their faces was priceless!

We went to the grandstand for a while, but there wasn't a whole lot of action at that point yet, and when you have two active two year olds who don't have a whole lot of sit in them, our time in the grandstand lasted all of 5 minutes.

If you had to ask Grant (and maybe even Eric) what the best part of his evening was, he would say the food. What's better than fair fries and onion rings (well, maybe elephant ears, which we did not get tonight)! I don't have a picture, but I can tell you how my son eats food he really likes. He doesn't just take one item at a time. For instance, with the fries, it's all about fist fulls. He fills both hands up with fries, eats the fries in one of his hands, and saves the ones in the other. Then he digs back in the fry container with the empty hand for more. While he has not told me his rationale behind this, it is my assumption (and it's likely true!) that he keeps one hand full while eating with the other so that when the cup of fries is gone, he still has more available and can enjoy them a bit longer than everyone else! Hmmm....smart, but selfish???

We had a great time.