This may take awhile

We got back home yesterday afternoon after being gone since Wednesday. I had good intentions of posting a few times while we were on our "vacation", but my parents computer is s-l-o-w and there were usually kids to attend to. Anyway, here are a few highlights of the weekend:

• Do not rely on others to have cameras to use. My famous last words were, "I'm not bringing my camera." I don't like the thing--its big, its bulky, it has a horrible delay. I should've brought it. I had envisioned a post with pictures showing all the fun things we did. Will you get any pictures with this post? No. Why? Because my dad's camera was broken (until I fixed it after he had bought a new one that he couldn't pick up until today). My sister forgot to put the battery in hers (she's pregnant, so her brain cells are diminishing). Things were sorted out by Friday so a few pictures were taken. They all reside on my dad's computer or on my sister's camera.
• One of the first photo opportunities happened after we got there. Emma got to ride with Grandpa in his new John Deere self-leveling sprayer. If you have no clue about farming, then you had no idea what I'm talking about. And I had no camera to capture the moment. If you really want to see what it looks like, take a look at Emma on the right and picture her in this.
• The girls had fun at their first rodeo. I tried taking pictures of some of the hot lookin' cowboys, but I didn't want to seem obvious. They saw bucking bronco riding, bull riding, calf roping, steer wrestling, barrel racing, and mutton busting.
• Leah is scared of big cows (if you want the quick cattle tutorial, cows are females who have had calves; heifers are females who haven't had a calf yet; steers are males minus a few male parts; and bulls are males with all their glory. Even knowing all that, I will refer to all the cattle as cows). She likes the little cows. She doesn't like the chickens and roosters, they make too much noise. We saw some sheep and goats which were okay if we walked by them fast enough for Leah's taste. Neither one of the girls cared to see the pigs. (I don't blame them)
• The girls were destined not to ride rides. I hate fair rides anyway because they are so expensive, but if you go during wristband time you can get the most bang for your buck. We headed in on wristband night and got exactly 4 rides each before a huge storm blew through. We made it home before it hit. We decided to try a few more rides a different night, so I plunked down $20 for another 4 rides apiece. The girls got to ride one ride for about 30 seconds before a severe thunderstorm rolled through yet again. This time we had to take shelter in a big building (gotta feel safe with a dirt floor, steel roof, and huge wooden sliding doors--ha!). Finally yesterday we got to do a few more rides in the blazing heat and humidity. Fun times! But of course that was a favorite part of the fair.
• We also rode a "train" that does a loop around the fairgrounds. We could've gone on the train about 30 times each for the same amount of money that we spent on rides.
• I consumed my weight in beef the past week. I had no less than 5 hamburgers, one rib eye steak, and part of a hot dog that claimed to be all beef. Emma had 3 walking tacos (a small bag of Doritos opened lengthwise with taco meat and shredded cheese and sour cream--eat with a fork), 3 bowls of homemade ice cream, a cream soda, an orange soda, and various other treats. Who do you think gained more weight?!
• The fair is a big town reunion. I saw lots of old classmates/school mates/relatives/friends of the family. I even saw my first serious boyfriend--we did stop and chat for awhile. My classmates are trying to convince me I have to come back for our 15 year reunion in October. We shall see.
• Now we only have about 3 weeks until the State Fair--think county fair times 10!

Emma and I also got to go to the pool one day, our first time this summer. I am such a loser mom for not taking them more, and she really needs to get some swim lessons. She loves the water and did things like jumping from the side and even went down the water slide, but I would feel a little better if she had a few water skills.

We got our fill of family time. Both of my sisters and their sons were home at the same time. I know Grandma and Grandpa absolutely loved to have us all home and it was a lot of fun. Leah was able to tolerate her cousin G (who is 7 months younger but about 3" taller and outweighs her by a good 10-12 lbs) for a few days. By Saturday she couldn't stand him looking at her. "Don't look at me! He's looking at me!" The problem is mostly on her end because G is pretty easy going when he isn't acting his age (2). One solution my sister came up with was for him to wear glasses with googly eyes because then he wouldn't be looking at her. That seemed to satisfy her for awhile. Thankfully Sunday went a little better.

I thinks that's probably enough for one day, I'm sure I'll think of more later! Sorry you all had to miss out on the actual fun. ;)