The Short Story (Hopefully)

I just realized I never finished writing about our trip! How rude of me.
I believe we left off on Thursday, when the second storm rolled in.
There was much to see and do, and the first was to head to the fair!
No fair would be complete without rides

or prizes!

Shawn's beloved elephant-mouse-duck :D

We had a couple of VERY happy (and tired) kids when we went home for the night!

They had a blast!
Saturday was a full day too. We left the house early to get a good seat at the parade!

The morning included lots of drinks and ice pops as it got very hot, very quickly.

The kids had a good time regardless of the heat and instead focused on catching candy thrown from the parade participants!

Isabel's head would meet the middle of the wheel if she were standing right next to it!

Shawn LOVED the big machines. Isabel was astonished at how truly big some were in real life!
After the parade, we ate lunch with family and headed to the swimming pool to cool off for a bit. Next up was the turtle races!

Isabel's turtle

Thankfully, there were some turtles already caught for us when we got there, so we just checked our assigned numbers and let them race!

Shawn's turtle

Ours didn't win, but the kids had fun  cheering as the turtles "raced" to the finish line.
Then after a bit it was back to the fair again where more rides and fun was to be had!
Since it was the last night of fair, they had a fireworks show that surpassed what we saw in KC for the 4th of July!

Sunday morning we had breakfast with family and then headed back to the ranch. On our way we stopped by T-T Ranch one more time.

Cacti on the prairie

Dyl decided he wanted to pick through the scrap pile for some metal he could use in projects around the house. I busied myself directing the kids away from cowpies, cacti, sharp objects and snake watching. While taking pictures :D

A wheel of a very antiquated piece of farm equipment. Hoping to have one like it in our garden! 

Before there was Deere..

 Dyl found what he was looking for and off we went back to the ranch.

 But not before a picture of some cattle. What trip out here would be complete without one?

Hopefully we'll get the chance to come out this way around Thanksgiving. Big changes are headed our way after that, and we won't make it out before summertime next year. But that's another story for another time.