A Two-Year-Old’s Experience
If you have never been to the Kansas State Fair, you are missing out. When I was a kid, our trip to the State Fair was a much-anticipated annual event.
I haven’t lived in Kansas for almost 15 years, but since Lillyan’s grandparents are all still there, we happened to be visiting at just the right time this year. Lillyan got her first taste of the Kansas State Fair.
The Kansas State Fair, understandably, is big on livestock. When we first arrived, she watched a cow being milked. This has been a curious subject at our house, as we drink raw milk in Las Vegas and have plenty of cows in our pasture in Colorado, but, until now, she’s never seen one actually being milked except on youtube (we answer a lot of 2-year-old questions with youtube).
As we made our way through the steers, sheep, horses, goats, turkeys, chickens, pigeons, and rabbits, Lillyan kept asking, “Where is the pig section? I want to see the pigs. Can we please go to the pig section?”
When I was a kid, we weren’t allowed to go on any rides at the State Fair. They cost too much money, they were too dangerous, we had too many other things to see, blah blah blah. Apparently, that rule only applies to children and not to grandchildren. Right after the livestock tour was complete, Pappy asked Lillyan if she wanted to ride some rides. They started with the Skyway.
The skyway travels high above the Fair from one end to the other.
From high above the Fair, Lillyan spotted something else she just couldn’t wait to ride.
“The PIN WHEEL!” No matter how many times we told her it was called a ferris wheel, she kept forgetting and continued to call it a pinwheel.
Now, don’t forget, Lillyan is less than 3 feet tall and only 2 and a half, but she wasn’t in the least bit nervous about this huge ride.
She loved every second of it, including the part when we got stuck at the very tippy top for a long time.
Next, she drove a couple of strangers around in this purple hotrod.
While it was fun at first, just driving in a circle got boring really quickly. Lillyan is into rides that go faster and higher.
Pappy just kept handing out the tickets, and Lillyan just kept riding rides …
The State Fair isn’t just for animals and carnival rides. Like all the 4-H kids in Kansas, I worked all summer to have some project worthy of the State Fair. Maybe someday Lillyan can be a 4-H kid, too. For now, she seemed to be into these very nice looking pumpkins.
One pumpkin in particular caught her eye:
According to Lillyan: “That is a HUGE PUMP-IN!” We’re talking an 800+ pound pumpkin.
They also have all kinds of livestock equipment, as-seen-on-TV products, log cabins, farm implements, whirlpools, quilts, food, photography … if there’s anyway you might need it in Kansas, they’ve got it.
Lillyan decided we needed this for Liberty Ridge Ranch.
A six-seater would sure be nice — and we can even drive it to town (and in town) in our Colorado county!
One of these would sure be nice at the ranch, too. Lillyan is sure she could learn to drive it.
We love you tube educations! Everytime the kids want to know something, they ask if we can go watch it on the computer. Just yesterday, we learned how crickets really make that chirpping noise.
Oh, and I can borrow the bobcat for redgate when you are done?
I totally know what you mean about the new rules for grandchildren, particularly when it comes to spending money at Christmas. I’m thinking, “Are you really the same people?”