Is Big Tex Real?

Last weekend we made a trip to the Texas State Fair. Wes had been before, but the girls and I had not, so we decided to make use of their free (you know me) tickets from school.

We enjoyed some fun rides, yummy food (funnel cake is my friend) and petting all the different kinds of animals.

I wanted to go on the HUGE carousel, but at the last minute Avery and Abby changed their mind about going on it. I am not sure if it was because it was incredibly tall or if the thought of waiting in a long line discouraged them. We will definitely have to try it again some time.

The excitement is building! Their poor driver!


Ready to take off!


Brave little girl bouncing around way up high!

Riding the sky ride as a family.

Our favorite part of the fair was the Children's Barnyard area. We bought a few cups of food to feed the animals and really enjoyed petting them and watching them. There were pigs, sheep, yaks, gazelle, camels, miniature horses, dogs, cats, kangaroos, ostriches, donkeys, cows and even a giraffe. We were surprised how many animals they had. Several of them were born during the fair. Avery and Abby learned that baby pigs have squishy hooves. They petted the little piglets for quite a while as they just laid there asleep. I was amazed that all the animals let so many people touch them.

Cute kangaroo!

The sheep were so soft!

I felt sorry for the giraffe being all cooped up there.

When Abby saw Big Tex she asked if he was real. Wes explained that he was not and proceeded to tell her how his social club in college, Galaxy, stole Big Tex and took him all the way to Abilene to be in the homecoming parade as part of the Galaxy float. (This was years before Wes was in the club.) Hopefully, the girls will not get any bright ideas from this lovely story.

That evening we stayed the night in Dallas. When we first entered our room we could hear what sounded like a heard of elephants above us. Keep in mind it was about 10:00. After the girls had showered the noise (or pounding, I should say) had not subsided. Wes called the front desk who let him know other complaints had been called in, and a manager was on his way up. 20 minutes later it had not died down at all. Wes went upstairs to check if out. Turns out, it was a coach staying with 9 players. Not a brilliant idea in the first place!!! The manager was still up there and told Wes we could change rooms. Another family was already moving, too.

We got to move to a large suite plus we got $20 taken off our bill, since we had to move our stuff and tired girls at 11:00 at night. The girls slept in until 8:45 which was quite nice. I love those thick curtains that hotels have that block out the sunlight and keep it nice and dark. I wish we could have hung around for a bit and enjoyed the suite, but we needed to get on the road to Abilene for a wedding after a stop at ACU.