Date Night: Texas State Fair

"Our State Fair is a great State Fair...."

If you know what song that is - you are basically my soulmate. Because that song was in my head the entire 5 hours we were at the fair grounds. 

So last year, I made the State Fair a "Friday Favorite" - but considering it now holds the title of "top three date nights" for two years in a row now, I decided it needed its own post. 

-Annual Big Tex Picture-

The past two years we've gone the Friday night before OU/TX weekend, and the crowds are shockingly small. And even though both years were on the same weekend, last year I was in shorts and a t-shirt, this year I was in jeans and a puffer. Ah, Texas. 

But both years I was in boots. #yeehaw

Side note: we also always take two empty Dr. Pepper cans and get half off admission. Yes, please. 

So we didn't necessarily plan to do this, but we ended up taking the same "route" as last year. Which actually made things quite easy (and you remember where the restrooms are!). Nevertheless, this is the first thing this guy will always do when he walks in the fair grounds. 

He's kind of obsessed with the prize-winning fried foods. Like the dedication is borderline unfortunate. We sniff out those things like dad gum blood hounds. And he won't stop until he's tried all that interest him. Sigh.

Now me? I'm pretty easy. I require a corny dog. Plain and simple. 

Who's high maintenance now? Huh? HUH? :)

After "dinner" we head to take our annual Big Tex picture (pictured above). This year we almost missed the sunlight due to the fried food search of 2016 - but at each booth I kept (not so) subtly pointing that out so we made it in time for our picture. :)

After Big Tex, we make our way around to the Magnolia Beer Garden which is one of my very favorite stops. It's always decorated in extreme fall manner with the cutest little "patio" feel. And twinkle lights come on after dark!

This place makes for some great people-watching ...as I'm sure you can imagine :) This year a parade happened to be going past us so we grabbed a drink and watched the lil show. 

My future husband is smokin'. 

Anywho - so after the beer garden we head on over to the auto show (insert fake and practiced enthusiasm here). Last year we stayed for a while, but this year we just took a quick stroll. And sure enough, when we walked out of the exhibit there was a fireworks/cirque de soleil show going on in the water right next door! So many fun surprises at the fair. You really never quite know what you're gonna get.
#thefairislikeaboxofchocolates

After the car show we make our way around to the wine festival. We only stopped this year for a potty break, and on my way to bathroom I see THIS.

I know her! I had the same dance teacher for 15 years growing up (her name is Miss Keely and she is the best in America), and this beautiful girl is her daughter! It's really cool to see blown up pictures of people you know in random public places :)

Next stop was one of my favorite stops - the petting zoo!!! (insert Katy vigorously clapping) I'm like a 5-year old. Give me all the animals.

So the first animal we saw when we walked in was a kangaroo - and I immediately started tearing up. I've been missing Australia a lot this past week, and when I saw this guy hopping around, it tugged on all the heart strings. 

You can't really tell in this picture, but he's sniffing my hand and saying things like, "oh hey you hung out with my cousin in Sydney and my bestie in Adelaide!" It actually made me sad to see them in Texas. Let the roos go home, mate.

We had to fight to let the baby goats eat. There were so many babies - but the big goats kept shoving them out of the way. Made me wanna drop kick them into the buffalo cage and give them a taste of their own medicine. But I refrained.

After the animals we washed our hands about 17 times, and then Jeff realized he hadn't eaten in over an hour. (It is considered a BIG problem at the fair if you give your stomach enough time to digest food before cramming more in.) SO, we took off to get him some dessert. And what did he choose?

Pecan pie poppers.

This boy loves him some pecan pie. I swear I turned around one minute later and all four of them were gone. Twas quite impressive.

We always end the night with a couple rides - you know, those that toss you upside down and all around. And this year I realized I laugh really hard on rides.
 Which means I have my mouth open the majority of the ride.
Which means I tend to drool on rides.
Which means Jeff doesn't like to sit next to me on rides.

Do they cover that in premarital counseling?

Anywho - this year we decided to end the night with some carnival games (which we didn't do last year). So at first I was all like, eh, this'll be entertaining... because I have extremely limited (i.e. none at all) hand and eye coordination. So I never win any prizes.

Lucky for me I have an extremely talented fiance!

He was a pitcher in his high school days so the first game we chose involved throwing a ball at three milk jugs (you had to knock them all down) and he made it happen!

SO THEY GAVE US A GIANT TIGER.

Y'all - I was expecting like a purse-sized stuffed unicorn and they hand him a giant white tiger that causes us to walk around the rest of the carni games like this.

I mean, never in my life.

We played a couple more games to no avail and then ended the night on a game where Jeff had to throw some balls and crack four plates. And that he did. So we got Brooklyn a fuzzy pink raccoon :)

And then I was all like "look at me with my schnazzy prizes my future hubby won me." #proud

Needless to say, we had some serious fun and got some good ole laughs at the carnival section. We will most definitely be keeping that in the fair date night rotation.

Then I brought the giant tiger home, and I'm pretty sure my pup thought he was being replaced.

Is that not the saddest little face you've ever seen?!

So the tiger now sits in the corner of Jeff's living room rather than at my house. No need to give my street dog any insecurities.

Ahhh I just love the fair so much. If you haven't been - you need to go (you still have a couple weeks!). And if you've never made a date night out of it, we highly suggest it. It's just the perfect place to act like a couple of kids. Sometimes adulting just needs to go by the wayside a lil bit.

Looking forward to many more fair date nights (and useless giant stuffed animals) with this one :)

Happy hump day everyone!

Until next time,
Katy