I love fall time a  ton. Of course my favorite thing to do is go to our local fair. It opened up Friday night, but we didn't go until Sunday. We got there just after it opened (10am), so we missed the traffic. We do know all the backroads to get to the fair grounds, so traffic wouldn't have been a big problem anyway. It's called the Topsfield Fair and has been around for 190 years! It is America's oldest agricultural fair.

So, we get there and park and head into the grounds. The first thing we go into is the sportsman building. Hubby see's a buddy of his and starts chatting while Matt and I check out the Curious Creatures booth. Matt and I got to pet a skunk (stinker removed of course), frog, and a scorpion. Well, the kid wouldn't let us pet the scorpion. Of course Matt goes to me "It looks like Scorponok". (Transformers) As I was telling Matt that this one won't transform, is when the kid was down near us and chuckled a little. They also had this huge iguana that just didn't wantto stay put and ended up climbing above the camo netting that was attached to the rafters and tried to make a run for it outside. The kid did manage to get the escape artist and stuck him in the Water Dragons tank. In time out as I called it.

From there we headed to check out the flowers and garden displays. Stupid me, I forgot I had my camera on me, so I didn't get any pictures of the pretty gardens.

Next was the climbing pole. I always loved watching kids and adults try to climb this very tall metal pole. It starts out thick and then gets very thin as it goes up. It is also very slippery. One kid (probably about 10) made it up. Of course he had already done it 3 times that day, but Matt didn't see those times, so this one really impressed him. Now he wants to head to the park to practice on the firemans pole there. LOL

Produce building was next. Apparently the local homeschool group I belong to hada ton of pumpkins entered in this section, but I didn't find out until later on when I was home. Of course they had the HUGE pumpkin winner there. This years weights in at 1,464 lbs.

If you want to buy the seeds from this pumpkin, it was like $5.00 per 3 seeds or something nuts like that.

We visited all the animal buildings. I love chickens and was showing my hubby which ones I would like to have once we move. They also had huge turkeys there. I was showing Matt the difference between a male and female turkey by just looking at their heads. I had my finger pointed, no where near the cage, when the female turkey lunged out and bit my finger I was pointing with. That darn bird hurt a ton. Apparently she did it againto someone not 3 minutes after she bit me. Here I was telling Matt not to stick his fingers in the cage (another mom even moved Matt's hand away from one cage) and I get bit by this stupid (obviously hungry) bird.

After seeing all the cows, sheep, pigs, and birds, Matt and I headed to the Rabbit and Cavie building. This is Matt's favorite building. He loves how HUGE some of these rabbits are. Our rabbit is an oversized (aka fat) dwarf, and looks like the size of some of these rabbits heads. Anyway, the building was practically closed as all the 4-Hers were showing their rabbits. This of course ment we could not check any of them out. One thing that bumed me out about all the animals is that I did not see one GOAT! I love goats and kept going (like a little kid would) "Where are the goats?".

Food was next. Of course Matt and I had some fried dough. You can't not go to a fair and not get some fried dough. We also had Chinese from a placethat is right near our house (don't ask LOL), German Fries (yum), and apple crisp. Well, I ate that myself. LOL.

Steve had to run to find an ATM and was also running out sweatshirts to the car. When the sun came out, it warmed up enough to just be in our long sleeve shirts. So while he was doing that, Matt was playing around on these tractors and mules.

Right next to all these tractors, we an National Guard hummer. Of course I had to take a picture per matt's request. It was a pretty cool hummer and had 7 tv screens and a sweet sound system in it. Of course a moive was playing, Ironman.

Next we hit all the rides. Bumper cars was the big hit. Steve and Matt went on together first, then Matt went on alone.

Next year he will be the perfect size for all the adult rides. He is just tall enough for them now, but only by 1 or 2 inches. Matt also had to go on his favorite truck ride. he always manages to get the same orange truck. As you can tell from the picture, this is Matt's last year on this ride. It took him a bit to get out of it after the ride was over.

Next up for rides was the fun houses and the glass house. Then we hit the "scary" stuff. Matt loves horror stuff almost as much as I do (I grew up with Freddie and Jason after all). Matt went on the Haunted Mansion ride with Steve before heading over to thehaunted house. Both of which Matt said were not scary at all.

By the time all the rides were done, it was nearly 3pm. We were exhausted and decided to head home. As we were leaving, the crossing guard said to us that soem of the people stuck in the traffic to get to the fair, had been stuck for 1 1/2 hours! I am so glad we got there early as we did. We drove past about 5 miles of traffic of people trying to get to the fair.