Picture voting, thanks and other things

For those of you who voted on the 'Blast from the Past' picture, thanks! It was actually Ayden, as most of you voted. Here is Tate's version of that picture:

Thanks for voting! I wasn't sure that my kids looked alike enough to do that, but I figured as long as I didn't put their pictures side-by-side, I was good.

So, I forgot to thank my mother for watching the kids while we ran around Seattle during the City Chase. She was so wonderful even though we got home about two hours later than we anticipated. Thanks mom! We love you! And the kids keep asking when Grandma is going to come again?!?!?!

If you've already read Holley's blog, you know that we went to the Northwest Washington State Fair. If you haven't read Holley's blog, go there after you read this one, she has even more pictures of the kids.

Anyway, Holley and Grant invited us out for a day of fun that included biking (with the kids), lunch out, and trip to the fair. Our first item was a bike ride with the kids in the bike trailer on the Interurban trail in Bellingham. I was very apprehensive because I needed to pull both kids in the trailer and both of them with the trailer comes to around 80 pounds. But it worked out so well, that I still kind of can't believe it. I even managed to pull the kids up this fairly steep hill without stopping! We rode from Fairhaven to downtown Bellingham, stopped and had lunch, and biked back. What a nice way to start the day.

Then we headed over to the fair and went animal viewing. That was by far the most popular thing to do at the fair. Well, the boys did like the tractors too, but Ayden wanted only to see the animals.
You can see the rear of this HUGE steer named Ben that weighed 3,500 lbs. but the kids were focused on the little guy next to Ben who was, of course, the mean one.

Getting to pet a baby goat. I missed getting Ayden, she petted one with Heidi.
Luckily Heidi came with us! Even though the kids did a great job they were on the tired side and wanted to be carried most of the day, so the extra set of arms came in very handy!
This is hard to see, but we went into this arena and were watching the horses and riders in an event (Holley and Heidi know more about this than me). But Ayden, like I said before, was fascinated with watching the horses (that she ADORES, thanks to Holley).
A new calf that had been born just a few hours before we got there.

Ayden really adored the poultry house because the birds were at her level.

There are a lot of cows!
We were all impressed by how clean the teens and other kids kept the animal areas. They were always cleaning up!

The boys loved the tractors.
We had a great day out, with very tired kids at the end.