Do The Puyallup!

Yesterday we went to the Puyallup Fair which is the biggest and best advertised fair here in Washington. I have gone almost every year since I was about 15, and have enjoyed it each year. Since Rachel and I have been married we have gone 5 times I think, and our interests in going have been slowly changing. We first went for the rides. They do have great rides there at the fair, don't get me wrong. Lots of jerk-you-around-twist-and-turn-flip-upside-down kind of rides. Roller coasters, a giant slingshot, ferris wheels and more. They have all the carnival games too, which we used to do when we first went. The good ones like shooting out all the red star, darts, knock over the bottles with a baseball, squirting water into a target to make your horse run across a track and tons of others. But for the last few years, we have gone more for the home and gadget show, and the art stuff and hobby hall than anything else. Now I guess you might say that all of that "artsy" stuff is pretty boring, and I can tell you that for a teenager, it is. But my desire to have my guts wrenched out and lose all my money playing unwinable carnival games has steadily decreased as I have gotten older. Especially since it costs a lot more now than it did when I was doing it. For the last three years, Rachel and I have made pretty big purchases at the fair. Partly because things are generally cheaper at the fair, and also because you don't have to pay sales tax at the fair. Two good reasons to buy new living room furniture, a Tempur-Pedic mattress, and a new dining room set. Thats what we have bought the last three years. We get some pretty odd looks when we tell people, but all it takes is a little explaining, and they are convinced too.

Ammon is Sick

Today Ammon got sick. Not the really scary kind where you rush off to the emergency room, but the annoying that just gives him a stuffy nose and makes him cough and sneeze all over. So I am not worried about him, but now I have to make sure that he sleeps in sort of an inclined position like in the car seat, so that way his sinuses can drain properly. Other than the frequent nose cleaning with the snot-sucker of doom, when he really gets upset, he is pretty happy. So that is good. Also he is being pretty vocal, since he can't really breathe through his nose. That's kind of cute. I recorded some of it for posterity. He is sitting in his bouncy chair right beside me even as I am writing this post, smiling and chattering away. Also he is staring at the new mp3 player I got today as it charges in the usb port. It is called the Sansa Express, by sandisk. It is a pretty cool little device, and while it is charging it has a picture of a dog (I think it's a dog?) running back and forth across the screen. It's the lights that he is staring at, not the mp3 player though. I don't really think he even cares that it is an mp3 player, or would care if he knew what one was. He just likes the lights...

Last Week's Recap:

The family reunion was mostly a large success. I say mostly because I didn't get to go fishing since I didn't remember to buy a fishing license. However my brother, who always goes fishing on every single camp out that we go on, did go fishing. His license cost him $17 for the day as he lives out of state. He did not catch a fish though. His wife did, which was pretty funny since she has never really been fishing before. My brother almost always manages to catch the biggest fish on whatever camp out we go on, so to have him come back with a fish that his wife caught gave us all a little ammunition against him that weekend. It was pretty good eating though, I must admit. She didn't even try it, since she doesn't like fish to begin with. His $17 fish.
I also tried skim-boarding on the beach there at Deception Pass. If you don't already know what that is, I will tell you: you take a piece of 3/8in plywood, cut it into an oval shape more or less with a pointed end and a flat end. Bend the pointed end up a little and put a bunch of coats of paint and shellac and you have a skim board. I guess it is pretty popular, since I saw 20 other people doing it. I tried it for about 3 hours and gave up, because it seemed like too much effort for a 15 to 20 foot ride, which was about as far as I got it to go. It seemed like the guys that weighed less than 140lbs had much better success at it that us 200+ lb guys.
Another interesting thing that happened was that Ammon decided to sleep through the entire night while we were camping. I'm not sure why he did that, but we may have to go camping more often, if only to get a little more shut-eye.
Then the rest of the week was pretty typical: Sleep work eat sleep sleep eat work, blah blah blah. Nothing of interest to report. Except that we are still recovering from the unpacking process. Meaning that we still haven't put everything away yet. That is also pretty typical. Oh well...