A Marble Blew Down

Nana and Poppy came to visit us in Boise on a week-end with plenty of fun things going on in town. First, they took us to the Western Idaho fair (well, actually, first they took Annie for a haircut and an ice cream cone). Annie had an absolute blast at the fair and surprisingly did not have a melt down (I say that given all the excitement she packed in and the dinner she skipped in favor of doughnuts, tortatos and french fries - which usually creates a good atmosphere for melt downs). Both the kids fed a bunch of hungry goats, saw cows being milked and baby chickens being hatch (I figured that would leave a imprint that might make vegans of them someday), and pet bunnies. Annie had her first pony ride (some very sad looking mini-ponies tied to those rings that make them walk in circles) and literally was bouncing in her seat like a legit cowgirl. Annie also rode on various fair rides, some all by herself - she seemed to like the fast twirling ones I thought she'd hate, but after she got on, she couldn't stop laughing. Harry, who although he could have probably met the height requirements, was still too little (young) to ride and was a good sport watching his big sister have so much fun. We had been advised by our friends, the Dangs, to make sure to buy a "Tortato" at the fair -- they take an entire potato, put it through a drill of somesort and deep fry it. It comes out in one giant chain of potato chip like goodness which you can dunk in hot sauce -- delicious!
Besides the fair, we all biked down to the "Tour de Fat" celebration and rode in a HUGE bike parade with our bikes decorated -- it was quite the scene as most people decorated themselves instead of their bikes; the kids were pretty good to spend such a long time in their bike trailor and had fun running around with buddy Deuce after the parade.
We also had a BBQ with the Dangs where Annie and Deuce played "pirates" for a good hour or more -- its pretty dang cute to hear little kids say things like, "Arg me matey!"
Nana and Poppy told Annie that they would blow her a kiss from the airplane when they flew over the house -- so, when Annie found a marble in our backyard yesterday, she said: I think it blew down from Nana and Poppy (because they have a chinese checker set complete with a bazillon marbles that Annie loves to play with at their house).