October: State Fair & Columbus, Ohio

October is a very special month here in Dallas. The State Fair of Texas! Casey and I start looking forward to the fair in August. Love, love, love the fair. We cruise all the (free) expositions, get every free sample we can, pet all the animals at the petting zoo, see the prize animals, and try a few fair foods. We have so much fun, we usually need to go twice, which we did.
My fair goals this year: see a cooking demonstration and the butter statue, eat a funnel cake, see a prize turkey and a llama, and pet a baby pig.

Casey apparently had the goal of kissing a camel. The same camel that bit him last year because he "wanted to feel its lips." He's obviously not one to let a setback like that deter him.
The first time we went, we went with my parents, and I got to do almost everything I wanted. I saw a chef make venison chili with chocolate sauce and do a slam poem, both of which were good. We shared a corny dog and a funnel cake and petted every little goat within reach. But no baby pigs. I was seriously disappointed. We saw Boris, the fattest pig at the Fair, but I wanted to pet a baby pig!

So we went back with our lifegroup.
This is me, very happy. I could pet the baby pigs. They were so cute and so soft. I petted their ears, noses, tummies and chinny chin chins. I went back for more. Hog heaven!
We walked around the fair some more, watched the pig races (Jean Claude VanHam won) and some games on the Midway, and had cotton candy. The picture shows just the bottom half of it! I definitely needed to brush my teeth after that, but it was so worth it. I love the fair. And no, we did not try the fried beer. I have more respect for beer than that, even if I can't drink it for a while.

I also got to visit my best friend from college, Megan, who lives in Columbus, Ohio. She's made lots of trips back to Texas in recent years, and I visited her in Boston, but I had a good reason to visit her now, she just had a baby! Little Annabelle is two months old, and absolutely precious.
It was really fun getting to hang out with Megan and catch up. The weather was much cooler up there, and we got to enjoy some things they don't have in Dallas. Like Jeni's amazing ice cream (I had dark chocolate and spiced pumpkin), Greek fast food, and backyard fire pits. We roasted the hugest marshmallows I've ever seen. It was toasty, melty s'more goodness.
This is me, again, very happy. I could I stayed like that all day long...but unfortunately, she got hungry. She was hungry, a lot! I was also very informative, as a mom-to-be, to see a few days in the life of the parents of a newborn. Very hard to complete tasks, but full of happiness. Megan and Corey absolutely adore that little girl. It made me very excited to meet our own little person. April is a long way away!