Joshua & I went to Oregon for a long weekend with the excuse of going to the Oregon State Fair.  I used to go to the fair every year for as long as I can remember but haven’t been at ‘home’ at the end of summer since before starting my senior year of high school.  It’s hard to believe it’s been 17 years—literally half a lifetime for me!  I was looking forward to taking Joshua there (as well as having their famous elephant ears & scones that I’ve craved for years!).  We entered the fairgrounds near where the rides are so that’s where we started out.  Fortunately, yesterday was ‘kid day,’ so rides were only $1.50 each, compared to the usual $4.00 & up!  We ended up getting more than 10 tickets & they were gone so quickly.  The 2 of us went on the ferris wheel & a mini roller coaster together & Joshua went on a bunch of cute little rides all by himself.  He rode a motorcycle, flew an airplane, drove a delivery truck & racecar, & went on a carousel (of course!).

Joshua wore himself out with all those rides, & after a trip to the potty, he asked to go home, so we missed out on the animal portion of the fair I was looking forward to taking him to.  Oh, well.  He doesn’t know what he missed.  We drove home & I went back on my own to check out the booths & wander around a little more while Joshua stayed at Dad’s to play with Grandpa.  On our drive back to Washington, we stopped at my friend Shaya’s home for a visit.  Another friend of ours (Aleta), came over with her kiddos so we got to hang out for awhile & catch up.  I hadn’t seen them in 16 years so it was neat to get to see each other in person after a year of catching up by Facebook!  Joshua had fun playing with their cute little girls & was not happy when it was time to leave (neither was I, but at least I knew we needed to get home before rush hour traffic here!).  I’m happy that we’re so close that we can make semi-regular trips down to Salem to visit my dad & reaquaint with old friends after all these years away.