The Fair and Mimi's Visit

We made our annual trek to the Howard County Fair a few weeks ago.  Since our girls are so young, the main highlight is not the rides or the arts and crafts exhibits, but instead all the farm animals.  There was also a kiddie barn set up with baby animals of various kinds: 3 day old rabbits, and also babies that could be pet like chicks, goat kids, piglets, lambs, calfs, etc.  

Lydia tried to pet both baby goats simultaneously:-)

Like last year, Karina just wanted to play in the corn pit.   Her clothes were unsurprisingly covered in corn dust when she was done. 

She did get to go on one ride at least, as most of the rides were for bigger kids. 

A couple days later, Mimi came to visit!  Karina and Lydia were excited to say the least.  We went to the zoo one day and luckily managed to avoid the rain the whole time.  Lydia decided to skip her nap and did OK despite that. 

Here we are at a playground another morning, and I actually remembered to bring the camera.  There were a few days that I forgot to take the camera out altogether - oops! I didn't get any pictures at the the place with giant inflatables for kids, or with some other things we did.  

Karina has mastered pumping her legs on the swings:

The sand pit in the playground was another highlight for the girls:

Lydia was very attached to Mimi on all of our walks with Snoopy.  She normally has the choice of walking or sitting in the stroller, but she invented a third option with her favorite Mimi.  I asked her if she wanted to sit in the stroller and she said "No. I don't sit in the stroller.  I carry Mimi.".  She said this while Mimi was carrying her and she refused to let him put her down.  This happened on multiple walks.  I don't envy carrying 32 pounds in my arms on a half hour walk.  Later in the week, Mimi solved the problem by telling the girls he would push the stroller 'fast as a car', and that usually got Lydia to sit in it.  It also meant he had to jog with the stroller on intervals.  

The girls fought and screamed over who Mimi would read to.  We had to divide his time up to make everyone happy.

Another day we went on a hike in Patapsco State Park and stopped at Cascade Falls in the park.  It's just a tiny waterfall, but Lydia enjoyed splashing in the water by it.  

Instead of playing in the water, Karina wanted to show me how brave she was and walk up some rocks on a steep path nearby.  

Mimi wore Lydia in the Kinderpack on the trail back to the paved trail where we had a stroller parked.  And while wearing Lydia, he helped Karina get over some big rocks. Karina was a good hiker though overall.  

Afterwards, we stopped at a quiet spot along the Patapsco River for the girls to play in the river.  I was surprised how many people were in the river all along it at various spots - it was quite popular. 

Snoopy is my ever cooperative beagle.  He was a good hiker except for when we had to cross two bridges; he thought those were scary and walked like a snail on them.  He's also good at waiting patiently without trying to run off.  

Karina is quite the chef and also served as waitress, bringing Mimi and me all the food we ordered at her restaurant.

Lydia got in on the action too, serving Mimi.

We were sad to see Mimi go!