A 30 Year Tradition - The Oklahoma State Fair 2014

(Our kiddos: This has become our traditional "stop for a picture" spot - in front of the Centennial Building.) 

This past weekend we attended the Oklahoma State Fair, a tradition that began 30 years ago.  In those 30 years, we missed one year - the year our daughter was born - 20 years ago. Wow!  

As I walked around this year, I thought of how many times we had been there.  I miss the stroller.

(I'm trying to make sure we get pictures of us together because some day that will be really important. I failed at getting all six of us together!)

Not so much having to manuver a stroller through crowds of people, or even the whole aspect of having toddlers (though I do really miss that stage), but mostly because we always had a place to store our stuff! :)

(Joe tried to make the hammer bang hard enough to make the little ball thing hit the bell on top. He didn't do it, but it went pretty far!)

Traditions are huge to me. They are huge to our family. This tradition is important to us.  Not that we "have to go to the fair". But we know that on one weekend in September, we will be together - at least for a few hours - doing something we've always done.  The important part is being together.

There are several buildings that bring back memories of the kids being little.  Their 4-H entries, pumpkin entries, table decorating contests, showing goats, and even the new car building. For some reason I remember holding my babies and sitting on the benches in there.  Such sweet memories!

One thing we never did when they were really young was ride rides.  But it's become a tradition for a number of years, and the kids had fun doing a few of them.  This one went round and round.  The little one didn't want the empty front row seat by his sister! He went to the back, but it still lined up where the picture was perfect!

The slides are always fun.  I remember them riding these from the time they were little bitty on.  Sometimes they rode on our laps if they weren't big enough!

The boys were racing!

"Disney on Ice" was a "Let's Celebrate" theme. I loved it! It was great!  The boys really liked it, but my daughter didn't quite as much. There were a few non-Disney things thrown in, maybe to make the show long enough.  I just liked it having so many characters.

I've noticed that it's extremely hard to get a good picture of Mickey and Minnie (especially Mickey). They move around so much and so fast that they are rarely still enough to snap the shot!

This is true even at Walt Disney World!  But these aren't too bad.

This was celebrating Valentine's Day, and of course, Mickey and Minnie were each others' valentines.  Of course. :)

Special effects are amazing at the show.  This ring of fire was right on the ice.  It was the Hawaiian theme using "Lilo and Stitch".  I need to watch that movie. It's probably the only one I've never seen.

The skaters were great this year!  Here's Ariel being spun around by Prince Erik.

This is my favorite princess from my favorite show, "The Princess and the Frog".  Tiana! Pretty neat that I have a niece named Tiona now!  I just thought of that recently! :)

The celebration ended with Christmas. Aren't those cute costumes?  

Mickey is covering up his pretty knitted snowflake sweater, but maybe you can see them a little bit.

Joe missed the ice show. He had to go perform a wedding ceremony.  

So we offered his ticket to our daughter's roommate and best friend. She was excited!

Thanks for the memories, Oklahoma State Fair!  It's been 30 great years!