derby days

This past weekend we checked out Redmond's city fair/festival -- Derby Days. There was a carnival, live music, food vendors, booths, games, and lots of other things.

We went over on Friday night to try some of the food since we thought it would be less busy than Saturday. It's hard to see in this photo just how big this portion of fries is (we shared it and got about halfway through) and it's hard to see how unbelievably greasy they were (which is why we only got about halfway through).

On Saturday we thought we'd prepare Brooklyn for sunshine since we were planning on meeting some friends there in the afternoon.

Of course, she was more interested in eating the sunglasses.

And of course, it was overcast and a little rainy (though that has been the exception and not the rule recently -- it's been warm). Anyway, the reason the city festival is called Derby Days is because of bicycle races they have all-day Saturday for different age/skill groups. It goes back to the 1930s as a fundraiser for local schools.

We thought we'd let Brooklyn try her first carousel ride at the carnival.

Brooklyn wasn't sure what to think about sitting on a horse, Laura wasn't sure what to think about how wobbly the horse was, and Austin wasn't sure about the Journey/Foreigner tunes as carousel music (they may have been from the ride next to it, but still...).

We decided maybe sitting down with Mommy was a better idea on this carousel.

Brooklyn still wasn't sure what to think about it, and Austin still wasn't sure about the soundtrack.

But the girls had a fun time and Austin had a fun time getting photos and video.

We went with some friends from church -- they have a cute little guy that is just a bit older than Brooklyn. 

Brooklyn liked hanging out with Daddy at the park while we listened to a "Beatles cover band" that had a saxophone player (quick -- name a Beatles hit that has a saxophone solo!) and played maybe three Beatles songs in the 45 minutes or so that we were there (but we may have heard Journey or Foreigner). Oh well.

The highlight of the day, however, came when we were walking through some business booths on our way home and Brooklyn was given her first balloon. It has been right up there with Giraffe Buddy and her puppy toy this week, which is pretty impressive. Also impressive was how quickly it went from being stuck on the ceiling to lifeless on the ground (overnight). Still fun for a 9-month-old though!