Addison Oktoberfest takes us way back to our first couple years of marriage where we lived in Dallas & enjoyed the fun occasion as newlyweds without children in tow. We went in the late afternoon & stayed till the last band finished playing. We sat out on the grassy hill & sang along to familiar tunes, we ate yummy sausage, drank beer (one of us) & even did a little dancing.
Once we moved back last summer we couldn't wait for this festival to begin. We brought the whole crew which included two one year olds in a giant stroller we were trying to squeeze through lots of crowds. We had some fun but experienced some ridiculous moments such as Eloise running across a stage (during a performance), Owen having difficulty keeping his hand & arm out of Rob's beer & Anson attacking a brat on a stick like he had never been fed. Still, it was worth the trouble to haul the bunch to enjoy time together & with the beloved Clark family who had four of their own.
This year we thought it would be fun to take the girls on a date with us & leave the boys at home with a babysitter on Saturday afternoon/evening. They were SO excited to go & possibly equally excited to be without those silly brothers that sometimes cramped their style. We were smart & took the rack of the Expedition so we didn't risk ripping it off in the parking garage as we did last time ; )
I convinced the little ladies to let me put their hair in ponytails since it was a good 95 degrees outside. They held hands with their favorite guy as we headed to the entrance.
First stop was the carnival where we stocked up on enough tickets to ride a good six rides. There were many to choose from & though I feel like the girls are so big compared to the boys they were darling when they chose an extremely calm flying dragon ride. Just a reminder that they are still so little : ) The hilarious part of the dragon ride was their dragon was the ONLY one that stayed in the lowest position while all else with little bitty kids were flying high. Their faces were excited at the start but then they looked slightly annoyed by the end. I wanted my tickets back but decided not to pick a fight with someone who did not speak the same language as me. We continued on to a couple spinny rides which are my least favorite. Thankfully I have a good sized pregnant belly & am not allowed to ride anyway. What a perfect few weeks to be pregnant! Easy out for rides at the Fest & the State Fair of Texas! The cutest ride is the is the Hog- Rally Cycles, they do wheelies & sound like the real thing. When we looked at the height requirement it said that for under 36 inches an adult had to ride as well. We were laughing wondering where they were supposed to sit until we walked by about an hour later. We saw a Dad sitting in a side car looking like Elf. I could not keep it together.....soooo funny! We loved watching Charlotte take care of her sister. She is so considerate & helped her on & off rides, waited for her in the rope climbing up to a big slide & followed her lead as she panicked in the mirror maze & tried to exit as quickly as possible. Again since I'm pregnant they wouldn't let me go with the terrified girls....were they concerned I would slam my belly into the glass? That is a real possibility as we watched one little girl moving quickly run straight into the glass. We were happy to see a mommy enter & told the girls to follow her. They made it safely out!
There was a lot of walking around & an exciting trip to the Porta Potty where the girls were completely disgusted as they should be. Arlo didn't give me much trouble until he was ready for a funnel cake later in the evening.
We ate dinner in the tent where the main stage was. Rob told the girls if they wanted a sweet treat they would have to show off some moves on the dance floor. Charlotte almost broke down in tears so she stayed with her Daddy while Elo & I headed over to dance. Before we knew it Char was running our way & joined in on the silliness. I loved it & so did they. Once the requirement was reached to receive a treat we went back to the carnival area. The girls picked out pink cotton candy & Eloise proceeded to eat nearly the entire bag in about five minutes. I absolutely LOVE funnel cakes so I ordered one for myself but had to share with my friends : ( Funnel Cakes & French Fries are really challenging for me to share. You may think I 'm joking but I am completely serious. I've been known to pop a hand. We parked it on the curb as I began to snarf the perfectly thick & covered with the perfect amount of powdered sugar funnel cake. By the end Rob was cracking up at the amount of powdered sugar on my face, hands & pregnant belly. I folded the plate in half & began to stand up to head to the trash can. I leaned to the side & poured all the powdered sugar in my lap & on my legs. We were laughing & then we watched Eloise as she started licking her hand & rubbing it across my legs to get every bit of sugar. This was after eating almost an entire bag of cotton candy...how much sugar can one girl handle? I shouldn't give her a hard time about it since I wanted three more funnel cakes!
We were going to attempt to take a picture of the four of us until a nice couple walked by & offered to take it for us. When she handed my phone back to me she said, "I think we took a picture of ourselves on accident." I scrolled through & we laughed so hard at their awesome selfie! On the other hand our family picture wasn't of the same quality ; )
We enjoyed a bit of music at the other stage before heading to Torchy's Tacos & then home. We got our family selfie which I like better than any picture we have had with these cute girls in a long while.
All four of us had a blast & little whining went on which made it SO nice. We enjoyed it so much we thought we would return the next afternoon with the whole brood.
Owen was really happy about his new pin "Prost Ya'll" which is basically saying "cheers!" Anson was really happy about the sausage his Daddy bought for an afternoon snack.
All four loved running in the field & Anson loved his little taste of Paulaner.
We showed up just in time for the Weenie Dog race. Eloise walked right up to this service dog which had to have weighed at least 100 pounds. She looked at me & said "is that a weenie dog mommy?" I laughed out loud as I described what a weenie dog looks like. Robby & I agreed that the race would be way more exciting with large dogs ; ) The boys were super wiggly so sitting didn't last too long. We definitely had about a million people ask us if all the kids were ours or tell us how great it is to have a big family or pay their regrets to our "predicament." When we think back to one of our pre kid visits to watch the Weenie Dog race our favorite memory is this. We were on the hill sitting near a family with a two year old boy sitting quietly with his child leash attached to a monkey backpack in place. A weenie dog ran up & attacked the monkey pulling the little boy back a bit. We were cracking up & saying "and people think Pit Bulls are vicious!" We did not see any weenie dog vs. monkey battles although it would have been fun ; )
Owen has been really snuggly with me lately & I love it. He likes to sit on my belly & send me into a million contractions but he is soooo cute I cannot resist!
Well, we knocked out another year bringing back up to a "tradition status" for our family. Can't wait to take all five there next year!
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