The word of the day is DOG.

Because of football, I go to the State Fair every year. When schedules and budget allow, the whole family pays the fair a visit. This year, Katie requested a fair day for her birthday, so after church on Sunday, our family plus two of Katie's friends headed to Big D.

Our fair is famous for all the fried food, like chicken fried bacon.

See? Deep fried EVERYTHING!

Upon arrival we wandered through the creative arts pavilion.

At one end of that building is the traditional butter sculpture. This year's creation paid homage to the Red River Rivalry.

From there we wandered across the street to one of the livestock barns to check out some cool chicks.


One highlight of the day was the dog show.

No, not the fancy kind of dog show: This was an acrobatic display of canine cunning!



We especially liked the races.

After tolerating the arts and crafts, chickens and dogs, the kids were ready for the midway.

We've always been fans of the funhouses...
or "Fun Haus," if you will.


The kids (and sometimes Brett) tried out several and had a blast.




Of course, no trip to the fair would be complete without a visit to the Fletcher's Corny Dog stand.

Love, love, love those dogs!

Yep! Yet another funhouse.

A swing through the car show gave us a chance to try on some new cars for size. The Ford robot was pretty snazzy, too.




As the day neared its end, we were worn out! Fortunately we ran into some "Footsie Wootsie" machines to soothe our barking dogs. (Which makes me wonder: Think I could buy one of those for our living room?) (And did you notice this is a dog-centric post?)

The traffic and parking were terrible, and the crowds in some areas were pretty thick. But all in all, it was a great day for a great fair. How could it not be a great day when it ended with a deep-fried frozen margarita?

BHS volleyball and RHS game 6.

At this point in the fall, we'd already fallen into a routine. With Ryan getting ready for band, Brett, Katie and I would eat dinner, and then Katie and I (and sometimes Brett) would head to the stadium. But on this Friday, Brett and Katie met me at my school. The occasion? The faculty tailgate on campus before BHS's volleyball and football games.

After enjoying burgers and hot dogs, Brett went on his way while Katie and I moseyed on over to the gym to catch the BHS volleyball game.

We couldn't stay until the end, but it was fun to cheer on our girls while we could!

From there we went to the RHS game, which was at another school's stadium. I'd never been there before, so it was a bit tricky navigating the parking situation. We were getting there later than usual (because of the VB), and that stadium has very little on-site parking. Upon approaching the stadium, I mistakenly turned into a parking lot that ended up the school's (and not the stadium's), so I U-turned and got back on the main road. On that road there were no parking options (except for paying $5-8 to park in a church lot), so we ended up back at the school! By the time we hiked from there to the stadium, we had missed the pregame and kickoff.

Anyway, here are the highlights:

It was on this play that the RHS quarterback was injured.

Seeing him in pain made us hurt for him! Just hate that he would have to spend the rest of the season on crutches. I can only imagine how disappointing that was for him and how worried his parents must've been.

It was a close, exciting game, but the Rebels came up short. The backup QB did a great job stepping in after the injury, but the CHHS offense won it for the Panthers.

Katie's 13th.

Happy birthday, Kates! We can't believe you're a teenager now!

Since her birthday was on a Wednesday, we took cupcakes to her Huddles group at church. Then we had our own zebra cake (NOT made out of zebras, thankyouverymuch!) at home later.


Our little baker got cake mixes and decorating stuff.


It was a quick celebration with just our foursome, but we weren't finished celebrating just yet!