The Puyallup Fair and Chuck E Cheese

Sadly, we did the Puyallup without my camera this year. I was only about 5 minutes from home when I realized I'd forgotten it, but I thought we'd be going to the fair again and would take pictures then. And, of course, this ended up being our only day at the fair.
Hazel was so excited to go on the rides. Fortunately, Gramma had a tape measure in her purse, and we found out Hazel is exactly 36 inches tall - just tall enough to ride. So I bought some tickets, and then she didn't want to go on anything - mostly I think because it was so noisy with each ride blaring their own music. Hazel's still a bit noise sensitive (not a bad thing). I finally talked her into the canoe boats, the giant slide and a train ride (the last two with me). Grampa took this shot with his cell phone of Hazel riding in the canoe boats all by herself. I walked around with her, but she was just fine. That seemed like a big step - riding by herself. Only one small mishap - when the ride was over, the attendent pushed the canoe right up against the exit platform, and Hazel's hand got a bit squished, as she'd been dangling it in the water. She was fine, but I gave him a dirty look for not checking to make sure all her limbs were in the boat.


Then Aunt Hilary was here last week, and she (and her camera - thanks!) joined us for our maiden voyage to Chuck E Cheese. Now you might think this is a bad idea, because it's a noisy place, but it actually wasn't that noisy. Ours is in our mall, and during school hours, there's hardly anyone there. I hadn't been in 15 years or so, and it's fun that they have stuff for little kids. The rides are only a quarter (the mall rides are 75 cents), and they have mini-arcade games to earn tickets to get prizes. We came home with stickers, a purple plastic butterfly ring, a top that lights up, and teeny tiny playing cards that I threw away after she started hiding them everywhere. She had a great time, and today she was pretending to be Chuck E Cheese.

I thought it was funny that Hazel rode in the back of the bus to listen to absolutely nothing on the phone.
Here's a little game, where she moves the popcorn bucket back and forth to catch the "popcorn."

We did meet a giant Chuck E Cheese character walking around, but Hazel was much more comfortable riding in this car with a little pretend mouse. This ride takes your picture with Mr Cheese for free.

Then off to the mall for playtime at the play area and some more expensive rides... just because. Hazel tried some new rides. The rescue helicoptor was a bit noisy, but she rode it out.

The rocket shop was funny because it has a tv screen that just plays static. What, they couldn't at least show some stars going by or something?