Flanagan Clan

It’s Fair time here in Puyallup, and, as is the tradition for every year I’ve lived here, we went to “do the Puyallup”! This year, Andrew and I took Patrick, and Uncle Jonny came along as well. We had a great time! First, we went to see the livestock. There were so many cute cows, horses, piggies, bunnies, chicks, duckies, doggies, goats, and more. Patrick LOVED looking at the animals, and he even got to spend some time in a petting zoo!

After we saw our fill of animals, Jonny and I went on a scary ride called the Kamikaze, which I use to love going on in high school. Needless to say, I’m getting too old for such rides and felt very dizzy once I got off. Then we stopped for lunch at the Young Life Barbeque stand, and had the most delicious roast beef sandwiches… something that I look forward to every year! After lunch, we went for more rides. Patrick got to go on his first ride, the carosel, which he found pretty scary even though Daddy was standing right next to him and Mommy was riding on the horse next to him. He held on for dear life the entire time. After that, Jonny and I went on a couple more smooth rides, Jonny and Andrew went on some more scary rides, and Andrew and I went on the ferris wheel. We had not quite run out of tickets at that point, so Jonny “tricked” me to going on the El Nino ride, and I was definitely sick after that. I’m just thankful that I didn’t have to go on the white rollar coaster (which was closed…), one of the oldest wooden rollar coasters in the world, because I don’t think I could have made it through that one with my lunch still in my stomach!

Before leaving, we saw a huge lego town that someone had made with over 200,000 pieces. It was massive and it said that it took 4 days just to set the thing up, not build, mind you! We also got a baker’s dozen of fair scones, another tradition, an elephant’s ear, a cow chip cookie, and some cotton candy (we only get it once a year, Mom, don’t worry!). It was, altogether, a fun time! Here are some pictures!

Ready to get sick on the Kamikaze

Patrick on his first ride

View of the fair from the ferris wheel

Holding on for dear life on El Nino

Andrew and I had a roll of APS film lying around the house that had been in our only film camera, which I gave to someone. Well, I had an offer for free film development, so I sent it in. We just got the pictures back: there were only four on the roll, but they were really cute!!! Here are two of the ones on the missing roll!

It’s hard to believe that Patrick was EVER that small!!!

On Saturday we took a day trip out to the Olympic Peninsula. First, we drove around Poulsbo a little bit. After that, we continued up towards Port Townsend. On the way there, we took a detour to visit Fort Flagler, a state park that Covenant High School goes to every four years for their fall overnight fieldtrips. I had visited this place 10 years ago, when she I a sophomore in high school, and it was definitely a strange experience to go back! I remember running through the woods after dark looking for the bunkers with Theresa Maples and Jared Smith, waking up at 5 AM each day so I could get ready and walk around outside before everyone was up, and sleeping in the barracks. It was a ton of fun, and there were many fond memories from that trip so many years ago… At Fort Flagler, Andrew and Patrick did a little beach combing while I fed Sammy in the car, and afterwards we all explored a gun battery. Patrick really enjoyed it!

Afterwards, we made our way up to Port Townsend. We stopped for lunch and afterwards we walked around this old town. There were many beautiful houses and buildings built in the mid to late 1800’s, many of them now being inns or bed and breakfast places. Andrew and I would definitely like to come back and stay at one of them for a special occasion someday!

Here are a few pictures from our adventures!

Inside the gun battery. It was actually pitch black in this tunnel, and one of the places I have very strong memories of from high school

I have a picture of one of my friend’s brothers poking out of this hole in one of the store rooms of the gun battery. Now we have a picture of Patrick doing it!

A cute little garden shop in Port Townsend

One of the inns at Port Townsend

A house in Port Townsend

A friendly cow for Diane. MOOOO!

Happy brothers!