Boo at the Zoo and Pumpkinfest

This year we were super excited to begin our celebration of a kid's holiday with one kid semi-aware of the goings on.  Though I had big plans, I had to accept that with a newborn I might not be able to do everything I'd hoped to.  We still enjoyed the festivities nonetheless.  We kicked off at "Boo at the Zoo." It was the perfect night to go as it was relatively warm for the first hour.  We left when we started to get cold.  They had some cool fog effect going on this year and less lights.  We didn't see as much animal activity as last year.  We did get a bit of candy and gave Kalia her first taste of trick or treating.

At the entrance of the zoo.

Daddy bundled her up all warm.

"pun-kin"

 We'd be looking forward to the tiger all night since he was so active last year, but they were hanging out in the den being thoroughly boring.  Kalia does like this picture, though.  She points to it and says "eyes."

 Getting ready to take our little pumpkin to the Pumpkin Festival in Circleville.  She protested the hat and wouldn't wear it.  I think it was a big snug and was uncomfortable for her to wear.  We had to get one picture of her wearing it. 

 Pumpkin Festival
We learned from last year and decided to take the back roads into town to avoid the hour wait to get off the freeway.  It's much nicer to drive scenic roads than be gridlocked.  Thank you GPS.  We were also extremely lucky to find a parking spot one block away from the celebration.  We didn't really realize how lucky we were until we were leaving.  We drove past blocks and blocks of car lined streets.  The festival itself was huge.  I don't know if it's always this big, but wow.  There were midway rides, vendors, and craft booths for blocks.  Street after street, it just kept going.  There were so many people there you could hardly walk anywhere.  We were planning to buy some pumpkin donuts but decided to keep looking when we found the booth.  Much to our disappointment, they were out when we made our way back.  We settled for an elephant ear instead.

 There were fair games there too.  As Tristan told me, "The midwest love their fairs."

I tried to get a couple shots of how big and crowded this place was.

Having fun!

Pumpkin tower.  This was a great landmark to help us find our way back to the car.  It was easy to get disoriented.