Like most cities, Vancouver has a late summer/early fall fair which happens for a couple of weeks each year. It’s called the Pacific National Exhibition – more commonly known as the “PNE”.
Pete and I haven’t been to the PNE since before the kids were born. Owen was too young for a while, and then Miranda was born and she was too young, and then we stayed away for a couple of years after Miranda was diagnosed with Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva. This year, however, we decided it was time to introduce our kids to the PNE… I’m happy (and relieved, ha ha) to say that we had a great time!
We went on Thursday afternoon this past week. That turned out to be a good day to go, because the crowds weren’t horrendous – probably because it was midweek. The prospect of big crowds is something which kept us away in the last couple of years; I always get nervous in contexts where Miranda could easily be pushed or jostled and be injured. To help guard against that possibility, we took our plastic wagon for Miranda to sit in. As it turned out, she mostly didn’t want to be in the wagon and insisted on walking… Typical. Actually, her stamina was very good, which always surprises me.
We arrived at the fair around 2:00 PM. First stop – rides! Owen and Miranda were both excited to start checking these out. They mostly stuck to the kids’ rides, but those were plenty exciting enough for them. First up was the merry go round. Each kid got on a horse, and I stood next to Miranda to make sure she was holding on securely (luckily, no charge for parents to be on these rides with small kids). The carousel was fun, and then they quickly wanted to try out something else. They went on to the flying elephants and the “honey bee” train ride. I took Miranda on the ferris wheel (Owen declined), which had little cars you sit in rather than on those scary wobbly benches. She thought it was great, and wasn’t afraid at all to be sitting high up in the air and looking out over the whole PNE… Owen also ended up going on a few “big kids” things unsuitable for Miranda – ie, the swinging pirate ship, the bumper cars, the fun house.
The warning signs on the rides gave me some pause. Even the kids’ rides had signs up warning people not to go on if they have “back or neck conditions or bone injuries”. Hoo boy. But, since they had this warning even for the slowest baby-type rides, I figured it was kind of meaningless, and I just approved each ride on a one-by-one basis. None of them were a problem, as it turned out.
We had to be careful how we got Miranda into/onto some of these rides. Unfortunately, she has an FOP flare-up right now on her left lower ribcage, so she is very sensitive to that spot being bumped. Between that and her limited shoulder movement, we had to do an awkward sort of hold up around her right chest and underneath her bottom. I’m sure it looked odd to see us lifting her that way, but so be it…
Naturally, the kids also wanted to play midway games. Those are pricey, but we let them each do a couple; specifically, the ones with GUARANTEED prizes for kids 
First up was the hammer swing – each kids got 3 tries to swing a big hammer and ring a bell. Owen did pretty well, and even managed to ring the bell once. As for Miranda – she couldn’t even lift the hammer, much less swing it, and even if she could, I wouldn’t let her do it (too risky on the arms). I mostly swung it for her, with her just holding on to the end of the hammer. The prize for each kid was a giant inflatable hammer, which they had in both boy and girl colours. We had to carry those suckers around the fair with us for the rest of the day, which was awkward, but I guess it’s all part of the experience.
Here are the kids with their hammers after the fair.
