I’ve been going to the PNE (Pacific National Exhibition) for as long as I can remember. The Fair at the PNE has changed a lot over the years, but there are some things that have always stayed the same. I have to see the SuperDogs every year — I think there were a few years where I saw them more than once — and I have to eat those little donuts. And now I get to do it all over again with my daughter.

Now that she’s almost three years old, Addie understands a lot more and I think this is the first year that she truly enjoyed our visit to the PNE. When we went to visit the barnyard animals in Farm Country, showing her the cows and pigs and such, she insisted that we had to go see the bunnies. She knows they are there.

This was also the first year that she got to go on the amusement park rides at Playland. While she’s naturally not big enough for the Hellevator or the Corkscrew just yet, she did have a lot of fun on the Teacups and the miniature train… even though she has been on other mini trains before. This was different.

They say that, as parents, you should avoid living vicariously through your children. Don’t put them through karate class because it was something you never got to do as a kid. There might be some truth to that, but seeing the pure and unbridled joy in your toddler’s eyes as she spins around in a giant tea cup simply cannot be matched.

That is until we start going on some real roller coasters together. I can already tell she’s an adrenaline junkie.