The State Fair of Texas can be a sensory overload. The rides, the games, the food – it's enough to make your head spin.
So imagine if the fair's midway consumed your life for 24 consecutive days.
"This is what I do," said Misti Kastl. "I run around from game to game and make sure we're up and running."
Kastl and her husband, Rob, own seven games along the midway. They live in Mansfield with their two children, but during the fair they don't see them as much as they'd like.
"All of the busy nights we stay here on the fair grounds," Misti Kastl explained.
They go days without seeing their kids.
But that's where Grandma comes in.
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"Right now we're headed to the school to pick up Peyton," said Misti Kastl's mom, Beverly Humphrey.
Humphrey lives in El Paso, but each October she moves into the Kastls' home to help keep things in order.
"This is my life for the next month," Humphrey said with a smile. "Between chauffeuring kids and school and homework and everything that these kids lives are about, it opens a whole new light for us."
On this day, 10-year-old Peyton has a lot of homework.
And 12-year-old Gavin has karate.
It's a hectic, busy schedule, but Humphrey wouldn't trade it for anything.
"We, as society, are losing that feeling and understanding of what family is," she explained. "If you can't bend and shake and do a little above and beyond for your family, then you're losing out."
Without family, Misti Kastl admits she couldn't focus.
"This is our ninth year. My mom will come or my mother-in-law will come," she said. "If they didn't, there's no way we'd be here."
Balancing work and family can be tough. Just like the games in the midway.
