A Fair visit

We woke up this morning to something odd. Fall-like weather! I stepped outside and literally said out loud to myself "Happy first day of fall". Yesterday we had the air conditioning on and today we're closing the windows because it's too cold outside. Yes, cold. We actually left the house with pants, long sleeve shirts and jackets. Ewwww, I don't like the word jacket. By mid-morning it had finally reached 60. Not "in the 60's". Just 60. At least the sun was shining!

This weather could only possibly ever be good for one activity. And that is the annual 4-H Fair. It is, without a doubt, always the hottest most humid summer weather during the Fair. We sweat, we're hot, every particle of dust sticks to us. It's not attractive. We've even gone in our bathing suits just so we can take breaks to run through the splash pad while at the county park. 

So, yes, today - and only today - did we cheer for our surprisingly cool weather. We went to the 4-H Fair in jackets! And pants! And loved it.  No dirt stuck to us. No unfamiliar scents stuck to us. We couldn't get enough of the sun, breeze and beautiful weather, and we did it all outside!! I wasn't sure how we were going to fit in a trip to the Fair with VBS also going on every night this week, but we fit it in!

For an event that chalks itself up to being "homegrown" and "farm raised" and "country", could it get any more expensive? Holy cow! Might as well just planned an overnight vacation with the family! (Also would've been easier on my waistline, but we'll just ignore that minor detail). If all we did was walk in (well, that cost us $10) and just walked through the barns and looked at the animals, than it wouldn't be bad. But who can pass up an elephant ear? Or a bag of cotton candy? And the rides? Kayla knows they exist, so no hiding those from her anymore.

 First stop, checking out the poultry barn. I don't know if Aaron is ready to be lumped into this category yet, but I finally realized this year that I am a true fan of the 4-H Fair. Granted, I've never actually made it over to the livestock barns with the pigs and cows, but still...
I prepped the girls into thinking about what project they are going to submit someday, sewing? Gardening? Baking? Painting? Crafting? Carpentry? The options are endless! Khloe loved the "scarecrow" entries the best. 

 For instance, just look at these roosters! Aren't they beee-u-tiful? I'm pretty sure I've never taken a photo of a rooster before, ever in my whole life, but today they fascinated me. (Must've been the cool weather. My brain wasn't fried this year).

 And isn't this pheasant-like bird stunning? I never knew something like this existed.

 And sometimes just plain ol' ducks are interesting too. I'm sure Khloe got her fingers pecked at least a half dozen times in the poultry barn. Didn't bother her, she laughed. Me? Not so much.

 Isn't this so cute? The crib for baby ducks. Nothing was in there yet.

 Our favorite - holding baby chicks. Khloe loved them a little too hard so I had to let her observe from a distance.

 Kayla got good practice handling baby chicks from the chicks they hatched and raised in their classroom at school, so she was a pro.

Khloe was obsessed with the sleeping baby cow. I couldn't peel her away. I guess it's not every day you get to see a sleeping baby cow up close and in person.

On to the rides!

 Khloe cracked us up today! She is fearless. There wasn't a ride (for the 48" and under crowd) that she wouldn't ride. Trains, cars, horses, airplanes, an octopus, she spent her 20 tickets wisely. (And would've kept going had it not already been 2 hours past her nap time).

She walked into every ride by herself, picked out her ride of choice (No, the purple one! or How 'bout the red one?) and held on just like your supposed to. She smiled so proudly on each ride. I smiled so proudly as she rode each ride. She must've felt so big!

These rides made this 2-year old-adventure-seeker's day!

 Merry-go-round time! For the little, medium and big girls!

 (looking off into the distance at some fast spinning ride)

 Crazy Kayla, surprises us every day. She's waited since she was 3 years old to do this slide and today she had to wait no longer. She did it over and over again! This slide is taller than the barn and silo in the background!

 Then we did my favorite ride, the Tilt-a-Whirl. They might as well name all the rides tilt-a-whirl because that's what they all do anyways. 

Ahhhhhhhhh! The ride started moving! We weren't hanging on yet!

 The girls did this Paratrooper ride (aka tilt-a-whirl, because that's what it does) twice. (They are in the yellow umbrella car). But this ride was different, they did it by themselves. I felt so sad. It first started out that they could only ride the baby rides, and that was cute and fun. Then they could ride some of the big rides but only with an adult, and that was fun too, but they still enjoyed the baby rides too. Now they can ride almost all of the rides by themselves. This is not cute or fun. Next they'll be driving and graduating high school. But today, they rode this ride and the spinning strawberries all by themselves. The spinning strawberries! They've never ridden the spinning strawberries by themselves! Sigh...

 There they are, up on top in the yellow. They screamed and laughed the whole time. Actually we all screamed and laughed so much it hurt our faces the whole time on all the rides.

There you go, a birds eye view from atop the ferris wheel.

Not a bad way to spend a Wednesday and $60. It was a happy day!