I Love Me a County Fair!

Something that you might not know about me... I used to a big time Country Girl! Actually, I would still be a country girl, if I could afford it! I spent all my summers on my grandpa's farm running in the corn fields, chasing the animals, drivin' the tractor, climbin' trees... you get the point. Well my parents finally bought horse property and invested in horses when I was a senior in high school. My mom bought me some barrel racing lessons. I was never cut out to be a racer, because I was too chicken to go as fast as I needed to - so I stuck to regular old western riding. We raised, bred, trained, and showed horses. I spent many weekends at horse shows and rodeos and my freshman year of college I met and dated a bull rider. That lifestyle sort of faded away when I had kids. But I still love the rodeo, and a county fair!!

The kids have grown to love the fair as well, and not just because of the rides (although that IS their favorite part!) This year at the county fair we did a little bit of everything! It was raining just a little bit, off and on. But that didn't put a damper on our fun time! We started the afternoon with the midway of course - the kids wanted to run through the fun houses and Paige and I went on a couple thrill rides. She is finally tall enough! Robert took Cole around to some of the smaller kiddie rides and we met back up and wandered over to the pavillions. In the buidlings were the 4H projects and animals. We had a good time looking at all the art work, photography, home grown flowers, vegetables, etc. and Cole even attempted to learn how to use a loom... after we made it through all the exhibits we wandered into the animal hall. Cole really liked all the goats and rabbits and Paige loved the chickens... especially the baby chicks! We stopped to watch some judging of the pigs and I reminded the kids it was just like Charlotte's Web. The pig pens were decorated with ribbons and crepe paper and the animals were just as stubborn as Wilbur was when it came to coming out of the pen for the show!

We left the animals and went back to the midway for a few more rides before chowing down on some old fashioned fair cuisine! Turkey Legs, Corn Dogs, Fresh Squeezed Lemonade, Frito Pie... yum! Our favorite ride of the evening was the Pirate Ship! We must have ridden it 4 or 5 times.

After the sun set we wandered over to the arena and took in some rodeo action. It was Paige and Cole's first rodeo (well, Paige went to one when she was like 6 months old). It was fun to explain all the rules of the events to them and Cole really got into the roping! Paige loved looking at all the horses! After the rodeo the kids played some games and of course won some dumb prizes! We ended the evening with the merry-go-round, the ferris wheel, and cotton candy! It was such a fun family evening!