County Fair 2015 Recap - Part 1

There was so much fun to be had, I'll breaking the recap into 2 posts.

The county fair, such a fun week for all of us!  I have loved the county fair since I was a kid.  And now my kids love it, too! I'm so excited to know that next year we will be even more involved in the fair since Aiden will be in 4-H and hopefully showing some animals - even if it's only a rabbit, that's something! :)

It all started with Saturday, the day of non-livestock judging.  Each of the boys took 2 projects they've made over the past year.  Aiden took a ceramic mug he painted and that was then fired in a kiln, and he took a bird feeder.  It was a kit that my parents gave him for Christmas.  He built it all by himself (with a little elbow grease from his dad when a screw was too tight to turn) and then painted it.

Brennan took a canvas painting he did at one of his Clover Kids meetings, and a little wooden dump truck that was also in a kit he received from my parents for Christmas.  He built that with Andy, then painted it himself.

Jump ahead to Monday.  Andy and Brennan competed in a Lego build off competition.  They were given 15 minutes and a pile of Legos to build whatever they wanted to.  They came up with building a tow truck.  It looked awesome!  They did a great job and worked together really well!

After that we walked over to the round barn where they were hosting the Little Hands on the Farm exhibit.  You go in and 'harvest' corn, 'shear' a sheep, 'milk' a cow, etc.  They also had a sheep, goat and rabbit in there for petting.  Right outside was this fun peek through sign.

The fair food I crave from our county fair all year long is the Sloppy Joe Dinner.  It's a delicious sloppy joe sandwich, baked beans, potato chips and a pop.  Yum!  I had one every day of the fair, had to get my fill til next summer!

The entertainment Monday night was my favorite night of the fair - the tractor pull!  I don't know why I love it so much, how exciting can it be to watch a tractor pull a weighted sled down the track? But it is!  They slowly rev up their engines until a big puff of black smoke starts billowing out the stack on top, then let 'er rip!  Off they go down the track!  They make a really neat sound, too!

That sound can get kind of loud, forgot Tate's hearing protection so my mom used her hands!  Here he is wearing my dad's hat, holding on to my mom for dear life!

There was some rain in the area which gave us a pretty spectacular sky that night!

Tuesday was the sheep show! This was a long day for me.  Bren and I arrived at 8:00 that morning to watch my nephew, Charley, show his sheep.  At first it seemed like they were cooking right through the classes and that Aiden was going to be late for showing his mentor's sheep for the Clover Kid's show, but luckily he got there after his golf camp with plenty of time to goof off still.

My nephew showed 3 sheep.  He did really great his first year!  I was so proud to watch him out there leading his sheep around!  The best part, he had fun!  And we had fun watching him (even if we were biting our nails the whole time!)!  I think I ended up taking 89 pictures of him, ha ha!  I sounded like the paparazzi, snap snap snapping my camera shutter!  I won't show you all 89, promise!

After the main sheep show was the Clover Kids sheep show.  Aiden had so much fun working with his mentor, Raigan, she taught him a ton about sheep and showing them.  They met 3 times before the fair, she was so great!  And he had a ton of fun in the show ring, he's so ready for next year!

Waiting to go in the show ring.

Walking Peter the sheep in.

Holding Peter in the right position.

Raigan tucking Aiden's ribbon in his back pocket like 'the cool kids' do!

A group shot after the show!

Way to go, Aiden!  You did great!

After the sheep show I grabbed Aiden, nephew Charley and my cousin's son, Garrett, for a quick picture of the 3 Marie cousins who are all showing and participating in the county fair this year.  Love these boys! And I love that they are such great buddies, too!

Because we'd had such a long day at the sheep show we ended up leaving when it was all over (about 3:00) and heading home.  Unfortunately we missed this year's rodeo, but relaxing on the couch that night felt so much better than sitting in the heat in the grandstand!

The first few days of the fair were so much fun, and they were just the beginning!