Ethan and I both have fond memories of attending the State Fair as kids. He was a little (ok, a LOT) more involved as a kid than I ever was, but we both really loved going. When time for the State Fair rolled around in September, we knew we wanted to take Erik and go see what there was to see. In some ways it was like going back in time. So many things were just as I remembered them.
Our first stop was at the Game and Fish building, where they have a stream with live trout as well as several other exhibits. Erik is his daddy's son, he really enjoyed all the fish!
Erik found the crowds to be a bit intimidating, but he still seemed to really enjoy all the excitement.
You never know what you'll see at an event like this. Yes, those are people riding on long horned cattle as if they were horses. They were also really grumpy (the guys, not the cows) so this was as close as we got. I kinda wish I'd just gotten up close and let the guy grump at me so I could get a better picture. Oh well.
Probably the place we spent the most time was in the 4-H building. Erik loved all the displays and dioramas the different clubs had put together. I think he'd have happily stayed in there all day.
Ethan and I spent most of our time in here looking for my sister-in-laws entries. As always, she'd won the blue ribbon for everything she submitted. Here's Ethan checking out her display on plants that are poisonous to sheep.
We made sure to take the time to go through Ethan's old stomping grounds, the animal barns. Erik was fascinated and terrified of the sheep all at the same time. He wanted to get up close to them, but then he'd panic and shy away as soon as he got close.
He really enjoyed the horse barn though. This horse was particularly friendly, and took a moment to greet Erik with a lick to the shoe. You can see how that was received.
Of course was had to fight the crowds to get into what had always been my favorite as a kid, the petting zoo. There were so many fun animals!
So by this point my wimpy preggers self had just about done all the walking and standing around in the hot sun that I could take. I left the boys looking at what I'm sure was one of Erik's favorite buildings and found a nice spot to sit down. It's a good thing we didn't end up meeting Ethan's family there as we'd planned, because I'm pretty sure that
my secret would've been given away. I got a nice long sit down though, because my train obsessed boy had no intentions of leaving the model railroad display.
We wandered into the next room of the building to discover a gold mine. Well, actually a big box of corn, but I'm pretty sure it was all one and the same to Erik and the other little kids. He played in here for a REALLY long time, and was pretty sad when we dragged him away to go meet Grandpa and Grandma for lunch.
It was really fun to spend a few hours as a family at the fair, although we both had to admit that it was not as cool as we remembered it (and probably not worth the exorbitant amount you had to pay to get in). So many good memories for both of us took place here, and now we've just added a few more.
