State Fair

Ever since we've moved to Iowa we've wanted to go to the State Fair. Finally after 5 years we made it. Jeremy had to work so the kids and I went with the Andersons.
We had a great time, but they sure know how to rob you of all your money. We paid to park, we paid to get in. Luckily there was some great free stuff to see and the kids weren't too bad about not spending a bucket load.

First stop was the pigeon and poultry display. I never knew there were so many different varieties of pigeons. From little itty bitty to huge. The kids even got to pet one. I also learned that the larger ones are cultivated and are eaten, but they are called squab. I guess that's more appetizing than saying you're eating a pigeon.

Then we went and saw the famous Iowa State Fair butter cow. Not as big as I would have thought. But at least I can say I saw it. Then we went and saw some cows being shown. Yet again so many different kinds. There were some different varieties that even I had never seen. The ones we saw were fluffy. There is no other way to describ them than to say they were fluffy like a llama. It's not like when a regular cow gets it's winter coat, this was like a cow fro. Weirdest thing I've ever seen.

We then went and watched part of this kids show. All the kids got to participate so it made it a lot more fun. Price is helping to put balls into the shirt of this kid to make him look like a muscle man.

Little Denver got to go up and try to blow cotton off the tip of his nose. He did a great job and was the first one to be done, then he was giving us all tips on how to do it.
The big highlight was getting their faces painted. The girls are princesses, Denver is a dragon and Price is batman.

My personal favorite part of the day was watching "Fearles Flores Circus Show" or something like that. There was this guy on the 'wheel of destiny' and a couple that did a tight rope act. It was pretty entertaining. It kind of made me feel bad for these people that do this though. That is their life travelling around to fairs and putting on shows for people. It just seemed kind of sad. But we did enjoy the show. I was trying to convince Denver and Indhi that they could put together some sort of circus act and hit the road. But they didn't go for that especially when the girl has to wear a skimpy outfit.
The sun was getting into Price's eyes so he needed my sunglasses.

After the circus act we went over to the Ford display. They had all the new models of their cars and they had games you could play. We played the one where you press the button and have to match the pictures (like a slot machine) and Price won $25. Very exciting! I was mean and didn't let him spend it at the fair. Instead we bought some drawers to help him have an organized room. I love it that all his Legos and Baukugans are not all over his floor now.

They had a great little petting zoo that we went to next. They had a lot of different animals. Big Denver was trying to feed the goats and thought he was pretty funny when he would say 'You(ewe) move'. Such a comedian. I don't think anybody thought it was as funny as he did. Liah tried to convince her parents to let her have a camel ride. She claimed it was the "dream of her life", but they weren't buying that.
We did go get some cotton candy and watch the outhouse races, but by that time we were tired and it was getting hot. So we called it a day.

Overall a great time at the fair. I never did find where you could buy the fried butter, but I doubt if I would have eaten it anyway. I was tempted to try the fried oreos, but I didn't want to be overcharged for some greasy sugar. Maybe next year.