2012 Iowa State Fair

We headed down to Des Moines for our annual trip to the Iowa State Fair on August 16th.  The morning was cool, and was still kind of chilly when we got there, but then the sun came out and it was a perfect day to be there-not too hot and not too cold!  Ben had never been to the State Fair, so he decided to join us for the day!  Here's what we saw/did while we were there!

First stop was the birthing building.  This is always fun as you can see all of the baby animals and even some chickens and ducks being hatched!!

Ready for the day!

Checking out the baby sheep

Baby ducks

Next up was lunch!  We always eat lunch at the Iowa Pork Producers tent.  They have great sandwiches and you get a great lunch for what you pay!

Ben and Kyler eating lunch :)

Next up was the Ag building where we saw all of the different things people had grown, as well as the butter sculptures.  This year there was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Gabby Douglas (from the Olympics), and of course the butter cow.

The 2012 Butter Cow

Then we went to check out the animal barns.  The kids loved seeing all the different animals, including the BIG Bull and the BIG Boar.  Kyler said his favorite animal was the horses.  We even got to watch a horse getting its "shoes" cleaned and ready for show!

The BIG Bull

One of the horses

A horse getting a bath...they were huge!

Some of the sheep :)

One of the big boars

We then went to walk through the Varied Industries Building and look at all of the booths and try to have Norah take a little nap. :)  Kyler stayed awake and was able to get a couple of tattoos. :)

Showing off his tattoos

After the Varied Industries Building, we got a phone call saying that Lauren was on her way to the fair to meet up with us for a while!!  We were so excited to see Lauren, we hadn't seen her in a couple of weeks!  After Lauren got there, we went to check out all the pictures and crafts people had made, and then we headed over to the Little Hands on the Farm exhibit.  I think this is so cool that the kids are able to see how the farm economy works, as well as participate in something at the fair.  Here are our own "little hans" at the farm. :)

Norah's ready to go!

 Planting their seeds in the ground...

Norah with her carrot she harvested :)

Kyler driving his tractor to market :)

Norah driving her tractor :)

After Little Hands on the Farm, we walked over to the main road to sit down and hang out for a minute.  Ben enjoyed some chocolate-dipped cookie dough on a stick, and Lauren had some homemade ice cream.  We then decided it was about time for dinner.  We had to have dinner at the Cattleman's Beef Quarters-another fair favorite.  (I had to have a hot beef sunday!) :)  After dinner we said good-bye to Lauren, and then headed back to the car to go home.  We forgot to get a picture of all of us at the fair, but we had a great day and can't wait to go back again next year!