Iowa State Fair 2013

We took our annual trip to the Iowa State Fair on the Thursday of the fair this year.  We got up and left shortly after 9:00 to head down to Des Moines.  We were a little worried we were going to be spending the day in the rain when we left, but it held off and went south and turned out to be a really nice day!  When we arrived at the fair it was time for lunch so we made our annual stop at the Iowa Pork Tent, which is always so yummy!

Daddy and Norah eating lunch

Norah enjoying her applesauce :)

Kyler at lunch :)

After lunch we headed over to the birthing center to check out all of the baby animals.  This is one of my favorite things to do because all of the baby animals are there together.

Checking out the baby ducks

A calf

Some baby sheep

Kyler and Norah by a momma cow

After the birthing center, we went to the "Little Hands on The Farm" exhibit.  This is also one of my favorite things to do as the kids get to get out, walk around and see where our food comes from!  It's so fun for them to get to do something instead of just look at everything. :)

All ready to go with their aprons!

Norah planting her seeds

Kyler picking an apple

Norah gathering eggs

Kyler driving his tractor

Norah on her tractor :)

Kyler milking the cow

Showing me his money :)

Norah with her money :)

After the little hands on the farm, we headed over to see some of the animals.  We went through the cow barn first to see the big bull, then through the horse barn, sheep barn, pig barn to see the big boar, and then the avenue of the breeds.  

Checking out the cows

the BIG BULL :)

The horses

The sheep :)

A pig :)

The BIG BOAR

After the animal barns we headed over to the Varied Industries Building to see if we could get the kids-or at least Norah-to take a little nap. :)  Well that obviously didn't happen, but we did stroll through all the booths and Kyler obtained a few tattoos on his arms. :)  After the Varied Industries Building, we went to check out the butter cow in the Ag Building.  Here are is a picture from this year's butter cow.

Abe Lincoln out of butter was the other sculpture this year

The cow!  It was all cleaned up from being vandalized earlier in the week.

Next, we headed over to the DNR building to see the fish and the swans.  We then tried to stroll around a little longer to get Norah to go to sleep, but no such luck. :)  After a while we just gave up and headed to the 4H building to see all of the different things that kids had made.  We then decided to go to the open arena because they were showing Angus Cows.  This was really cool to watch and we were able to get right up close to the fence where they were prepping the cows to show.  At one point Norah was standing right next to the fence and a cow came over and then moooooed really loud next to her, and she jumped back and scrambled as fast as she could back to the stroller which was about 3 feet behind her. :)  

The different cows that were being shown.

We always have a fun time at the fair.  Norah kept asking to see more animals, I think she could have looked at those all day. :)  It was so nice it wasn't too hot this year either, I'm sure we will be back next year!