Iowa State Fair 2014

We took our annual trip down to the Iowa State Fair this summer.  This year we went on opening day, Thursday, because that's what worked out best with Erik's work schedule.  We got up and left right away in the morning, about 9:30ish, and got to the fair about 11:30.  It was cloudy the whole way down, and started to rain lightly as we got closer to the fair. :(  But, that wasn't going to stop us!!  As soon as we got there, we headed for the birthing center to use the bathroom and check out all the baby animals!  Since it was the first day, we got to see some of the chickens coming out of their eggs, the kids thought this was sooooo cool!  We also got to see some baby pigs that had just been born within the last 24 hours, the other momma pigs hadn't even had their babies yet. :)

Kyler with the baby ducks

Baby cows

Baby pigs

Checking out the baby pigs :)

After the birthing building, we headed over to the Iowa Pork Producer's tent for lunch, this is definitely one of our favorite things about the fair!! :)

Kyler and Daddy at lunch

Norah and Mommy at lunch :)

After lunch we went over to do the "Little Hands On The Farm".  Kyler was looking forward to this, and had been talking about it for days. :)  It's fun to have our kids getting to the age where they remember doing things from the previous year and want to do them again this year. :)  Our time at the Little Hands On The Farm, was, well, a bit wet……as soon as we got our aprons, the rain picked up a bit, it wasn't pouring, but definitely was raining a bit harder than the "drizzle" that had been coming down.  Thankfully we did get to walk "inside" for most of the things here.

Stopping to pick up grain for the pigs

Gathering their veggies from the garden

Getting their beans from their harvest

Waiting for a tractor to take their goods to market (they actually shut it down after we went because it was so wet, so I'm glad we got there when we did!)

"Milking" the cow 

Norah's turn

After the Little Hands On The Farm, we needed to head inside somewhere to dry off, so we went over to the Ag Building to see the butter cow.  This year's theme for the cow was the Field of Dreams, so there was a Kevin Costner made out of butter :).  Kyler thought this was cool because of the baseball connection. :)

Butter "corn"

The butter cow

After the Ag building, the rain was pretty much done, it was just a bit cloudy, so we went to check out all of the animal buildings.  Kyler really wanted to see the horses, and it was cool because some people were bringing their horse back from showing it, and offered to let Kyler come and pet their horse, he thought that was pretty neat!  Both Kyler and Norah really loved all the animals and kept saying they wanted to go see more, even after we had seen them all!!  Of course, Grace was just more along for the ride, and just checked everything out, can't wait to see what she thinks next year! :)

A statue that's new this year at the fair

Kyler and Norah by a cow

Kyler petting the horse, his name was "Harley"

Kyler riding and Grace trying to figure out what's going on :)

The big Boar

Sheep :)

How we roll with 3 kids in a double stroller :)

After the animals, we headed over to the Varied Industries building to see if the girls would close their eyes for a bit…..not so much. :)  We decided against walking up and down all the rows of booths this year and just went to the college booths so that Kyler could get his tattoos. :)  Then we headed over to the DNR building to cheek out all the fish that they have over there.  As soon as we left the DNR building, Grace finally fell asleep for a bit, so we hiked the hill to see the pictures, however, they had rearranged the set-up, so the pictures were now upstairs and we decided not to head up there. :(  So, we headed back down to an outdoor arena where they were showing cows, and watched that for a bit.  

After we watched the cows, we went to the 4H building to see all the cool projects that kids had made. Then, we headed over to the pavilion to watch some barrel racing and see the Reisetter family.  It was fun to see and chat with the Reisetters down at the fair, since Erik and I's first time at the fair was 10 years ago, when Mason was an infant. :)  We hung out with them for a while and watched the barrel racing, and then headed to find some dinner.  We of course had to eat dinner at the Catttleman's Beef Quarters, our other favorite place to eat down there!  After dinner, we loaded up in the car and headed for home!  It was a wet but fun day at the state fair!  Definitely one of the coolest days at the fair we've ever had, but the kids still had a great time.  Norah just informed me the other day she wanted to go back to the State Fair….only 10 months to go! :)