post-fair update

We are home!  Home sweet home!  We just made it through 5 intense days of the Marion county fair.  April put all the pictures on her blog, so I'll just talk about what we did.  This is mostly for my journaling, so we can look back on it.  Enjoy the story of the fair...

We had a whole new view of the county fair this year.  It was hot, dusty, smelly, sometimes boring (from sitting and waiting), and noisy at times.  At the same time it was awesome.  I enjoyed being out there this week/end with April, and the boys.  At the beginning of the week I just wanted it to all be over quickly.  I wasn't sure how we were going to survive the week with her needing to be at the fair all day everyday, but it all came together beautifully!  Grandpa was able to be with her the first day and a half of the fair, then I came down with the boys and we camped out in our trailer and walked back and forth A LOT!  It was lovely having the trailer there!  That was a lifesaver.  When we needed to refuel and rest for a short time we would go to the trailer to cool off (air conditioning!).  It also made it easier to get there by 7am each morning with all 3 little boys.  While April would have her morning duties and meeting I would walk around with the boys before anything at the fair was open.  It was kinda cool when everything was quiet (mostly).  One morning we saw some doggy games, and we walked around and said good morning to the pigs and goats.  It was fun seeing all the behind the scene things at the fair.

Sleeping at the fair grounds was pretty fun too.  We took the trailer on Wednesday evening, and camped until Sunday.  It was pretty fun to stay real late one night at the rides to use up the tickets we had left and then just walk to the trailer and go right to bed.  The kids had never seen rides all lit up at night because we have never gone that late.  It was a real treat.

We spent a lot of time just sitting in the barn.  April had to have an adult with her while at the barn with her horse, so that meant that I was there with the boys too.  The boys did awesome.  They got bored, but they kept busy sneaking in the kitchen stall and grabbing snacks and talking to Rob about the movie Cars 2.  

I have definitely had enough fair time to last me a while, but April doesn't want to do horse 4-H anymore.  I did have fun, Hmmm...I'm thinking chickens next year :-)

She found a nice place in her room to display her ribbons!