Sunday, September 29, 2013

A Fair of Firsts

August 24th was our last Saturday of the summer, and we spent it in a fun way! I love that our county fair is always the week right before school starts, because it always feels like a celebration to end the summer. We went to the fair that afternoon, and looked at all the booths and exhibits first. The boys had entered multiple produce items this year, and they all did pretty good. Last year, Micah was the only one to earn a purple ribbon out of all our boys' entries, and this year it was the opposite: everyone but Micah got a purple ribbon.
 
Kanyon received Grand Class Champion for his cherry tomatoes:
 
Jonah received Reserve Class Champion for his Golden Yukon potatoes:

Ammon received Grand Champion for his pumpkin, as well as a Judge's Choice Award:

And Micah's pumpkin was the first pumpkin of all 4 of the boys' entries to turn orange inside the fair building:

Josh even entered a mini white pumpkin, which was photographed and later featured in the local newspaper by one of their staff:

We rode the rides at the fair that afternoon. We showed the boys all the rides there were before we bought tickets, to see what interest they had and if we should buy wristbands or tickets. They were all only interested in going on 2 rides, so we just bought them each $10 worth of tickets. Kanyon decided he didn't want to go on any rides, and since the ferris wheel requires two passengers, I went on it with Ammon.

You can see Jonah & Micah at the top of the ride here, and me & Ammon at the bottom:

The other ride they wanted to go on was the swings. That was always a favorite of mine when I was a kid, too. I love the expressions on the twins' faces in this picture!:


Since Kanyon didn't want to go on rides, Josh gave him a few bucks to try one of the carnival games. He wanted to try and win a fish by throwing a ping pong ball into a glass of colored water. Thankfully for us, but unfortunately for him, he didn't get any of the balls into the glasses.
 
As soon as we were all done with the rides, and ready to leave, Tiffany's family arrived. They had never been to the county fair before, and her kids had never ridden fair rides. So, she bought them all wristbands. Suddenly, my own children wanted wristbands to ride on the rides with their cousins. But we had already agreed and purchased what they wanted. I wasn't about to spend $20 MORE bucks on each kid to ride the few rides that were there. So, they bought themselves each about $5 worth of tickets (they'd received approx. $15 in premiums each from all the produce they each entered in the fair exhibits), and went on a couple rides with their cousins.
 
In this photo, Jessalyn & Aysha are on the swings, and you can see a partial of Ammon, too. Aysha kept closing her eyes as they went around, and it made me laugh to see her reaction!

This is Kanyon watching his cousins Joel & Isaac on one of the rides. He found greater delight in watching them than having an interest in being on the ride with them!:

Jonah thought it looked fun so he decided to join them on the next round:

This is Coral & Emmy on the same ride. As they went faster, Emmy's little body scooted closer and closer to Coral's--see where her arms are in relation to her body?! It was so funny!

After watching Isaac & Joel ride the apples, Jonah and Micah both decided to try it with them the next time, too!

Josh waited patiently for the boys to finish using up their tickets. He blended right into the rides with his brightly colored pink shirt! He looked just like yummy cotton candy to me!

Speaking of food, as soon as they were done, we left the cousins to keep riding and we went to the food booths and bought ice cream cones and scones for our family. They were delicious! I just love fair food! A storm blew in shortly after, and we went home for a few hours to take a break, and to say goodbye to the cousins when they left. Then we went back out to the fairgrounds that evening for the rodeo. It was the first time that the twins had gone with us, and we bought some funnel cakes to eat as we watched the event. That was the first time any of the boys had eaten funnel cakes, too!

It makes me hungry just looking at it! This was the first time they've had this type of food at the Lemhi County Fair, and I'm so glad because usually we get it at the Eastern Idaho State Fair, but this year we didn't go to that fair, but we were still able to get one of our favorite fair foods!

It was exciting to see the bronco rides and I especially enjoyed watching the local calf ropers. The clown was pretty funny, and the night's line-up moved pretty quickly. There was only one bull rider, which was kind of disappointing, but other than that it was a great rodeo and we all had a great time!

I completely missed attending our fair last year because I was in Tremonton with the 3 younger boys, and their fair happens to be the exact same week as ours. I was glad for the chance to go to the Lemhi County one again, and although we go to it every year (except last year of course), it was fun to do some new things this year and have the boys experience a few firsts: 1. First time winning purple ribbons, 2. First time riding rides with their cousins, 3. See the cousins ride fair rides for the First time, 4. First time going to the rodeo, and 5. First time eating funnel cakes.

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