Lake County Fair

On July 26th we attended the Lake County Fair.  We go early because there aren't too many people there and it's cooler in the day!  We started by going to the animal barns.  The first one was the goat barn.  They were doing goat judging and we sat and watched for at least 10 minutes.  N2 were quite enthralled!  They weren't as excited to look into the pens as they had been in previous years but we watched goat, sheep and cow judging!  Noah did get to pet a rabbit-the rabbit that was the inspiration for the Velveteen Rabbit because it's the softest rabbit out there (and it really was!).

In one of the barns, one of the 4H clubs was doing free face painting.  Both N2 were very willing to get their hands painted.  Noah chose a bunny and Natalie chose a rainbow.  Unfortunately I didn't get a good picture of Noah's bunny-it kind of ran together.  Natalie's rainbow never really dried and it smeared on my dress and on Brian's leg.  When she washed her hand it started running so we just had to wash it off.  They weren't using face paint paint.

We then went to an event that we missed last year because we had no idea what it was.  But then we researched it at home last year after the fair and were so disappointed that we missed it!  Want to know what it is?  It's the Banana Derby-monkey jockeys riding dogs!  What's better than that?

I'm not sure how impressed N2 were because it was very hot and sunny.  Noah just wanted to go inside.  I thought it was pretty amusing.  We headed inside to cool down a bit.  They had an agriculture display for kids this year.  Each kid got a bucket and had to be a farmer.  They had to pick one of each produce, collect one egg, milk a cow and then separate each crop.  They had fun being farmers.  They also had a mini John Deere tractor that they could pedal!  They loved that tractor.

We then grabbed some lunch and watched a magic show.  Then we went back to see the tractors and walked through the ride section.  That was a mistake because N2 are now showing interest in riding on rides.  We decided to let them try one since I could buy individual tickets.  They LOVED their ride and wanted to ride on more.  I guess I need to take them to Pirate's Cove or Santa's Village.

Before:

During (they could love the bar in front of them towards or away from them to make their bee go up and down):

After:

They wanted to ride on more!  It was time to go as Brian had to go to marching band.  But we ended up heading back in the evening (you just get your hand stamped and can re-enter later!) for Motorcross.  N2 were so enthralled by that!  It was really entertaining to watch the various bikes.  The smallest/least powerful bike race was funny because everyone was at a different point in the course at different times so you could never tell who the leader was!  When the more powerful bikes were racing, there was more of a pack with a couple leaders and a couple stragglers.  Natalie and I went to the bathroom right before intermission (we didn't know it was going to be intermission) so we missed the last race and she wanted to see more!  Intermission was a half hour and it was already close to 8:00 so we had to leave.