Fun At The (Turner County) Fair

Fair food, fair rides, fair animals, fair people, fair sweat, fair smells, fair hair; why wouldn’t you want to go to the local county fair?  Well, when it comes to the Sioux Empire Fair… been there done that.  So, this year we hit the road, interstate, highway, through the cornfields, past a couple dirt roads and headed for the Turner County Fair.

I’ve met the people who run it in the past (through having them as guests on Inside KELOLAND) and I work with the fair board’s past President and biggest supporter, Darcy.  Now, I just needed to get out there and see it for myself – with the family in tow, of course! 

After a walk into the gate (which is free, by the way!  No $5 per person entrance fee here!), we bee-lined it for the animals and were greeted by, what else? A camel! – a couple actually.  Noah loved them and every other animal we saw. I should warn you, you’re going to see a lot of the back of his head in these photos.  Why look at the camera when you can reach out and pet a camel!? Oh, Alexis was there too… she just wasn’t as excited about getting up close and personal with the baby cow.  But she did like the little chicks… they couldn’t fit her hand in their mouth!The little guy’s level of no fear tends to give this mom a lot of fear!  He decided he needed to hang on the cage of the miniature bulls.  Okay, they’re miniature compared to the big ones, but that put their big, sharp horns right at my kid’s level!  Seriously, kid! - That’s right, I took a picture before pulling him off because I didn’t notice the HORNS until afterward! I was personally impressed with the produce expo building and everything that was judged.  But I think I could have won in some categories after seeing what came out of my garden this year.  Darcy said I could enter in the open class category!  Gonna give that some serious thought! And since Darcy’s a pro, she can coach me a little.  I guess it’s worth reading the rules regarding stem length and other details! Then it was time for some fair food!  We found some stuff Alexis could eat (hot dogs, I believe) and plopped down on a picnic table in the shade.  It was getting warm – even as the sun went down!  We all needed something to drink.Then it was off to find more show animals.  First the sheep – which Alexis thought were cool because they were wearing different colored “coats”.  They’re actually spandex! and apparently help keep the sheep clean before being shown.  There were a whole bunch so they looked like giant Skittles!We also saw pigs, more cows and goats… little kids – again just the right height for Noah!Yep, this ^ is what she’s looking at in amazement!

And that’s on our way out of the fair.  We were sad we didn’t get to see Darcy.  I stuck my head inside the fair office and they said she was running around – totally understand!  (I believe she was at the auctioneer contest with our co-worker Don Jorgensen who was judging the event.) 

We will definitely have to try to come back next year!

Summer Project – Done!

My summer project is DONE!  It only took me ALL summer too!  We thought staining the deck would be a  couple weekend affair.  The front deck went pretty smooth – yeah, it’s 6’ x 5’ with four steps. Piece of cake!

The back deck was a whole different beast!  I liked the look of a two-tone finish, so I went for it and got all the appropriate equipment so it looked great.  Regardless of the color, I had to tape off all the spindles and since it was going to take two coats, the tape was going to be on there for a little bit of time.  The problem was after I got the first coat on, we got rain, rain and more rain.  Then summer got busy.  So I wasn’t able to finish the second coat for the solid color and finish touch-ups until the beginning of August.

Then I tried to take the tape off.  It had been on through the heat and rain and figured maybe mother nature worked for me, baking the adhesive to the point of drying it out.  It did, in some areas.  In other areas, okay nearly every spindle, I needed some fingernail polish to remove the residue and paint drips that I missed.  It took time but again, the detailing was worth it! What do you think?

  

Everybody Jump, Jump!

Grandma and Grandpa thought it’d be fun to buy the kids a trampoline for the summer.  It’s just their size and comes with a net to wrap around it.  The thing sits not even two feet off the ground and is pretty sturdy.  But putting it together is quite interesting.  There are all of these elastic straps to tie into bows underneath the trampoline – finger killers!  That’s us below – yep, both of us, which means ALEXIS took the picture! Not bad, huh?

It was an instant hit!  But for some reason, they don’t want to stay in it very long.  We’re talking five minutes at a time, then they want out. Five minutes later, they want back in.  The zipper door is getting a workout.

  The time outside also gave me a chance to pick a few things from the garden.  I’ve been watering pretty close to every day and am pretty impressed with how things are growing.  This was what I got at first pick.  I don’t remember where I put the white onions and the green onions, so I picked these not knowing whether they were really big green onions or small white ones.  Either way, Bill liked them and they tasted great in our salads.

The yellow peppers are spotted for some reason.  I’m wondering if it has to do with the watering.  But the tomatoes are going gangbusters!  There are tons of green ones and these are the only ones ready to be picked so far.  They look and taste great!

Saturday Night With Some Friends

Ben and Trista had some friends over Saturday night with all the kids, which is always fun.  They all play so well together; I’m always impressed.  We all brought something to eat and grill and Noah got to sit at a table full of girls!

Bella was nice enough to show Noah how to use her boombox.  And then he carried it around ALL NIGHT! 

He and Sophie took turns on the swing… he pushed her and then we pushed him.  Sophie wasn’t too sure about having him come swinging at her.

Bella had a riding tractor, which she and Alexis pushed each other around the yard on.  Bella really got that thing going at times to the point that it made Alexis squeal in a bit of terror.  When we got her to slow down a bit, it was much more fun for the both of them.  

And to wrap things up for the night, Ben pulled out the fire pit and got things going for smores.  It was cooling off just enough where the warmth felt good.  Noah decided to swing the marshmallow sticks around a bit, so we had to take them away from him.  Oops!  He got interested in the graham crackers instead… we couldn’t get those away from him!

Lovin’ This Zoo Membership!

It’s a nice summer day and Hy-Vee is sponsoring a free lunch at the Zoo.  Let’s Go!

We loaded up the wagon this time and took a stroll through the Great Plains Zoo.  We decided to get there as early as possible in the morning figuring the animals would be out before lunch and boy were we right! MEOW!

We took the Zoo in reverse order this time and started with the big cats and bears.  The bear photos didn’t turn out that great so that means we get to the rhinos sooner.  Alexis loves them and I don’t know why, other than that she still calls them “rhino-saurs”.

  Then it was off to lunch: Hot dogs, watermelon, chips, cookie and water.  And it’s a good thing we took some extra water bottles because the day warmed up fast.  Noah sharing food with Dad:

Alexis wasn’t very into the Zoo’s mascot.  At least she gets excited over the real animals!

Well, she likes the animals as long as they can’t reach through the fence and beg for food.  But Noah LOVED feeding the goats!  He kept asking for more treats and the little goats were HUNGRY!

And once we wiggled our way through the monkeys, past the camel and a few alligators, we swung into the flamingos to show the kids the interesting pink birds.  Noah was captivated.  Alexis, didn’t really care too much.  Isn’t he too cute?!