Indiana State Fair - 2008 Edition

We've succeeded in attending the Indiana State Fair, again, furthering another of our family's attempts at maintaining yearly traditions. We took a break a couple of years back, due to the unbearable heat that summer and Laura's near-term pregnancy woes with Kian, but have made the trek out to the fair 2 years in a row, now. Nana P was supposed to come up and join us again, this year, but a last-minute injury put her on the sidelines this time...hopefully she heals up soon, though! We all definitely missed her, as she's the more adventurous fair food eater out of us all, getting us to eat fried Pepsi, and fried Snickers last year. But, we did pretty well without her, yet still stayed reasonably true to our dietary limitations and goals we set for ourselves heading into this year's trip. We got a decent set of pictures from the first part of our day; however, shortly after lunch, the battery in our camera died, and we failed to bring a back-up. So, here's a pictorial of the first part of our day at the fair on Saturday.

The boys eagerly await our arrival at the fairgrounds (Kian came equipped with his own fair animals, but this would be the closest he'd come all day to actually touching anything larger than a rabbit...more on that in a bit.)

We get to the Riley Fun Park, and the boys get suited up for their simulated Day on the Farm. Gathering up feed corn that'll be used to fatten up the livestock a little later in our simulated day!

Kian gathering, and showing off, the eggs he collected at the chicken coop.

The boys drop off their feed corn to the hungry, and appreciative, livestock.

Next, they were off to pick out some gloves, a shovel, and a crop vegetable to plant, and then harvest.

Jackson takes a short break in the path to flash a big farmer's grin for Daddy.

Next, the boys loaded up their tractors, and took their harvested goods to market!

Jackson shows off the fruits of his labor (which, in true American fashion, was promptly blown on a little bottle of milk...they don't teach these kids the value of saving these days!)

After we left the farm day simulation, and were headed over to a food tent to eat lunch, my infamous eagle eyes (see the blog post from May where I describe a trip to Toys 'R' Us) spotted a $20 bill on the ground, which was quickly swooped up and pocketed! But, only after a self-congratulatory picture was snapped...

And, then, as if this day weren't already overflowing with tons of awesome, we saw Rupert Bonham - of Survivor fame - grubbing at the ribeye steak sandwich tent with his family. Both his family and ours got up from our respective tables at the same time, so I capitalized on the coincident departures to ask for a family photo with the Hoosier Survivor. His wife was gracious enough to snap this picture for us! They were all very sweet about it.

Next, we got over to the milking pavillion where, at noon, they opened up a cow pen to allow kids to file through and take turns milking a cow. Jack was so excited about this, and did quite well with it. I think it helped that he had some practice, on a fake cow that milked water, during the simulated farm day. Kian, however, FREAKED OUT when I tried to put him down to try his hand at milking. When I abandoned the milking attempt, he continued to cower into my shoulder after I picked him up and tried to get him to pat the cow's hind leg. This would continue throughout the rest of the day whenever we tried to get him to touch an animal, except in the rabbit barn, where he tried to get several rabbits to bite him by sticking his finger in their cages. He'd literally say, "You bite me, bunny? You wanna bite my finger?" Anyway, here are the milking pictures, along with a couple of shots of the boys playing on the real-life tractors just outside the milking area. Shortly thereafter, our battery died, so this will end the photographic section of our tour.

The rest of the day was filled with a tractor-pulled shuttle ride across the park, seeing a bengal tiger performance, watching some harness horse racing, partaking in plenty of fair food treats, cavorting through all the live animal pavillions, and some serious overexposure to the sun's rays (particularly on my behalf). It was another fantastic day at the state fair - an experience we're thankful we're able to spend together each year!

(K)