Someone once wrote a book titled something like “1000 Things to do Before You Die.” I don’t know who wrote it or what 999 of the things in the book are or whether I’ve done any of those things, but I do know that one of the things this person noted was the Iowa State Fair. A must do before one dies. Check. Yesterday we rocked the fair and it was good.
My husband grew up going to the Iowa State Fair and loves it. I first went when Miss was about six months old. It was fun then. There was lots of cool stuff to do and look at. It was easy with just one immobile and good-tempered baby. This time, though it was a little bit more tricky, and at times trying, it was so much more fun. I loved, I mean loved, watching my girls do the fair. There were so many fun experiences for them. They got to see piglets being born. They watched a lamb chasing and dancing around its mother to grab on to her and nurse. They saw chicks hatching, and all sorts of other baby animals. They got to play with butterflies.
Miss was so proud of herself for learning to catch the butterflies all by herself. Lass had a heavier hand and needed some help to keep from clubbing them, but she eventually got it too.
A little later, Miss was very eager to ride the Big Yellow Slide. We happened to eat lunch right near it, and she couldn’t even eat she was so anxious to get on that slide. She was mad that she couldn’t go down by herself. She went down with her daddy. And she hated it. It totally freaked her out. Lass on the other hand loved it. She went twice and wanted to keep going.
So true to their personalities.
Of course a day at the fair is not complete without trying various “fair foods.” The girls have a book in which the characters go to a fair and eat cotton candy, so they were eager to try it. Cotton candy is not one of my favorite things and I would not normally waste $4 on it, but I was excited to see what they thought of it. Naturally Lass jumped right in and ate it up.
And Miss was not so sure. She said, “Why is it dry?” She didn’t love it so much.
I tried my first fried Snickers bar. It was tasty, but I think I’d rather just have the Snickers. Surprisingly, not everything in life is made more delicious by deep fat frying it.
We made up for the disappointing cotton candy with red velvet funnel cake. Funnel cake is not really my thing (my belief about dessert is that, with very few exceptions, it’s generally not worth the calories if it isn’t chocolate) but the girls enjoyed it. Again, Lass dug in with vigor.
We spent a lot of time looking at the animals. They were the big hit of the day, from all the baby animals to the “Big Boar.” His name was Reggie and he was over 1500 lbs, I think! Though his size was impressive, the girls actually seemed to prefer the smaller animals, because poor enormous Reggie didn’t do anything but lay in the dirt. The girls were really intrigued by other animals like bunnies, chickens, ponies, llamas, sheep, horses, normal-sized pigs, and an elk. Miss’s favorite were the bunnies.
Lass’s favorite were the cows. She asked to pet a new mama cow who was in the birthing barn with her calf, but there was a staff member posted near her specifically to make sure no one got too close. That mama cow was very protective. Gotta respect that.
We had so much fun looking at and talking about all the animals. It was an amazing learning experience. We talked about everything we saw, from how the baby chicks peck their way out of the eggs to why a sheep pooped in his water dish. They’re still talking about that one.
A surprising favorite was the tractors. My husband loves to look at them, but I wasn’t expecting my girls to get into them as much as they did. They wanted to climb into every one and Miss got upset when we needed to move on to other things.
We saw as much of the Fair as we could in one too-short morning. We got back to the Farm after a long drive and one of the first things Miss asked to do was to look at her Papa’s tractors! She takes after her Daddy I guess.
We’re at the Farm this week, recharging and savoring the last of summer. The Iowa State Fair was a wonderful addition.
