September 15th, 2013 - Kansas State Fair!

Wow, was it ever a great day!  A close second to July 4th at Williamsburg!  

Greg and I have never been to a state fair before...and this was the last day too!  
                                           So glad we could go!  We had a blast!!

                    Reminded me of the cartoon movie "Cars"!! 

Ah, the classics!

   







Greg:  "This is the cleanest car I've ever seen!"

Love the color of this one!

This Hudson car is my favorite...imagine driving around in this thing??!!  

Bluegrass!  Just as we walked up, they played one of your favorite songs Nicole!

The Welde family has been training bears for 3 generations and their bears have been in Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, in movies and TV shows!

Mooooo!

Lol, I'm concentrating on taking pics of this cutie...
       ...holding the state fair map sheet in my other hand...

and the next thing I know...

Apparently cows like paper!! 




Alpacas and Llamas!!

Check out the ears!!

Lol, reminds me of when my grandfather would wiggle his ears and we'd all try to copy him...without success!  But he probably had fun watching us try!!

                      Yeah...this one wanted to spit!

This nice man gave us a shopping bag, pencil and ice cream scoop!

Lol...okay, gotta sing it...

          Chicks and ducks and geese better scurry....(that song was in my head all day!)

                                                                                                        Crazy headgear!

                                                               Check out the fluffy feet!

                              These ladies were very curious!

Bunnies!!

Cutest bunny ever...


The Velveteen Rabbit...

A young girl was selling these bunnies for $20 a piece!  I was SO close to buying one!!

I remember the kids and I were so thrilled that a carnival was going to be two blocks away from the house we had just moved into that summer.  They had one of these rides there...and I think it was the first one we went on!  When we swung up in the air, we were lifted up off our seats!  They loved it!  I hung onto them, lol, so we didn't catapult into the air!!

We didn't get to see it, but they had a tractor pulling competition - which is when they compete to have their tractors pull a very heavy load for 100 meters along a course.

And no fair would be complete without...

The emcee talked like an auctioneer!  She was great!  She had people in the audience be cheerleaders for the piggies and we'd all cheer for our "pig"!  

Leroy getting them ready...

The cheerleaders are waiting...

  ...and they're off!

They were so cute...and fast too!   And the prize....an Oreo cookie!!   Yum!

We talked to Christie afterwards.  I asked her how she was able to talk so fast!  She said "It's easy!  You're from New York so you could definitely do it!"  (so funny!)

Wow....things have changed a bit since Ruth walked through the field, gleaning the leftover crops, left on the land that belonged to Boaz!

                   When I take you out in the surrey!    (yup, the song is still in my head)

We got free ice cream cups from Turkey Hill...delicious!

Chainsaw woodcarver!

We forgot to come back and see the finished product - an eagle! 

Zip lining!

Competitions of delicious jams and jellies and more!

                                                    

                                                           Quilts and other fancy things!

Kitties!  Love the little end of the tail on the side!

            We miss our kit kat...

Ice Cream competition!   And they let everyone sample the entries!  

                                                                    We tried the winner - peaches and cream!

Bake Off!

We got to climb up in these awesome tractors!   Heehee!

They had a birthing center with brand new baby animals!

Sorry the pic is blurry!  

(these lil ducks were in a tiny dark cage)

 

The Mamas...

...chillin' by the fan!

Pink little piggies!
They were born 3 days ago!  They keep the mom next to them but she is separated by bars...because if she rolls over...well, you get the idea!

A petting zoo!!

 Fuzzy wuzzy Kangaroo ears!

Porcupine!

Patagonian Cavy

                                                   Love this Giraffe's eyes...

Lol, all I can say is...                                                        ...wow!

Learned from my friend Sue that a Zebra's stripes are like fingerprints!   Each Zebra has a completely unique design!

                                                Love the do!

Looking back on today...it's amazing how much we did and saw!  And we still had more fun ahead!

In one of the arenas was a cowboy/girl shooting competition!  They had to ride their horses as fast as they could, weaving around barrels and shooting balloons on these posts.  It was awesome!  If they had played the music from one of our favorite movies, Silverado, we would have lost it!  Just so cool!

Most of the pics were blurry 'cause I just couldn't keep up with their speed!!

Yeehaw!!!

When they got to the opposite side of the arena, they had to switch guns as fast as they could, then turn around and ride as fast as possible back while shooting the rest of the balloons. 

It was awesome to watch.  Incredible skill.

They were first judged by their speed.  For instance, if they did the course in 17 seconds, that was their score, but if they missed a balloon, they got a 5 point penalty, so the score was then 22.  The higher the number the lower in rank. 

This lady was the emcee for the event and she just cracked us up.  She was like a mom to everyone.  Being proud if they did good and encouraging them if they didn't do so good.  Looked the part too!

Yeah...I wanna be a cowgirl when I grow up!

Went on to a cowboy roping competition in another arena.  One very neat thing they did before starting was say a prayer... 
                                                              ...how cool is that?!

This cowboy above made me think of "Westworld"...that movie freaked me out!!

Lol.  There was one cow that was a complete rebel - we had more fun watching her outwit the cowboys trying to get her to follow the rest of the herd!

Our heroine!

It began to rain so we wandered around in one of the buildings for a while...

            (we wanna go to Dodge!)


It didn't look like it was letting up so we went to another building where there was a butter sculpture...                                                 ...yeah, you read that right!

Totally grossed Greg out...me, not so much...it looked like icing!  (yum) 

At 4:00 there were two different music groups performing - gospel and country.  

The rain was really starting to come down now.  Went over to the gospel one first...outside stage...no group.  

Then went to the country one...they were in a band shell and there was a tent for us to sit under...but it started getting windy.  The country band began packing up.  So while we sat and waited for the rain and wind to subside, we were entertained by a balloon artist!

The tent started flapping, the rain was diagonal now and we were all getting wet!  Greg and I leaped over puddles (Lol, can you just see that!) to a nearby building...then another...then another.

We went "building hopping" our way back to the animal buildings on the other side of the fair (which was fun considering it's 280 acres filled to the brim with buildings, arenas, amusement rides, food stands, gift shop tents, tractors...and very large soggy stuffed animals!

Every once in a while there would be a lull, and people would pour back onto the "streets".

We hadn't been to the building with the goats and pigs yet so there was still more to see!

Goat competition...lol, not in my wildest dreams did I ever think there was such a thing!   

Never did ask them what the deal was with wearing white...
                ...looked neat though!

They are so cool looking.  

In the left corner is another goat's leg...



...that one kept jumping up towards me like he wanted to play!

           He was seriously jazzed!

                                                         All so different...

This one looked right at me!   I'm not fluent in goat, but there was a connection!  Lol.

Can't you just hear her...."Isn"t it over...yet?"

Another crazy goat!

I think we need a goat...it would definitely have enough room in our backyard!

We began to hear torrential rain pounding on the tin roof.  The goats began jumping and bleating!  Greg's phone was beeping warnings of severe hazardous weather.   We took shelter in this small area where there were classrooms and restrooms...the safest spot we could find, just in case...you know...it turned into a...  

We stayed there with some other people for some time...until it finally began to subside.

We made our way over to the pig area, but all their masters had already ushered them out.

As we returned outside, the walkways/roads were flooded everywhere.  Finally gave up trying to keep our sneakers from sinking into the waters.  As we headed towards the parking lot...people were still making the most of their time...the indoor exhibits were getting more attention, the amusement rides were slowly coming back to life, and the food stands were busier than ever! 

The rains had taken their toll on the grassy parking lot fields.  Saw one large RV stuck at least a foot and a half in the mud.  They were on the phone, calling for a tow.  There were certainly a ton of tractors around that might be able to help!  

This of course, is nothing compared to the devastation in Colorado...but it makes one keenly aware of the forces of nature.  

We headed "home", grateful to have had such a wonderful day.