Utah County Fair

The kids "earned" suckers by answering questions about smoking correctly: "Say no."

We love a good fair, and the Utah County Fair is like a little version of the state fair with four rabbits instead of four hundred. We never ride the carnival rides, but the kids insisted this time. I tried to talk them into the Ferris wheel, but Isaac in particular was sure he wanted to ride the pirate ship.

 

This crappy little ride was pretty much broken: it didn't go forward, and it was really jerky backward. The carnie diligently punched all the buttons he had at his disposal, but eventually, Isaac and I just said, "That's enough" and the little boy got off. He watched Jovie ride on the boats and said, "That pirate ride wasn't as fun as I expected." So, hopefully we can start avoiding the carnival rides again.

We looked at all the 4-H projects and the huge Lego display complete with trains and an elderly railfan who answered our questions for about a half hour.

During snack time when we were enjoying kettle corn, Jovie wandered over to the Icee Flavor Station, discreetly watched the action for a while, then stuck her mouth under the spigot and swallowed a few gulps of Grape Explosion before I could get to her. I guess it was too sweet, because she picked up a bottle of water from the cooler behind her and started drinking it. I sent her back with $1 so we aren't water shoplifters, only flavor-stealers.

Of course we found a weird train thing to climb on.

We watched the 4-H Jr Livestock show and we were impressed with the strong heifers and the boys who were so composed while pushing around cows that were so much bigger than them.

Quick note: We started out the day at soccer camp, complete with purple popsicles. Then the fair for a few hours. Then shopping at a big department store with Grandma Faucheux and Nikki. The kids were appropriately energetic at soccer and the fair, and over the top at the store. Jovie got "lost" three times. The third time, a worker walked her over to Nikki and said, "Someone needs to talk to her. She was sneaking around and hiding under racks." So I gave her a lecture (maybe someone needs to talk LESS to her?), and then shouldered all the blamed myself for running them ragged and then going to a huge busy store. I guess I should cut some of these activities out or spread them over different days, but I just can't help myself because I have this goal of doing EVERYTHING there is to do. I actually thing we're going to accomplish that goal, as long as "everything" doesn't include sitting calmly in a boring department store at the end of a hot and exciting day.