The State Fair... A WHOLE NEW WORLD

We went to the Santa Clara County Fair several times when the boys were little.  Rebecca was a baby.  Therefore, Rachel, Rebecca and Adam have no idea what a fair is or what happens there.  I wonder if Jared, Josh and Tanner remember the fair.

Anyway, I thought it would be a good idea to take them and show them what it was all about.  So last week, on a day they had no school for some reason, we went to the UTAH STATE FAIR. 

It is a world that they had no idea even existed.  We walked through the big animal buildings and saw the sheep, cows, rabbits, a few pigs, etc.  There were all these kids with 4-H patches on their shirts or FFA embroidered on their jackets.  What in the world is 4-H or FFA wondered the kids.  So I told them all about Future Farmers of America and 4-H Club and how they raise animals and work on their family farms and ranches, ride horses, do rodeos, etc.  We watched a sheep judging show where the kids (some very young - like 8 years old) walked their sheep around the ring and waited while the judges decided the first place winner.   We watched some equestrian judging as well.  The kids seemed really fascinated by it all and enjoyed seeing all the different animals.  It's too bad we didn't understand more about the judging and what makes a good sheep or cow but we still learned a lot.

We also walked through the buildings of art, crafts, quilts, canning, vegetables, photography, etc.  We looked at all the winners and talked about why they might have won 1st place.  The kids got excited and think that maybe next year they will enter something at the State Fair.  

Of course, there was also a lot of food but we refrained from getting a deep fried twinkie (it was a little tempting).  

 

There were also carnival rides which the kids know all about.  They each had a small amount of money they could spend how they chose and Adam and Rachel chose the SPEED Ride.  It was crazy huge and they loved it.  They loved it so much, they spent some of their own hard-earned money to ride it again.  

 

 

The screaming is Rachel and Adam.  The other 3 people on the ride were completely silent.  It was funny.

All in all, it was pretty fun and hopefully we'll go again next year.  I was a little surprised at how small it was in comparison with the Santa Clara County Fair.  After all, that was just the county and this is the state, but I guess the county has almost as many people as the whole state of Utah.