Take me out to the fair!

Last Friday, my family (mom, dad, brothers, sister-in-law, brother’s mother-in-law, husband, and daughter) ALL converged on the Alaskan State Fair. For Alaskans, the state fair is a BIG DEAL. We have no theme parks, children’s museums, walking streets, or petting zoos in our area, so it is pretty hard to resist the one time of year when we can go to a place and eat lots of greasy foods, pet sheep noses, and ride Farris wheels. Although many years it can be rainy and miserable, we were blessed with a lovely day. And all of us had a lot of fun together.

This year too, we had a new church booth at the fair which my parents put a LOT of work into. I wish I had gotten a picture of it; it was pretty neat looking. I spent part of the early afternoon (while James and Brady were still at work) helping at the booth and talking to people while Clara slept or went around the Fair to experience it with different family members. Here she came back with her very first balloon. This day had a lot of firsts for Clara.

Later, Mom, Aspen, Oletta (Aspen’s mom), and I went around looking at some of the sweet specialty shops available while Mom carried Clara in the Mei Tai.

We went to check out the giant vegetables too. Alaska cannot grow many warm climate vegetables well without a lot of help, but it sure has the cold varieties down. Plus, with our super sun exposure, they can get REALLY big. We commonly break records for giant rutabagas and turnips and such.

But this year was a big one for us Alaskans as we broke the world record for giant cabbages twice! Once with a 125 lb cabbage and again with an 127 lb cabbage! Here’s the photo taken by yours truly of the biggest cabbage in the world EVER (can you find my shadow : )

Here are the other large veggies Alaskan farmers brought in. AND, big news for our family, there in front, that green bowling ball thing with the red ribbon? That says “Kuenning” on it. Yep! Its a kohlrabi grown by my own mother! It weighed in on the official scales at 5.31 lbs. The sad thing is that we ate the really big one before Mom knew that there was a second veggie entry!

Yay, Mom!

About this time, James and Brady arrived, and then the party really got going. Hi, Sweetie!

The day was “Aviation Day,” and we got to watch hot air balloons and helicopters and such fly over.

We also ate lots of yummy food. Here Dad is enjoying one of the best fair treats available: a custardy cream puff drizzled with chocolate. Mmm! Too bad Adam isn’t interested.

I LOVE Adam’s expression in this one. James and I crack up when we see it. “Please Sir, can I have some more?”

There were all kinds of events and animals to see. I am kicking myself for missing the photo opportunity of Clara seeing, hearing, and (sometimes) touching live barnyard animals for the first time. Her eyes got so big when she walked into the big barn and heard the animals. These pigs are getting ready for a race (that we missed). There was just so much to do!

Here they had an entire building set up for kids and families to explore that was FULL of reptiles and amphibians flown up for the occasion. Like I said, we don’t have aquariums and children’s museums, so stuff like this is really exciting.

And creepy? Many were poisonous. Um, I live in Alaska because there are NO snakes. We don’t need to import them thank-you-very-much! : )

Hey I got a picture of Brady and Aspen. Hi, Guys! Dippin' Dots, Huh? Mmm.

Then we all walked over to the carnival part of the fair.

We actually watched someone WIN that giant tiger. Oh my. It was as big as the man carrying it!

Then we tried putting Clara on my back. Do you think she likes it?

Well, she fell asleep . . .

Even through the screaming and commotion.

Here is a photo of Justin Spurlin’s (Aspen’s brother) beautiful bronze cast artwork (I hope I got that right). Instead of being put on display with the crocheted doilies and amateur photography in one of the buildings, it had it’s own special display outside of the art guild building. Impressive!

Then we saw some hula hoops laying randomly on the ground and Mom had to show us her stuff. She’s good too! Giant kohlrabi growing, hula hoop rotating, is there anything she CAN’T do? : )

Go Brady!

Way to go, Adam!

And then Clara got to see her first fireworks. I’m not too sure what my little monkey thought of that here, but at least she’s snuggled into my chest again and could burry her nose in my shirt whenever. She’s so cute!

And Isaac watched the end of our fair day explode in the sky.

Good day. Good memories. I’m glad we shared that together. Can’t wait for next year when I get to experience it with an 18 month old! Won’t she adore the cows! Aww!