Iowa State Fair Fun!!!

Every since I read the book "1,000 Places to See Before You Die", I have wanted to go to the Iowa State Fair! It was so cool that the book LOVED this wonderful Midwest tradition!!!
And then we moved to the Midwest and there was NO WAY we were going to miss it!!
So as we were checking off the "Things to Do Before We Move" list, we knew we were heading to Des Moines, IA!!!


Our traditional road trip family picture!
(yes, we are in a rental car, the van was getting fixed)


The girlies watching "Phineas and Ferb" for a few minutes on Richard's iPod

We got the the fair and went in and were blown away by it!
Now people in Iowa know how to do State Fairs!
Many of the buildings are permanent structures. The animal buildings are permanent and SO beautiful! The brickwork was beautiful and there were sheep carved into the Sheep Building.
We talked to the girls about what State Fairs were and why they were started and then we went through the different animal buildings. Horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, birds, etc...

Here are some of the highlights:

These sheep were BAAAA-ing so loud that the girls just laughed and laughed!


The girls had to measure against the size of horses. That picture is the actual size of a horse! CRAZY HUGE!!!


We couldn't resist taking a picture with the "FAINTING GOATS"!!!!!
If you have seen that Mythbusters, you know why!
If you haven't, google them or look them up on youtube. Funniest thing EVER!

And the Fair Food....
Had to do it!

Corn dogs for the girls...


Foot-long corn dogs for us!
And there were smoothies and french fries and ice cream and so many, many more things we tried!

Ms Emma had been talking about going on the Ferris Wheel from the second we pulled out of our driveway. She wanted that to be the first thing we did when we walked into the fairgrounds, but she worked on her patience until we finally got to it!

You can't tell as much but Em was SO EXCITED!
Sarah was nervous...


Rachel and Mom were a little nervous, too!
But it was HUGE and so much fun!
It was worth it for sure!

We went and learned how Little Hands Help on the Farm...

Rachel planting her veggie seeds!


"You must be shorter than four chicken to ride the tractor"
Yep, welcome to Iowa, folks!!!


Rachel riding her tractor!


Sarah and Emma planting their veggies, too!


Go, Emma, Go!
(notice the stylish tall fuzzy pink socks Emma HAD to wear that day. It was a pretty hot and humid day, but she didn't care! The whole outfit had to be pink and she had to wear those socks!)


Sarah "milking" a cow. She could be a dairy farmer!


And Sarah again, tearing up the tractor track!!!

We went over and visited the Butter Cow.
Yeah, I said the Butter Cow. It's the 100th anniversary of the Butter Cow they make each year. Love it!

We went also went and watched some corn judging and zucchini judging.
Along with some hay and feed judging, too!
Whew, SO Iowa State Fair! (0:

And to end the super fun family day, the girls got their faces painted.
I love the ones that they each chose!!

Rachel in progress.....


Loving that Sparkly Dragon!


Sarah in progress...


A Tiger and a Dragon!


Emma in progress...


Dragon Rachel, Tiger Sarah and Princess Emma!
Our girlies for sure!

Here is the finishing family self portrait on the bus ride back to the car!

It was an amazingly fun time!
We were tired and hot but so happy!
It is so much fun to get out and show the girls how big this world is!

PS I had so much fun that when I got home, I went to the library and rented "State Fair". I had seen it a loooooong time ago and loved it! It is set at the Iowa State Fair and it was so fun to see the sights that we had just been to as a family!