Utah State Fair

Today we continued our annual tradition and went to the Utah State Fair!

Since today was 9/11 it was Patriot Day at the fair and all military, law enforcement, and emergency services personnel got in free with proper I.D., so that was rather nice. Plus, children 5 and under get in free, so we only had to buy tickets for the girls of the family. :)

We had to start the day at 'Little Hands on the Farm' one of the children's favorite things to do. Alas, while Savannah was allowed to go in, at the end they told her she was too old so she didn't earn her dollar to get a treat. :/ A tradition died today... Samantha and Kent III were kind enough to share their strawberry milk with her though. :)











I didn't get a picture of the kids in front of the 'how many hands high are you?' display like I usually get each year. Bummer!

After 'Little Hands' the kids took a ride on the Big Yellow Slide.







One of the many free shows was called 'The Amazing Rainforest Experience'. Before and after their show they had some of the animals on display. Here Kent 'talks' to some Sun Conures.



A very interesting Ring Tail Lemur.



Waiting for the show to begin.



A cute monkey!





Seeing this Green Wing Macaw and the Sun Conures made Kent miss our birds.



A Serval.



The handler showed us how high the Serval can jump. It was quite impressive, especially since the Serval was stationary before it jumped.



White-nosed Coati Mundi.



A Bengal Tiger.



You could just see the muscles ripple as he jumped and could tell what an amazing and powerful animal it really is.



Cougar/Puma/Mountain Lion/Catamount/Panther just waiting to get out and strut her stuff.



Even though I snapped this picture at just the right time to make the Mountain Lion look like she is playfully sticking out her tongue at the audience, her eyes still say "Don't mess with me, kid."



White Bengal Tiger.





There were lots of 'acts' walking around, one of them was Farmer Bob and Johnny, the World's Funniest Tractor. :) Some of Johnny's features include a skunk that sprays water, a big sound system, all sorts of sirens, horns, bells, and whistles, and some surprising remote controls. Johnny even blows up balloons, which Farmer Bob twists into all sorts of creations. Farmer Bob whose real name is Bob Hill, comes from Northeastern Iowa, where he and his family have farmed for 157 years on the same homestead. Bob has traveled to 41 states and Canada making folks laugh for the past 17 years.





One of our favorite exhibits is 'Home Arts'. Here are a few of the 'Best in Show' winners. Stunning!





Another walk around act that didn't really walk around was Tiny the Clown who made balloon animals.



Kent III got a Brontosaurus.



Samantha got a poodle.



Another free show was Jerry Frasier, Comic Magician. I didn't get to see most of his show as I was nursing the baby in the very nice Mother's Lounge. However, he must have been pretty good because he even made Savannah laugh. :)





The main attraction free show seemed to be the Sea Lions, people were getting seats for that show an hour before it started. So Kent, Samantha and Dragon went to save seats for that show while Kent III, Savannah and I went to check out the Ham Bone Express Racing Pigs show.

Lots of people waiting to watch pigs run! :) The winner of each race got an oreo cookie as the prize. :)





I did not take this picture but it gives you an idea of how cute racing pigs are. :)



As were walking over to where the pigs were, Kent III asked me if I remembered how we saw alligators there before. (Last year, in the space where the pigs were, they had alligators and a guy wrestled one.) I was shocked he remembered something he only saw once, a year ago and when he was only 2 1/2. I really don't give him as much credit as I should when it comes to how much his brain takes in.

The Sea Lion show was very fun. I especially enjoyed what one of the handlers said before the show started. "Sea Lions are a lot like toddlers, the don't always do what we would like them to. So, if they do what we ask and perform accordingly, *we'll* have a great show. If they don't do what we ask, then *they'll* have a great show and hopefully we'll get a good laugh." :)





This sea lion caught the ball while in the tank of water and balanced it while she got out of the tank, walked across the stage and got up on her seat. Impressive!





Our other favorite exhibits include Photography, Creative Arts and Fine Arts. Don't ask me why I didn't get any pictures of those exhibits though because I don't have an answer. :)

Each year there is a Butter Sculpture on display. Below is a picture of this year's sculpture.



A few fun facts that were posted next to the sculpture:

The sculpture is made from 700 pounds of low-moisture, pure cream butter and will not be wasted. It will be put into buckets and stored in a freezer awaiting next year's creation.

It takes 29 cups of milk to make one pound of butter. And the average Utah cow could produce enough butter in one year to make the butter sculpture.

Checking out the bunnies.



This pigeon was just super cool!



By mid-afternoon both boys were zonked out. :) Maybe next year we will need to borrow a double stroller for the day. Holding Dragon while we walked around was not good for my back. :)



I got a big kick out of the name of this food vendor...



"It was Colonel Mustard, with the corn dog, in the kitchen..." Ha! :)

By about 7:00 we had seen and done all that we wanted so the kids took another ride on the Big Yellow Slide and we left the park.

On the way home we stopped and picked up our chickens, something I will blog about in another post as this one is long enough already. :)

After getting the chickens in their new home in our backyard we went to Red Lobster for all you can eat shrimp. Yum!

While wandering around at the fair, Kent asked the girls where they would like to eat dinner. Savannah mentioned that one of the best things she remembers from a few years ago was going for all you can eat shrimp after the fair. So, Kent looked up Red Lobster on his Blackberry and found out that Endless Shrimp had started the day before. Perhaps this is the beginning of a new tradition for our family... State Fair and Shrimp. :)

It may have been kind of a long day, but it was a very fun one spent with some of my most favorite people!