City meets Country

A few weeks ago we took the girls to the County Fair. We headed straight to the animal barns and tents. Amelia had a good time, but we didn't quite get the same reaction out of her as we did when she saw the goats while on vacation. It was cute because she was walking by a goat pen and one "baa'ed" at her. I think she about jumped out of her sandals as she didn't expect that. She did good though and wasn't afraid of them after that.

We walked through one of the horse barns and several of the 4-H members were there taking care of the horses. The teen girls took a liking to Allison and Amelia and let them pet their horses. Amelia was in heaven and petted one particular horse for the longest time. She didn't flinch at all, even when she was face-to-face with the huge horse.

Even though we brought the double stroller along, the girls didn't want to ride in it. There were too many exciting things to look at. As we were leaving one barn, Allison stepped in some cow manure that was on the ground. Brian was telling Allison to stop walking and she was clueless to what was going on. I was trying to help, when I realized that Amelia took off. I went to get her, when I heard "OHHH JEEZ, DON'T TOUCH IT. GROSS. DON'T MOVE." and "WHAT DAD? WHAT?" I grabbed Amelia who was trying to sneak between the two barns and brought her back. Brian (who isn't a very happy camper at this point) is trying to clean up Allison's shoe. I looked up and saw a 4-H family watching the whole fiasco take place. They were all cracking up. Another gentleman walks by and is trying his hardest not to laugh. Yep....city meets country. We were that family. We were that family as we continued to go through the fair with Brian and I snipping at each other, the girls going off in one direction or dragging their feet at every exhibit, and me trying to find an inexpensive way to give the kids a treat without paying $7 for french fries or buying day-old popcorn.

Despite that, I think the kids had a good time. Since we were there so early in the day, the carnival rides hadn't opened yet, so the highlight of the trip was snack time and then "treat" time, where I managed to find them a Tootsie Roll sucker at the 4H booth (they were out of frozen treats, so I scored the suckers for a quarter each.) Next year, we will go again. However next time maybe we will put the kids in "muck" boots and we will also make sure that everyone has been well-fed before we leave.