Meet Me At The Fair

We came home from Leavenworth on Wednesday -- which happened to be the opening day of one of my favorite summer activities: The North Idaho Fair and Rodeo. While it was obviously not possible to go on Wednesday, I was able to spend a good part of the day at the fair on Thursday. This summer I did an internship with the children's department of the local library, and so I spent Thursday morning at the fair helping the library with a kid's booth. We had three crafts for the kids to do -- they could paint, decorate a treasure box and make a kaleidoscope. It was fun, but it would have been even more fun if the weather had chosen to cooperate! Instead of sunny skies and warm weather that should be expected at the fair, we experienced torrential downpours and hurricane-strength winds. Okay, so maybe I am exxagerating a little bit, but not by a lot! If you click on the picture, it will make it bigger and you can see all the rain pelting the fair! That's the library booth I took a picture of.

Instead of waiting out the oncoming storm under our little tent-sheltered-by-a-few-haybales, I ran over to the nearest building -- which happened to be the cow and pig building. So, I spent 20 minutes in the barn with the cows watching and listening to the sound of the rain, hail and wind. Oh. . .and it was pretty cold, too! But. . .it was fun to spend time with the library at the fair -- and I got in for free, so it was pretty awesome!

The weather stayed damp most of the day, but I went back to the fair in the evening anyway. This time I went with a couple friends from work. Which was awesome. Of course. :-) We walked around the entire fair, looking first at the Home Arts building (and admiring the amazing quilts and clothing items that had been entered). We wandered next over to the photography rooms so that we could see how my entries did. Yes, that's right. . .I entered six photographs in this year's fair. I did not place with any of them, but it was fun to see my photographs on display. :-) We got caught in a rain storm once or twice while walking between buildings, but it wasn't too bad. There was an amazing rainbow at one point. After looking at my photography we headed to the Culinary Arts building to check out all the cookies and food items my mom had entered. She got second place for her Rhubarb-Mixed Berry Pie. :-) And she placed with some of her other entries, too. There were lots of other things to see, too: chickens, roosters (the one in the picture practically posed for me to take his picture!), rabbits, horses (including some AMAZING draft horses), cows, pigs, and my least favorite: the reptile room. Ick. Look at this creature I got a picture of. The picture even freaks me out!! :-) There were also some beautiful flowers and vegetables on display. It was quite late by the time we finally finished looking at everything and walking around the carnival part of the fair (I refuse to ride those rides, though!).

I sure do love the fair, and I can hardly wait for next year!!!