The Bates Family: September 2009

I'm not a big fan of the County Fair.

If I could go just one day I'd be fine.

With the boys having pigs up there tho

one day just doesn't cut it.

However one thing I do enjoy about the fair is walking

thru the buildings and seeing what everyone submitted.

I love looking at the rows and rows of vegetables

The shelves lined with canned goods and ribbons, always give you

a sense of "country"

We at least had fairly descent weather this year!

Caleb didn't place with his pig but that's ok. He enjoyed the experience

and it sold for a descent price so he was pretty happy.

I'm gonna toot my own horn here..toot toot...I won a blue ribbon

for my zuchinni bread. I was pretty excited concidering I never made it before!

We attended many of the free events just to fill our day in between tending with the pig and doing shows.

Carter thought the circus was neat, but especially enjoyed the dirt bike that drove in circles all

over this cage. And when the rider took their helmet off it turned out the driver was a girl!

Mine and Carter's mouths both dropped lol!! Girls rock!

Then there was Grandpa Cratchett-I think EVERY kid enjoyed him!

I don't know how many times we watched this show..but I could recite some of the skit for you if you ask! "Everybody say Hi Grandpaw"

And then there was the monster trucks! They stole the show!

Of everything we attended at the fair the boys were estatic over the trucks!!

It really was a neat show and I was glad we got to attend it!

Of course you know Carter and Shane are hardly apart in the summer!
So he attended with us! We were glad to have him along. Their faces when the trucks did "tricks" was priceless!!

And whats a fair without a carmel apple??!!

Carter did much better this year in showing the pig, but there is still room for improvement but that's ok that's what pee wee's is all about!!

Caleb did ALOT better in showing his pig this year!!

One thing he (finally) learned this year was you don't

pick a pig to bring to the fair by it's color lol

Caleb and Carter getting ready to show...

Caleb selling his pig at the auction.

And the dreaded "final feeding"..every year after the final feeding is the hardest part

for Caleb. Knowing that the pig is going to be loaded on the slaughter truck in a matter of hours really makes him sad...but that doesn't stop him from bringing pigs the following year lol..

Dan and I always feel bad for him and it tends to be a little hard on us watching Caleb break down.

In this photo Dan isn't laughing at Caleb he's laughing at me for taking the photo.