Saturday, August 27, 2016

The Indiana State Fair

 This year I got my fill of State Fair fun! Between family and friend trips I made it there four times! (plus two more times to pick up and drop things off!)

The last time I went we had to wait for 20 minutes in the car while a random thunder shower passed over. The after effects made for beautiful photos! Speaking of weather, we've had about 6 tornadoes in our small suburban town this week! The weather has been crazy! Very thankful that no one I know personally has been affected.


Michael and I decided to have a date night to the fair. We caught the last bit of horse racing.

And we enjoyed some fair food which was a rare treat. Yum yum!


Going to see "world's largest pig" is always fun, except that I feel badly for the poor thing -- especially when the weather is so very hot.


The sheep barn is the next best thing to driving the Scottish countryside, right? Plenty of sheep to photograph and exclaim over.


For dinner I chose chicken on a stick and fried pickles. The pickles were better than I expected and had a sweet note to them.


I love the Lego farm scene and I wouldn't mind having it in my house (well, maybe in smaller versions). Farms have always held a very special place in my heart.


There was a new Lego exhibit celebrating Indiana's Bicentennial. Loved the covered bridge.


Another Bicentennial idea was painted Bisons (Bison-tennial, right? but of course the bison features on the state seal). The county groups that entered were so creative!


I loved all the country scenes that captured what Indiana is like.


The painting was quite good on so many of these!


The Pioneer Village is one of our favorite parts of the fair and it's a must-stop at the penny candy store where you can still buy candy for a penny! (limit of 20)


The vintage kitchen always draws me in.


The younger kids and I went to the fair for a school field trip. We had rain on this visit too. But we had fun and had a few laughs at the Pirate Show.


I love the horse barns because they remind me of Windy Foot at the County Fair, one of my favorite childhood books, which we just had to start re-reading after our fair trip.

The pig barn always has two mother pigs who have recently given birth and it is so entertaining to watch the adorable baby pigs and how much trouble they cause!


 The horses in the horse barn are beautiful! We didn't get to see any horse shows but we did walk around and admire the horses in their stalls.


We loved this sheep with his crazy hair!!!! Reminds me of a certain relation of mine.


The sheep have to look perfect for the shows! So different than when they are in the fields.


I loved seeing all the zinnia entries in the agriculture building. Every year at fair entry time I am way too stressed to think about trying to enter anything and then when the fair rolls around a few weeks later and school is underway with a regular routine I always think, "I could enter some things! Maybe next year." Someday I will.


There was a record-setting giant pumpkin at the fair this year. Can you imagine driving by a field and seeing these things growing??!


Another tradition of mine is stopping by the rug hooking table and thinking that maybe I will one day take up rug hooking. I loved this flower version with the flowers coming right up out of the rug.


The church ladies met one evening at the fair and that gave me a chance to get into the arts and crafts building and see quilts, and knitting, crochet, and other needle arts. So much fun!! These items were all made with wool from Indiana!


The rain produced a rainbow at the fair!


 A friend recommended the smoked pulled pork and I was so glad I took her up on that idea! It was amazingly delicious!


We stopped into the historic drugstore on the fairgrounds.


The pulled pork friend also introduced me to this candy -- anything maple is an easy win with me.


The ladies raved about these smoothies from the giant strawberry stand.


We ended the ladies' night with a trip to the bunny barn. How can one resist these cute animals?!!

This bunny had eye makeup on like a teenager.


Don't you want to cuddle one of these?!


This bunny seemed to be a true velveteen.


No wonder Beatrix Potter drew bunnies!


The ears on this variety were quite amazing!


I think all the women wanted to take a bunny home.


And so that ends our fair adventures for this year! It's fun how things you do year after year become family traditions.


It's another wet day here and the forecast says more crazy weather for the next five days or so! Hope you all have a lovely weekend!

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6 comments:

Brenda@CoffeeTeaBooks said...

We had fried pickles at the amusement park when the East Coast family were here in June. The fried pickles were amazingly tasty. Decadent but tasty. So I was happy to see a recipe for them in a recent Rural Electric magazine. I'll have to type it out and send it to you. I think the kids would enjoy it.

Who would have ever thought fried and pickle in the same sentence? Although who would have thought fried and Oreos in the same sentence? I didn't try those.

elizabeth said...

how fun! I love all the pictures!!! that one bunny, so velveteen! family traditions *are* so very neat!

Catherine said...

I've bookmarked your post so I can remember to do some of these things next year! We always have the Dole Whip frozen pineapple treat at the strawberry-shaped store too. This year when we visited the world's largest pig he was able to gear himself up to stand on his own feet! We were greatly amazed.

Pom Pom said...

Wow! How fun! You made me want to go to the fair!
That PIG! The bunnies are precious!

Unknown said...

Fun!!! That pumpkin! WOW! :) I love those painted cows, in the Lake District it was painted art sheep!

Polly said...

The first picture is absolutely stunning! Love fair time!