County Fair

April 8 -12 was the Maricopa County fair.  We had to go every day to feed Charlotte but I think every day except for one we were there for another activity as well. This is the first day there who are these monkeys climbing all over the stalls?

 

I didn't really know what to expect. There was a big pig barn which was a really huge air-conditioned building that I was grateful for. One side had all the pigs in their stalls and the other had a little show floor (where Gracie and Joe are playing in the above picture) and stadium seating for people to watch. Gracie and Joe basically ran and played wherever they wanted to as long as they were inside the pig barn. It also didn't take them long to realize that our club (the Lehi 4-H club) had candy and snacks under the table for anyone to eat. We all paid one lady and she supplied all the snacks for the whole week. Unfortunately there was a lot of candy with those snacks and my kids probably ate their weight in it. Joseph actually got so sick after a couple of days that he threw up one night when we got home. The next day he did pretty good to stay with from the candy for about the first half but I saw him later with two dumb dumb sticks sticking out of his mouth at the same time. Here he is chewing on some candy and wearing Gracie's sweater because he was cold.

Russ took a few days off for Countyfair. He loved it so much in fact he said it felt like vacation and he was really bummed that he had to go back to work. He didn't buy this hat but he considered it and I thought it looked pretty good. But he did decide that he was going to be buying himself some new boots.

William did really good at fair. The first time he walked Charlotte around to shower was in front of a judge, but he was judging Charlotte and how good of a pig she was rather than judging William. William got the blue ribbon for that meaning that she was good enough to sell. Which was good news. The next day he had showmanship. That's where you walk around in front of the judge and he judges how well you control your pay and show your pig. William was pretty nervous and I was kind of nervous because in the practice show he was so excited that he was bouncing around a lot and that wasn't good. We told them not to do it this time and boy did he listen. He was so calm and walked so good. He was in a group of about 10 or so Junior novice and there was about four different groups of that meaning there was a total of about 40 junior novice. In Williams group he got pens first which is good meeting he was the best in his group and russ and I may have both gotten tears in her eyes we were so proud of it. He got brought out with the others from the other groups who had been the best. Charlotte started getting Nancy and trying to go back to her pen she was tired of walking. William handled it really good but in the end there was nothing he could do and he ended up getting fourth-place. We are so proud of him. If Charlotte had started acting up he really would've had a chance for second or third he was doing so good.

Louise also did really good while we were at fair. Especially since her first two teeth broke through while we were there.

One of the days the fair has a program called Read to Ride where you read four books you get for free rides, so that's what we did. The kids had a good time but Joseph had a hard time on every single ride deciding if he was having a good time or if he was scared.

The last day was auction day William got to sell Charlotte. It was all very nerve-racking wanting to make sure that he sold it for enough money to actually make something this year. I knew I need to have a gift for whoever bought Charlotte I couldn't think of anything and was having a hard time. The night before auction day as I was up in the middle of the night feeding movies I had an idea for a handmade butcher block cutting board that my brother Ryan made. I also picked up an apron and a fabric marker and traced a little drawing onto it.

He ended up selling her for six dollars a pound which we were very happy about. But William wasn't happy about saying goodbye. I brought the pig nose for him to put on and take one last picture with Charlotte. He got emotional saying goodbye he really had grown attached to this little pig.

Here's some of the furniture that I like that he took the picture of that was on the pig barn as well. I really wanted to bid on that teal table but forgot to go check it out the day that the auction was.

We all had a really great time with 4-H this year and will definitely be doing it again.