Sunday, September 9, 2007 ;
5:34 AM
7 Sept 2007
Friday
8.30am - 11pm
Utah State Fair
We all set off bright and early for SLC. Dh dropped us off at the Fairgrounds and went for school. Me and kids roamed the Fair till evening when dh joined us for the evening events, mainly the Rodeo.
We went for the "little hands at the farm" exhibit first. It allows kids to become farmers and let them see where food like beef, milk, veggies or even things like wool come from. They get to do everything from scratch.
So first, they put on aprons and hats and whatever props they want, grab buckets, corn seeds and shovels and get to plant their seeds. Then they "water, fertilise" and then harvest their veggies. (They were shuttled to the other side of the garden to harvest their plant right after planting the seed in the soil at one side, hehe.)
They also collected eggs, milked cows, "sheared" a sheep and got wool to put into their buckets. They also picked apples and drove tractors to gather their harvest. They "threw" grain they harvested to the chickens too, to feed them. Stuff like that. They had a lot of fun.
The fun part for me though, was when they got to bring all their wool, eggs, milk, fruits and veggies to sell at the "store". They were given paper money for the wares they "sold". Then they could use the "money" to "buy things" at the "grocery store"!
It was so fun for me, cos they both had $1 each and we went to the "store" where there were Lays chips, gummies, candy, chocolates and other treats for kids to "buy". Most of the items were 50cents, so each kid could in fact choose 2 treats. I helped ds2 to choose, and then ate them myself, haha. I let ds1 and ds2 share what ds1 bought. So it was great fun for me. yay.
After that we roamed around the whole Fair, viewing stalls and agricultural, poultry and other exhibits. There were competitions going on for every known category, even for fruits that kids planted. So we went to view all the prize winnners.
Below right: there was a fun carousel, where the merry-go-round consisted of real live ponies. So I let the kids sit on the ponies. At ds2's age, he was supposed to be accompanied by me. All the other kids had their parents walking beside them, but ds2 refused, so I let him ride by himself, but was very scared he'd move too much, not hold tight and fall. I was so scared I didn't manage to take good pics! Only this one where none of them was looking at the cam.
Below left: when we sat down on the grass for a picnic lunch, a girl nearby with her family kept coming over to play with ds2. She kept wanting to hug him and hold his hand, while he kept resisting contact! so funny. so i took some pics. He'll regret it when he's older, spurning other girls like that. 
After lunch we continued exploring. The Fair is huge and they had performances at different timings, so I was like walking all over the place. Good thing I had the double stroller with me, so everytime I needed to rush I ushered both kids into the stroller and jogged while pushing them.
So we caught this woodcarver carving sculptures from wood using a chainsaw, turkey races, hypnotist, a capella group (they were great!), guitar and band performances, some singing, children's choir, cowboy and cowgirl contest (even a toddler competed).
So funny, each kid was given a cow that's proportional to his size. So some teen girls had large cows and this toddler had a baby calf. The calf must be very young, cos halfway thru the judging in the middle of the ring, while the toddler was supposed to stand beside the calf and then wait to bring the calf around the ring, the calf fell asleep! So the toddler's parent had to come in and help carry the calf around the ring, walking with the toddler. :-)
Some highlights:
Below left: a balloon clown was roaming the grounds, asking kids what they'd like her to make. ds1 chose a rattlesnake and she was so good with kids. She let him choose the colors and then let him blow the "rattles" into the snake, making the kids believe they were helping to create the snake. (The rattles were some rice or bean-like grains which made noise in the balloon tail) The snake was a lot of fun actually, cos it can coil and move like real and the tail rattled realistically. ds1 played with it for so long after that till it burst. He was so sad by the snake's sudden death that he cried very forlornly for sometime, and I had to console him with a lot of effort.
Btw, the balloon artist doesn't charge any fee for the balloon creations, but we tipped her instead. I remember playing S$10 for a balloon flower and $5 for a balloon animal at the HC carnival, so it's comparatively very cheap over here! :-) Just kidding lah, I know the carnival was to raise funds. so cannot compare.
Above right: the bees exbihits enthralled me and ds1 for a long time. They are just so amazing to watch. ds2 was taking his nap in the stroller so we had the luxury of uninterrupted viewing.
The beekeeper taught us how to distinguish and spot the Queen bee and we even observed her laying eggs into the cells. And we can truly understand why the bee is held up as a good role model in the Bible, in many cultures etc. In fact, Utah is Bee state and the symbol for Utah is a beehive. Why? Never once the nees stopped working. They're just buzzing around all the time, doing some work, never complaining and always fulfilling its role, whether it is worker or Queen.
Male bees are of course, quite poor thing, they live just to mate with the Queen, then die. Ok, job done, bye bye.
Above: Agricultural winners. I took many more pictures of all kinds of veggies and fruits but it takes too much time to upload so many. So just a sampler here. Right: shows the creations kids made that was entered under another category.
Above right: One of the amusement rides. The others were common Fair rides like rollercoasters, Ferris wheel, bumper cars etc.
Above left: The US Navy had a large eye-catching stall, and we stopped by to let ds1 try out all their equipment and vehicles. They also had a huge water tank where a diver was inside. You could throw balls into the tank and he'll get them for you. And we get to keep the stress balls. So fun. I took 3 I think, cos ds1 threw several in.
We also stood outside the tank communicating with the diver with signs. And he'd write "hello" to ds1 on the glass. He can write in reverse! Just so ds1 can read it. haha. Then for me, he did what he does to every female, he pointed to an already written message, "Call me at XXXXXXX" haha.
The rest of the naval people at the stall were very friendly too, talking to ds1 a lot and asking him about his Russian doll. So we hung around quite a bit.
ds2 was awake when we toured all the animal barns. There was a huge barn allocated for each animal type: - 1. horses 2. pigs 3. sheep/ goats/ alpacas 5. fowl (birds, chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese) 6. rabbits/ guinea pigs/ hamsters 7. cows
Some of the sheep had such fine and beautiful wool, they were even protected and covered by some jackets. They were very well-groomed. Above shows ds2 touching the nose of a lamb? Can't tell what it is. Both ds love to touch all the animals, even though some were really sitnky, like the pigs. But they had sinks and taps right outside each barn, so kids could wash their hands.
Dh met us for dinner. We bought some BBQ chicken from this stall saying "Hawaiian Chicken" but it's kind of the BBQ chicken we have in Singapore anyway. It was good. We also sat on the Ferris Wheel cos ds wanted to.
Then we went to the Energy Solutions Arena for the rodeo, which is included in the admission price.
We didn't expect the rodeo to last so long, from 7.30pm to 10.30pm. And it would've been longer, had not an accident caused it to end abruptly. Towards the end, one of the bull riders was attacked by his own bull after being thrown off to the ground. The paramedics were called in to rouse him and it somehow took very long for them to rouse him and ready him to put on the stretcher, maybe he had broken bones or something. So by the time he was brought to the ambulance, the rodeo MC called it a day and cancelled the last few items.
This does not occur commonly, apparently, cos I asked church friends. But it had to happen when we were there. And ds had to witness that. ds2 was oblivious but ds1 was very affected and kept asking me about the bullrider who was injured and if he would die, and whether there was a lot of blood. And also "Why must the bull attack him?" endless questions, which I had to answer with a lot of care. Because I had to say that bulls don't naturally like people to ride on them... Then "why must they ride on the bull then?" Err, because the cowboys had a long tradition of bullriding and this is keeping their tradition alive? I am trying as hard as I can, to be objective.
Ok, anyway, the rest of the rodeo was exciting and a real eye-opener. We're not keen fans, so this would be our only time, just to experience it. I wouldn't pay just to watch that.
Started with parachuters and the USA flag, then the USA anthem. Lots of kids around us were buying and eating huge bags of popcorn and cotton candy (which they call floss) so after deflecting 2 hours of the kids asking for candy floss, we eventually bought one small pack.
We took a lot of video clips and photos, but we weren't seated very near. These are some highlights.
I liked the group performances where all the cowboys and horses rode together and made formations to music. It was a really artistic, skilful yet dangerous performance. Cos the horses, when moving at high speed so near each other, crossing paths all the time, can easily panic and react in an unexpected manner. So being able to do all those formations and patterns smoothly is a great achievement.
Then there were cowgirl events, where the girls need to lead their horses through an obstacle course thing with all the cones, at high speed. There were many cowboy events on the horses, some riding very quickly, trying not to be flung off, some riding on the horse while lassoing a calf and tying them up, finally pinning them down. Various segments to test different skills.
I realised that the horses love fame and glory and attention too! Cos whenever the horses did not gallop out of their stalls when it was their turn, the MC asked us to cheer wildly and clap loudly. Sure enough, that always worked!
Above right: a horse flung his rider back against the stall and hurt him. The bull rider got injured due to something like that too. It started off that way, him being flung against the stall.
Below left: Being flung onto the ground.
Below right: Hanging on in cowboy-like fashion. Yee-haw!
Above left: some fillers to entertain the crowd. A jester and a Homer Simpson figure. The MC was very funny too, telling all kinds of jokes. And also he had to keep repeating the sponsor's message. And that in itself was amusing because the sponsor was "Who's your Daddy?" Energy Drink. So the MC kept shouting "WHo's your Daddy?" at appropriate moments.
We have heard that many other States hold larger and grander State Fairs but we don't have anything to compare against. We enjoyed ourselves immensely and think it was great.
(Dh and I attended the Royal Easter Show at Homebush, near Sydney years ago. Similar, with lots of thrill rides and animal/ agricultural contests. No rodeo, I think. But somehow, with the kids, it was more fun, cos they loved all the animals so much.)
rainbows every day, do not worry for the morrow
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Above left: some fillers to entertain the crowd. A jester and a Homer Simpson figure. The MC was very funny too, telling all kinds of jokes. And also he had to keep repeating the sponsor's message. And that in itself was amusing because the sponsor was "Who's your Daddy?" Energy Drink. So the MC kept shouting "WHo's your Daddy?" at appropriate moments. 
