Utah State Fair 2009

My aunt and cousin's invited me to join them at the Utah State Fair on Saturday. I'd never been before and had a blast. Unfortunately, the battery died on my camera partway through the day, so I didn't capture all the fun - but as you can see by all the photos below, I did manage to capture a good part of it.

The Animals

First up, looking at the award winning animals
Mr and Mrs Bean were pretty excited

I remember at my high school in CA, a lot of my friends really liked cows
I thought it a bit bizarre
(considering I don't think most of them had ever seen a live cow before...)
But there were some beautiful cows at the Fair
I loved how up close you can see their black splotches(?) have a silver lining

OK, yes, this is pretty gross - but can you see that enormous artery feeding into the utter area
And then check out those varicose veins. I hope insurance covers this cosmetic surgery. Gotta be painful...

So sweet. Napping on their neighbor

There were billy goats with lots of gruff,
floppy eared goats,
and then these goats - with no ears at all.

Just the night before, a friend and I were talking about Thanksgiving dinner,
so I scoped out the turkey options

Auntie J having fun with the hens

We saw the pigs

Aren't pig tails so cute?

So, we asked the farmers who were hanging out with their animals just how the animals were judged? What made them award winning? This sign explains it:

Seriously, this was just outside the pig pens
My camera had died before visiting the sheep
Outside their building were two park benches
One said: Eat Lamb
The other: Wear Wool
A bit disturbing if you ask me

Then there were some animals I wasn't expecting:

Bears
The bears were sucking the trainers fingers
He said that he fed them with baby bottles as cubs
They still suck his fingers for comfort

There were also sharks on display (the real ones were in the tanks)
Mrs Bean and I decided to have a little fun in the diving cage

The Craft Fair

Newlyweds

Need I say more?
BEAR HUG!

The Fair Sideshows

They really do have sideshow acts still

Being a horseman himself, the Boy had to see the smallest horse
I wish I got a shot of his initial reaction
And if you can't tell what his opinion is...

That's two thumbs down folks

Everyone was laughing at me, the smallest woman

Mr and Mrs Bean decided to really pay to see her
They said it was kind of sad
She is real
She is just sits there on display
They didn't know how to react

The rides

We opted to race on the gunny sack slide

On your mark
Get set

GOOOO
We were so fast, Auntie J's shot missed us

1st Place - Mrs Bean
2nd Place - Yours Truly
3rd Place - Mr Bean
Runner-up - the Boy
It was so fun!
We couldn't stop laughing!

The Food

First stop: Funnel Cake

After all those years working at Magic Mountain in high school (well, the one year)
Seeing so many people eating funnel cake
I'd never had one before
I think I'd like another one please
Right now!
So good

Another friend had mentioned the Nava-HO tacos
We found them
Who knew Navajo is actually spelled Navaho

Perfect size to share

Or to eat all by yourself

I found this a surprising site at the Utah Fair
Maybe calling it a garden made people more comfortable that the stand was selling alcohol?
(for those of you not in Utah, there are pretty strict liquor laws here)

And I finally tried a deep fried Twinkie
And I do not feel the need to ever eat another deep fried Twinkie

We ended the day by watching the rodeo. We saw a very impressive Mutton Buster - the little girls dominated the competition. We saw bunking bronco (a horse) just drop onto it's side, while the cowboy was still riding out the bunks. A possibly serious injury, but that tough cowboy eventually stood up and walked it off. Miraculously no broken bones.

What an awesome day! The fair continues through out this week. If you go, please bring me another delicious funnel cake. I like it with cinnamon and sugar please.