The next time you go to the STATE FAIR...

...Notice the work that goes into it.                                                                          This is what the 4-H building looks like 6 hours into the fair set up. 

Another 8 hours into it.

Then comes Entry day (12 hours).   Each county brings their exhibits that were selected during their county fairs.  The day is long and crazy as we mark off EACH item and change descriptions to include color or another distinguishing trait, instead of just an entry labeled "pillowcase" - we get hundreds and it would take hours to find which "pillowcase" they were talking about.  Everything is sorted by category for judging day!       Um, to add to our long day, the air conditioner was broken.  The end of July, running around,... gross! 
Judging day is another very long day- that goes well into the night for those of us in charge.   (Let me pipe in here to say things got even longer for me as my sister, who I was interning for, and could run the fair in her sleep.... got a new job!  Leaving me.... "in charge". Good timing huh?)  Luckily, I've been helping her out for the past few years and knew a lot of things, and what I didn't know, I had her personal cell # for!
Judges from all over the state are brought in to judge the exhibits, including a comment card.  Then dozens of helpers fold comment cards and staple ribbons to the name cards.  You think this is an easy task, but it takes HOURS to make sure the names aren't covered by the ribbons, and of course, once you start to display the items, the tags/ ribbons are rearranged again to make sure they don't cover too much of the exhibit. HOURS!!!!   We have a few ladies that work for us that are AMAZING at doing displays and double checking this- I can only look at the exhibits so long before my eyes start to bug and I think everything looks "great!"
P.S. if you ever want your fill of snickerdoodles, sign up to judge at a fair!  Yes, judges really do taste EVERY SINGLE cookie!   (They judge the Friday before Labor Day.)

After  judging day ends, all foods and cakes are sprayed so they won't attract flies during the 10 days of fair visitors- cans, and cans of spray!  Monday morning vegetables are brought in.  All of these are judged and taken outside to be sprayed.  (My least favorite part- tomatoes roll on plates, so it takes LOTS of trips in and out.)
For displays:  First table skirting goes around all the tables, we pick to display either by color, theme, etc. and gather items from all over the room.  (Generally, there is a quilt that starts our inspiration.) Sometimes we start after judging ends, or we take the weekend break.  Either way, by Wednesday morning about 3,000 items have to be set up so that each can be seen and hilighted. 

Did I mention that everything in the 4-H building is made by youth in grades 3rd-12th?   There are some really talented kids! 

My weekend is spent updating lists on the computer- items that didn't really come in, items put in the wrong categories, etc.   Usually we have 3 computers and my sisters and I spend hours entering ribbons for EVERY SINGLE ITEM, so that premium money can be figured.    There are always at least a couple dozen items that didn't get the ribbon marked.  I love the life-size search looking for the items.  I love puzzles! 

The hardest part is the last couple of hours of set up.  There are always a few things that don't completely "match" our selected themes.  Once again, some ladies are REALLY good at this, some, just put things wherever and it drives me crazy!  
A few more late hours fixing name tags, putting up chain, information displays, "do-not-touch" signs, and Whaaa-la!  We're ready for the public.  

That's not where it ends though.   The workers that have set everything up spend the next 10 days working shifts to remind people not to touch, telling people about 4-H and helping kids/ parents/neighbors/ grandparents find items made by someone they know.   After working with the exhibits for 4 days, we can usually find just about anything! 

I have to say my favorite days to work are the first few days.   Elder Perry usually comes by.  And about a few hundred school kids.  

 

4 days to set up..... 4 HOURS to take down, sort into county piles and check everything back off the entry lists to make sure everything is returned.   (Biggest pet peeve.... when counties want to come early to pick up their stuff.   I realize some of them have a long way to drive, but we're all exhausted by this time. ) 

Alright, so now to the really great part of putting in the HUNDREDS of hours..... the rodeo!    If I'm at the fairgrounds already, I might as well stay a few more hours ane enjoy the rodeo! 

Tad was thrilled!  I don't know if he was thrilled because he got to watch the horses, or because he finally got to see his parents.   I'm very grateful our parents live close so he could basically "live" with them for 2 weeks. 

  Once again, we put him in for the mutton-busting, and he wasn't selected any of the nights.  :{

  My feet were beyond tired, I think I was there almost every single day.  The last Saturday of the fair is 4-H day.  Yeah!   We put together free actvities for youth to come by the building and do.  As part of my internship, I put together the activities like: homemade sidewalk chalk, goldfish racing, grow heads.    Thankfully, the Ambassadors and a few volunteers helped us out.   This wonderful volunteer helped me with the "Layering Liquids" booth - super cool activity to do with kids!
I have to say, there are a lot of ungrateful, bratty kids out there.  Most were pretty good, but after they completed their passports they could turn them in and spin a wheel for a little prize (pens, pencils, stickers, cd's, t-shirts, etc.) Some of them were so rude when they didn't get the item they wanted.  I'm sorry, but it's FREE, take what you get!  
It is sad that we won't be as involved in the fair next year.  I'm an organization freak and that's why I like it.   We'll still stop by to see how it turns out, but I can't say I'm going to miss the 16 hour days. 

One of the things I tried during the fair was the last day we make lunch for the workers between take down and county pick up.  I made cafe rio taco bowls that were delicious!  I'll post the recipe one day! 

August - Month of animals

We spent a lot of August visiting animals- between the sheep camp and the zoo.   

Tad got to hold the reins, he did pretty good. 

 

 Checking out the sheep.

We spent a night up in the Uintahs and enjoyed a moose and the scenery.   Tad loved riding his bike around the camp site.

Breakfast with dad.

He immediately put his birthday money in his cashregister.  :} 

 

 He was super spoiled for his birthday!  
He asked for a Mater cake and hot dogs cooked outside (for breakfast- I made him wait until lunch.)



Checking out the engine.

  He got a new McQueen car that he's only driven a couple of times.  He's scared if we plug it in, but he loves to sit in it and pretend to drive it. 

 PRESENTS!!!   He was so spoiled that we didn't give them all to him and saved some for Christmas.

Our 3 year old!  In his new cowboy boots- he wears them as soon as he wakes up.

 Mom loves the polar bear at the zoo.  Tad loves the curtains that he can run through by the bear exhibit.  

Tad loved the fountains.  It seemed to be a hit with all of the young kids.   He pretended that he was fishing - not the most reverent thing, but funny! 

 

We had a lot of fun taking Tad to the Brigham City Temple open house.   He was such a good kid.  The building is beautiful!   I realized how much I still need to teach him about temples.  For now, he was happy with us telling him that this is where mommy and daddy come to talk to Jesus.  As we entered the temple he said "Let's go find Jesus!"   Simple faith!  I love it!  

 We went to the forest again to help with the sheep and Tad was in heaven with the attention of dogs that were more than willing to play fetch for hours. 

 Crystal & Tad walking to the corral.

A few days later we went back up and spent the night at the sheep camp to help out.   Tad fell right to sleep in his sleeping bag.   He liked playing with the puppy until Roscoe tugged on his clothes, then it made him cry.  We've taught him not to hit, but had to teach him it's okay to hit the puppies nose to make him let go. 

 More horse rides! 

Monster Tree

And a final family picture as we headed home, back to the real world.  :{ 

Summer is still going strong! (July adventures)

July was equally as busy.   We did change up our 4th of July a little bit and had breakfast at our house with family instead of a park breakfast.  Then headed to Henefer in time for bingo.  Tad is hooked on bouncy slides - first he left the play area to go to the other end of the park where they were (we had a nice chat about that!)  He's not shy at all about being on there with the big kids, he just grabs their hands so they'll take him down.  :}  

 The awesome Henefer parade!   I loved this trailer - "Eat lamb, 1000 coyotes can't be wrong." 

My cousins had puppies and what little boy doesn't love puppies?  Tad's new request for a halloween costume is a puppy.  I'm guessing that will change before I actually get started sewing anything.

 He also loved the trampolene, I guess we might have to fix ours because he loved it THAT much. 

Tad's attention span is too short for an entire firework display - probably because we have to sit out for awhile before they start and then it's past his bedtime.  He did love giving his daddy hugs. 

We took him mini-golfing - he cheats!  And doesn't have the attention span for it. 


More trips to the zoo!  

 He loves the birdshow -   funny that he has the attention span for that!   His favorite is the Golden Eagle and he'll often show me his hand and tell me to look at his Golden Eagle that he's pretending to hold.  :}  

Later that afternoon we took a trip to Burley Idaho for my good friend's wedding reception.  We left in plenty of time to get there, spent 2 hours driving around lost (gas stations weren't helpful and of course we couldn't get cell service when we needed it most).  :{  We showed up 5 minutes before the end of the reception.   It was fine though because I love her family and without all the other guests, got to actually sit and chat with her! 

Tad was such a good sport about being in the car and playing with her nieces and nephews.  I did hear him tell one of them "Oh, I turn six in August".  Hilarious! 

He's a good little traveler and easy to please - just a quick swim in the hotel pool and we were off again.  He really is Fred's little buddy. 

 My cute little boy is addicted to his crocheted edges-  either a blanket or the edge of his pillows and he instantly.....

 Puts his thumb in his mouth.   It's the only time he sucks his thumb. :} 

In the middle of all of this, there was another conference for work that we put together and I attended.   Tad spent a few days at Grandma and Grandpa's.  They brought him to Logan for the last day of activities.  He saw Lauralee's messy office and told her she needed to clean it.  :}  He also got a chance to jump in more bounce houses, where he instantly grabbed the teenager's hands and made them jump with him.   :} 
For the 24th I decided we needed a good distraction.  We drove to Logan to play at the aquatic center.  It's amazing that he does so well walking and running, but in the pool he was falling down every five seconds.   Fred played the part of the over-protective parent, jumping and diving for Tad everytime he fell (in the kiddie pool, but it was still too deep when he was on his hands and knees). 
We met Lauralee for dinner, tried to find a new place to try, ended up at Texas Roadhouse, where Tad became addicted to their rolls, he even overcame his shyness long enough to ask the waiter for more!  
Then we went to Hyrum to fish.  

 If you look really close, there's a worm hanging in front of the camera (down Tad's right arm).  Tad did NOT like the worms and made some pretty funny faces.   He was much more interested in throwing rocks in the water. 

 

 This is all Fred caught in the 30 minutes we were there.  It was a short fishing trip, but relaxing.   We enjoyed fireworks then headed home. 

 To finish off our busy month we started cleaning some of the carport.   We got rid of our camper.  Tad and Fred almost looked like they were going to cry.   My family grew up taking trips in that camper - all 6 kids, so it had been through a lot.  Fred had grown attached to it for the few years we'd had it and Tad thought it was the best jungle gym ever climbing up on the top bunk.  He's convinced we're getting a new one.  
For now, we just built sides for our trailer so we can haul stuff to the dump. 

 Tad seemed content to climb up and down a million times and steal daddy's tape measure while he worked.   I got bored and decided I was tired of picking up smelly rotten apples every couple of days and decided to cut down our apple tree!  Only one injury - I broke half of my toe nail off- I deserved it, I was cutting and hauling the branches in sandals.  :{ 

Tad has been a little more rambunctious lately.  I'm not sure if it's because I've been working more or if it's from stress at our house.  If we even tell him not to do something again he pouts a little and puts himself in time out.  I guess his grumpiness was because he was tired because this is how I found him. 

I'm hoping to get back to blogging shorter, fun stories without a million pictures, maybe I'll finally get around to it in October.  :}