Even though it's dreadfully hot outside, we decided to make a trip to the Sioux County Fair with Ryan. I hadn't been there since back in my "Lincoln Clover" days when I'd line up with the other 4-H'ers to show off my latest "Food and Nutrition" and "Home Improvement" projects. Ryan was not interested in seeing the 4-H projects, but made it pretty clear he was just there for the animals.
He made the rounds of the cut-out animals signs, delivering an impression of each animals as he stuck his head through the hole. This amused a few passer-bys who thought his goat sound was dead-on.
We went through all the barns: cattle, pigs, dairy, horses, goats, sheep, bunnies, poultry. Although he's used to seeing cows, they were still his favorite. He really liked the small goats and bunnies too. I think he was startled to hear how loud the geese and roosters could be, but I'm glad that he's generally not afraid of animals and, if anything, we had to keep him from reaching in to touch all of them.
After the animals, we all enjoyed an ice cream cone (as did the front of Ryan's shirt). Gotta support the Dairy Industry! Then, we walked through the Heritage Village, which I'd never seen before. Ryan liked climbing in the covered wagon and also checked out the chicken coop and miniature red barn.
Considering that I consider it a hardship to drive more than an hour in an air-conditioned van with a toddler without an adequate supply of DVDs in the 6-disc changer, I determined I would have made a very poor pioneer.
On the way out, Ryan was enthralled by the free inflatables that were set up, even though they were designed for much-older kids. We decided to let him try climbing up the slide one since there were other kids his age going down it just fine. He made it to the top while about 13 kids waited patiently behind him, then he turned and sat at the top. And sat. And sat. He wouldn't come down! We kept telling him to come down as the other kids slid down beside him but he kept insisting he was waiting for "his turn" and wouldn't go while the other kids kept passing him. After seeing another mom go up with her toddler, I decided to take one for the team and climbed up to the top so he would slide down with me. At first I was embarrassed but then I thought...who am I trying to impress..a bunch of 8-year-olds who have been washing pigs all day? I got over it.
Ryan had a great time at the fair and he even got to go back for another visit on Tuesday with Adam's parents. On that visit, he showed them all the animals again and watched a Mr. Twister balloon show where Grandpa was called up on stage to be the "big, huge, elephant" (Would you be insulted if the performer picked you out of the crowd for that role?) He came home with a giant elephant head made of balloons (and another ice-cream-sticky shirt) but had fun once again.
All of the activities we went to were free (except for the $1 ice cream cones) so it was a cheap way to let Ryan explore and see new things!
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