The following weekend we headed north for a high school classmate's wedding. My mom was my date and we had a very nice night. The wedding was beautiful and they pulled out all the stops including a mini donut stand and fireworks. I took mom home early and went back out for dancing--it was great to catch up with classmates.
This past weekend was the most fun Natalie and I have had all summer. The Worth County Fair was a big part of my life growing up and I haven't been able to attend in recent years. Natalie is getting into a really fun stage where she is learning and exploring the world around her so I thought it might be fun to take her to the fair to take in the activities and the animals in a smaller scale than the Iowa State Fair. Unfortunately Rick had to work and was unable to go with us, but my parents are also a very strong presence at the fair so I had plenty of hands to help.
We headed up Friday afternoon and it was immediately clear that Natalie was apprehensive about the animals. It was also very apparent that while at the kid's show Natalie preferred to be on stage instead of sitting nicely with the other kids watching the show. She continuously ran to the stairs to climb up and I kept pulling her off until they invited the kids on stage to dance; I let her go up and she loved dancing with the big kids on stage! She was less interested in the puppet show and out of the corner of her eye she saw the carnival rides which drew her in all weekend. There must be something about the music, movement, and flashing lights.
Saturday was a big day. Natalie woke up a little before 5 AM so we had gone for a walk, sorted the garage sale finds from Friday night, ate breakfast, and played outside before the rest of the house had woken up. We spent the morning at the 4-H beef show where I spent much of my fair time. My cousin's son was showing and he had a great day winning Junior Showmanship and Reserve Champion Market Beef. We were at the show for probably 3 hours with Natalie running around, playing with Kendall, visiting Grandpa, mooing at the cows, until she had had enough. We ate lunch and then headed home for a much-needed nap for both Natalie and me.
After the nap, we headed to the pool. The Northwood Municipal Pool is much nicer than when I was a kid! There is a zero-entry walk in and several overhead sprinklers. Natalie and Kendall loved it! They played for about 45 minutes before poor Natalie's teeth started chattering, so we dried off and headed back to the fair to have supper. After supper we checked out the carnival; the only ride we decided was age-appropriate for the girls were some elephants that went around in a circle and went up and down. Natalie loved it, Kendall hated it. After we got off, Natalie proceeded to go to other rides that were much to fast/big for her and shake the bars violently to try and get on. She is a thrill-seeker! It was cute how much fun she had on the rides.
And then there was Sunday. We went over to my sister's in the morning to play with cousin Kendall and the girls had a lot of fun, as they always do. We then headed into the fair and Natalie spent a lot of time with Grandma walking around and making animal noises at the horses, cows, and sheep. She seems most fascinated with the cows, but I was just happy that she was less scared by the end of the weekend than at the beginning. The big event Sunday was the baby contest and Natalie didn't stand a chance in chubbiest cheeks or most hair, but she does have pretty eyes. Unfortunately 9 other babies were in the pretty eyes competition (while the hair and cheek categories only had one entry each). She didn't win, but she had fun and smiled like a little ham on stage. I'm a little nervous about how much she loves to be on stage!
It was a great weekend and overall Natalie was very well-behaved which made it even more fun. Natalie is learning new words every day and is learning so much so quickly that it was fun to experience the fair with her. The fair is also so small it was nice to let her get down and explore on her own while keeping an eye on her but not having to confine her the whole time. She loved the fair; she is her mama's daughter! This year the baby contest, next year a bucket bottle calf? We'll have to see!
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