The Indiana State Fair 2012 Mostly in Pictures!

Heavens!  I have like 61 pictures to share with you!  I will try to whittle them down and observe Wordless Wednesday as best I can, but you all know I won't be too successful!

First, we went down Sunday VERY EARLY to see one of our favorite Benton County families show in the Dairy Show.  It started at 8:00 a.m., so it was church on Saturday night, and a 5:30 wake up call for the girls.  We got there just in time to see Tink's classmate show!  Whew~! Here are the three guys showing their Milking Shorthorns.

Miss Annie, Miss Indiana Dairy Princess, showing her Brown Swiss

and Miss Roxanne, the reigning National Queen for Milking Shorthorns in the USA~! with, of course, her Milking Shorthorn.

Christy, I am so sorry.  I swear I took your picture while you were showing, but I can't find it now!  I did, however, snap this cute pic of Miss Bear's classmate sharing some great dairy food with his mom.  Miss Cindy is one AWESOME mom!

Here is MOST of the family posing for a fun picture after a long day Sunday.

 Are you counting?  There are eight kids in the picture, with three more older and out in the world!!  Dad was back home supervising the silage coming in 24/7.  There is NEVER a day off at the dairy farm!

Not sure what the cow did, but it caught the youngest by surprise.!  Too cute!

Ok, now that the Dairy Show is over for the day, it's off to see the rest of the fair!  That would include antique tractors!

Can anyone explain to me why this Farmall Cultivator has two seats, two steering wheels, and only one set of breaks? (Thought it might have been a driver's ed model???)  just kidding.

 This Oliver brought a smile to Tall Guy's face!  Ah the memories......

Teased the neighbor and sent a text message with this pic saying TG was gonna drive this one home! Since it was advertised, I will tell you that the price tag on this little tractor was $264,000.  When I say there goes my house down the road, I am NOT kidding!

Next stop, the Indiana Farm Bureau building where we saw many friends and caught up on crop status around the state.  There are some great, kid/family friendly tours and activities to check out while you are there!

Then we followed our noses to Pioneer Village where all the smoke and yummy smells lured us in.  Ok, It was actually the Indiana Beef tent close by, but there was much to see here.  Miss Bear walked right in this pen and petted the oxen to show a city girl twice her age it was no big deal.  Don't think she totally convinced her though.

Loved watching the blackmith !

We spent the night downtown because we had to be back to the fair the next day to help guide some bloggy pals around thanks to an event put on by Indiana Family of Farmers!  Some of us from Real Farmwives of America met up with moms from the Indy blog groups and showed them around the barns.It was sooo much fun to see all the little kids discover the fair and all the animals!  The first animal we met was Buttercup herself!

Look at Miss Ott, A.'s very own little buttercup, all grown up at three months!

And of course we ate!  Thanks so much to Indiana Family of Farmers for our meal tickets.  They didn't include everything you are about to see, just the healthy parts! Can't believe I do NOT have a picture of all the milk shakes we consumed!  YOU ROCKED DAIRY BAR!

Signs like this one kept calling my name, so I finally gave in, but I didn't have any fried bubble gum!  Did you?

I went with the fried cookie dough, that was happily dipped in chocolate before the batter.  MOST EXCELLENT!

 Then, I just couldn't stand it!  I had to have one.  I had to have a fried Twinkie!  TO.DIE.FOR!

 Next stop was in the Dupont building to see what yummy, NUTRITIOUS food they had for us.

Before we left, we had to make the trek back across the infield to BEANGO land to see our friends Hannah and Megan.  They had been teasing me with their Holstein fingernail polish, and I thought maybe the girls could get theirs done.  It was soooo humid though, and with school starting we would have had to clean them off for the first day (no polish rule) so we just had fun answering soybean questions, and I promised them both a pedi when we got home!

While we were over by BEANGO, we saw the Indiana State Fair Queen!  She looked fantastic!  The night before she rode in to the Pepsi Colosseum on top of a stagecoach pulled by 6-8 horses, and unfortunately on one of the turns the stagecoach tipped over.  No one was hurt seriously inside the coach or out, but she was thrown from it and took an hard tumble.  Bless her heart; she was all smiles the next day!

So ends my rather long lengthy but very fun and exciting two days at the Indiana State Fair.  I hope you were able to enjoy some time out there too!  If not, see you there next year!