The Country Fair (take 7)

I find myself looking forward to repetitious events and take boat loads of photos of the same things, each year from different perspectives. One such event is the Cheyenne County Fair. This week was fair week. Facebook was flooded with images of 4H kids competiting in fashion, baking, animals, and such. Course this week turned out to be sweltering with heat for all those kids. We enjoyed participating in several events throughout the week.

Whenever I happen to take all the kids to Walmart with me (as infrequently as possible) we always run into Sister Hermes. She calls our cart the "Party Cart!" Indeed I feel like the party cart is bouncing along the aisles with flashing lights and music in the form of 4 loud and wiggling humans. It is quite amusing! I enjoy watching the faces of those stuck with us during these excursions. The older folks call me a heroine, other mom's in similar dires just smiles, and other crochity folks hurry along. The social experiment of how multiple children affect Walmart shopping is quite nearly always a successful event. The result is a harried mom shoving groceries into the cart as fast as possible while trying not to lose a child to temper tantrums or purposely leaving said child in the shoe aisle.

The kids spent the afternoon outside painting window sun catchers as our craft this week. Our neighbor boy, Jawshua helped amuse the kids for a couple hours with painting and playing in the wading pool.  The kids had to use my rustic bench as their painting station. Grrrrr. Now it is properly broken into the Call family style of living. We fed the Elders my favorite summer meal of Bulgogi for dinner. It is easy and delish. The Elders taught us a fantastic FHE lesson on praying with purpose to further the Lord's work. After dinner we rolled around the front yard area for family time.

Tuesday morning I had a fantastic day planned in Scottsbluff. The weather thwarted all my well-laid plans. It started raining as soon as we left for the day. We picked up Ella on our way. Amelia had an ortho appointment at 9:50 to adjust her braces. It rained the entire day. We planned on spending the morning/afternoon at the zoo. Instead we drove around trying to find something to do. After the orthodontist we found the local YMCA, they had a pool and rock climbing wall. After I paid (with no refund possible) the lady informed me that swimming and climbing were not open until after 6 pm. What?! We got to play basketball in their sweaty gym for 30 minutes. Inside said gym was the off-limits rock wall. Talk about frustrating! We went to lunch at Wendy's then shopped for school supplies at Target. We headed home after a boring trip. Just as Evelyn dropped off to sleep the rain stopped. I tell, you karma was out to thwart our fun day. The rain followed us home, it rained the rest of the day as the storm made it's way south. As soon as we got home Amelia started to complain that her braces wire was poking the back of her mouth. I tried to trim the wire with pliers, scissors, nail clippers, and kitchen scissors. She cried and cried. It was awful! Wax would only help and stay put for a little while. I finally got someone to talk me through the process of trimming her wire. The problem is her mouth is so small I can't get access to the back of her mouth. I ended up pulling the wire out a bit and bending it down. They can readjust it next time. We learned the importance of telling about poking wires before we leave the orthodontist's office.

Wednesday afternoon I had a fun newborn session with a little lady named Evelyn! Her mom had no idea of her gender before birth, the dad knew. Kayla was convinced she was having a boy, so surprise for her. I enjoyed taking cute photos of Annie and her new sister. Annie was the most obedient little girl ever. For once, sibling photos were quite enjoyable. Eventually Kayla and I took Evelyn outside for a couple photos with a vintage chair in her family. Those were pretty cute.

We finally took the kids to see a Monster Truck show! They come through every once in a while. Phillip adores monster trucks, so when it was part of the fair entertainment we signed up. Before the show we got to walk down in the arena and see the trucks, motorcycles, lawn mowers, and quads up close. The Ice Cream Man truck was the hit vehicle of the evening. Everett and Evelyn were done with the show before it even started. It was a long 40 minute wait. Once it started the kids enjoyed the first round, the second and third rounds not so much. Evelyn learned how to cover her ears, that was pretty cute. It was loud, dusty, and the air quite polluted. The trucks were pretty fantastic with all the tricks they performed. Phillip's eyes were peeled open the entire time. Amelia convinced us to get funnel cakes after the show at the carnival. I totally enjoyed the evening.

Thursday I cleaned up the house a bit since the Hendersons and Abbotts were on their way home after a long vacation touring some northern and eastern states. I had two YW come over to help me clear up the clutter a bit. Dang, I need a couple of cooperative teens to come by once a week and help me clean up. It goes by so much faster. I made chinese noodle salad for dinner. We had a fun evening visiting with Miekka's family. I spent many holidays with the Hendersons during my college and young adult years. It is nice to return the favor! Our home expanded nicely to fit 8 extra people. Our large, spacious basement comes in handy. They left early the next morning for Utah. Marrisse told us about their lovely stay at the Ingalls homestead in South Dakota. I think we have a new destination to think about visiting. We are thickly involved in reading the series! A visit to see the actual homestead would be icing on the cake!

The kids and I went to see the 4H animals Friday morning. When we got there the kids were showing off their feeder calves in the judging ring. Amelia had her doll Samantha all dressed up to enjoy the fair. The kids always love the sheep/goat/rabbit barn. This year no poultry were allowed because of Avian Flu. Amelia helped Evelyn check out all the animals. Evelyn kept sticking her fingers into the rabbit cages and pretending the bunnies bit her. After several cries of wolf we redirected her to the goats. One goat tried to lick her little nose. She was quite delighted! Amelia and Everett loved the horse barn, one friendly horse smelled their hands with a huge huff of air. Our ward threw a pretty good picnic for Pioneer Day. The guys grilled up hot dogs and burgers. The families provided side dishes. Amelia was pretty excited to wear her pioneer dress.

Saturday morning I had two more mini photo sessions. I came home to find Justin working on the van's musty smell problems. He stripped the seats and plastic casing out of the van and was deep cleaning the carpets. He discovered a moldy patch behind Phillip's seat where some liquid had spilled then molded. I rented a steam cleaner and he shampooed the carpets. The van smells much better! I tell you, kids are gross. Unspeakable discoveries lay in wait for Justin to find as he cleaned. Our friends the Smuins dropped by while were cleaned and visited for a bit. After dinner Amelia convinced me to take her and Phillip to the carnival to ride two rides. I took them for their two rides. Some generous soul gave the kids enough tickets to ride 4 extra rides each. Darn it, so much for only 30 minutes of the carnival. The kids had a blast choosing rides and raving about their favorites. I convinced them to ride one that swung a boat back and forth. Amelia and Phillip got off exclaiming that the ride made them feel tingly and woozy. I laughed, remembering the heady feeling of carnival rides. I had fun taking panorama photos with my iPhone.

Last Sunday we delivered some cookies to our new neighbors. They had two friend visiting when we dropped off cookies. Everett, the ever loving child clasped their visitor around the legs and declared "I love you!" He loves a lot of folks. That is a good thing Everett. Humans are generally good to love.