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"Our State Fair is the best State Fair in our State!"

// state fair, 1962

I haven't been to a fair in ages! I bet I was about thirteen years old the last time I went to one. Getting to go to the Northern Wisconsin State Fair was delightful to me. I said my hope for the fair was to see a piggy, just for kicks and giggles. The first thing we saw when we arrived, pig races!

Fair food (essentially, anything deep-fried), excited children with parents in tow, parents with sleepy children in hand, 4-H projects on display prompting stories from Dad's youth about his days of 4-H, carousal music echoing over the roar and whoosh of other rides, John Deer equipment on display.

Little sister vlogged again! See the video here.

Aside from the food, my absolute favorite thing about fairs is the animals. Growing up, I had a few friends who were involved in 4-H and had horses and cows and I always felt proud to know them and recognize their animals at the fair. One of my friends and her family went out of town for a week one spring and my Pawpaw (grandpa) and I got to go over and take care of their animals. Bottle feeding the calves remains, to this day, as one of my sweetest childhood memories.

I love the smell of the straw and hot breezes blowing through the barns. The warm animals trying to stay cool and the dusty hair or feathers in the air as their owners groom them for their performances. I could care less about the rides and prizes and even the shows. Let me hang out in the barns with the animals, let me hear about them from their owners, let me feel involved with the farming community. #countrylife #farmgirlandproud

There is just something about hard-working, no-nonsense, I-love-my-never-ending-job farmers that makes me so proud to be an American, and a State Fair is a great place to celebrate and recognize them. And to get ice cream in a waffle cone. Its a good place for that too!