Kentucky State Fair 2014

On Friday afternoon, we packed the van, picked Dallas up from school, and made the trip to Louisville for the Kentucky State Fair!  The older kiddos were *almost* more excited about staying in a hotel with a swimming pool, than going to show the sheep; therefore, I dropped them and Daddy off at the hotel and took Julianne to the fair to help Aunt Lisa finish trimming the sheep.

Julianne occupied herself while Aunt Lisa, Pa-paw and I worked

The Dorset show started Saturday morning at 8 a.m.  The great thing about a state level show is there are more classes (fall lambs, winter lambs, spring lambs, etc); therefore, we didn't have to show in the same class with Pa-paw and Aunt Lisa - except for the pairs class.

Little Miss dressed and ready!

How many orange shirts does it take to show a ram?

Dallas pocketing the red ribbon (they are his favorite)

With Buster placing second in his class, he had to go back for the Senior Champion drive...we almost forget two sets of hands!

Our yearling ewes

It was a large class and someone got tired...

Dallas decided he wanted to be on the head while showing Sparkler

Little Miss was winking at the judge!

Sparkler was being a little onery, so Dallas knocked her on the head...wonder where he has seen that?

Our pair of ewe lambs - Sparkler and Rachael

Mountain Man Farms - flock class

After the show, someone crashed

While another one played

Sunday was a very relaxed day at the fair, so the kiddos were able to have some fun playing with the trim stand

Until next time...

Vermillion County Fair

Our first sheep show of the summer was yesterday in a little town called Cayuga, located in Vermillion County.  Check in time was very early, and with the time difference, we headed up Saturday night.  

After unloading the sheep, we got some supper and checked in to the hotel.

Pa-paw, Ma-maw, and Aunt Lisa arrived shortly after us on Sunday morning with the rest of the flock!  Daddy then gave the kiddos a pep talk before heading into the ring...

Dallas and Sparkler

Miss Reba cracks me up in this photo!

After showing the ewes, there was quite a break before showing the rams.  Dallas was entertaining himself by seeing how far he could reach on the gate!

Ma-maw captured a great picture of Doug and I

Not sure what she's doing here...

We all had a great time, and it was a good first show of the summer.

Until next time...

Big Splash Adventure Waterpark

After riding the train to the North Pole, we spent the night in French Lick at the Big Splash Adventure Waterpark.  Ma-maw, Pa-paw, and Aunt Lisa also stayed with us; along with my cousins and their families.  I didn't carry my camera around the first half of our play time, but I did get it out at the end to capture a few smiles from the kiddos!

Once Daddy took Reba down this slide, we couldn't keep her off of it!

Dallas loved this water gun contraption...

You can see the three of big kid slides in this picture, Dallas was tall enough to go down two of them with Daddy (on a tube), and let me tell you...he couldn't get enough of them!

Here's a look at them coming out one of the slides...

Like I said, we couldn't keep Little Miss off this slide...

This little girl sure does love her Daddy (and getting her picture taken!)

Back up the steps to go down the slide...

Then, the kiddos and Daddy got back on the "Lazy River", but they were more "Crazy"!

Daddy tried his best to steer them under the dumping buckets

Another look at Daddy and Dallas going under one of the "waterfalls" on the Lazy River

Until next time...

National Farm Toy Show

Early last Friday morning, Doug, Dallas, Pa and I loaded up the van and headed towards Dyersville, Iowa.  We were on our way to enjoying a weekend at the National Farm Toy Show!  We have been a handful of times before (remember we used to live in Iowa), but we didn't go last year and really missed it.

 

We arrived at the show a little after 11 a.m., one of our first stops was Scale Models - the home of American made toy tractors!

 

The cool thing about Scale Models is that they run their assembly line on Friday.  We were able to see them package pedal tractors.  Look at all those pedal tractor boxes looking for a home...

After spending all afternoon at the outside portion of the show and grabbing some dinner, we headed back to the hotel room to examine the day's purchases.

We headed back at the show Saturday morning to see all the inside vendors (if you have never been to the National Show, they have tents and trailers set up in the parking lots around the toy museum, as well as two other off site buildings that have vendors set up; then the high school gym and class rooms are full of vendors, as well as the gym inside the toy museum!)  Dallas made it through the high school gym and classrooms before crashing for a nap in the backseat of the van.  He slept for almost 2 hours (Pa and Momma took turns sitting in the van with him)

We had such a wonderful time, and Doug and I were able to get a lot of Christmas and birthday shopping done!

Until next time...

Go Karts

First off, we want to wish both GG and Aunt Katie "Happy Birthday!"  We hope you enjoy your day.  We love you and miss you very much.

After "much" research and debating, we decided to stay at Mt. Olympus Water and Theme Park - and we are glad to say that we were not disappointed with our choice.

The hotel/park has an outdoor theme park, an outdoor water park, an indoor theme park, and an indoor water park.  And it was all included with our stay!  We could visit the parks at any time and stay how ever little or long we wanted.  We loved this because when you visit a theme/water park such as Kings Island or Holiday World, you spend the entire day there to make it worth the cost of the ticket.  That wasn't so with our trip.  Almost every day, we would "sight see" in the mornings and then wait until the last 2-3 hours the park was open to go enjoy the rides.  The lines were super short (great for the kiddos) because of this, and we were able to do so much more!  Ok...enough of my sales pitch...pictures.
At the outdoor theme park, there were 4 wooden roller coasters and 8 go kart tracks!  While we did ride the coasters a few times, most of our time was spent on the go karts.  The kiddos LOVED them.  They weren't big enough to drive, but there were these great buddy seats that allowed them to have just as much fun.  The kiddos would continually switch up who the rode with which made it even more fun for everyone.
One of the "towers" of a go kart track

Look at that smile from Dallas - he couldn't get enough of the go karts

Taking a turn with Ma-maw

Reba with Daddy

Waiting in line

Aunt Lisa, Pa-paw, Dallas (not wanting his picture taken I'm sure), Brian, Reba and Aunt Katie

One time in particular, Doug and I had chose to ride a coaster instead of the go karts.  As we came off the coaster, the group was getting set to go racing.  I was able to get this picture on my phone of them racing!  Let's just say it was not always "clean" racing.

Starting on the far left - that's Aunt Katie and Reba knocking Pa-paw and Dallas into the wall, after Ma-maw (far right kart) had spun Pa-paw and D around.  Aunt Lisa is in the kart to the right of Pa-paw, and Brian is in the kart between Aunt Lisa and Ma-maw

The kiddos really did great on vacation.  Most days they went without an actual nap.  More than once, Reba took her nap while waiting in line for the go karts!  One time, she actually slept through the entire race.

This is looking back from Ma-maw's go kart...such focus determination happiness in those eyes!

Since I'm talking about the theme park, I'll go ahead and add these few pictures of the only "ride" the kiddos went on...the swings!

Reba loved waving at everyone as we went around...

Daddy was a real champ and went on one of the "circle" rides with Dallas (Pa-paw went one time with D as well.)  Pa-paw and Daddy don't handle the rides that go around and around very well

Aunt Lisa and Dallas having a lot of fun on the swings

Until next time...