U.P. State Fair

On Sunday we attended the U.P. State Fair, Michigan's only state fair by the way. We had a great time. It was a long day, but beautiful weather made it a pleasant outing. The kids were very well behaved. We had many comments like "Five boys, wait there's a baby girl in there too." I am glad we went.
Blase enjoyed looking at the steam engine running the saw mill. We always enjoy any exhibit along these lines. I remember when we attended an antique tractor show in Illinois we spent most of our time watching the saw mill run.
Little sister was a great baby all day. She only started to fuss towards the end. It did rain a bit, but we were inside one of the buildings at the time. She was probably fussy because the air cooled down after the rain shower. I think her favorite highlight of the day was nursing by the milk barn. I thought it was appropriate.
Next to the saw mill was an exhibit with an old firewood chopper. Next to that was a wood carver carving small hummingbirds. That was one of Stephen's favorite places to visit.
Darren told the boys how his grandpa had one of these John Deere models. Of course they were super excited about that. We decided we needed to take a picture for Grandpa Gebes to see. With this many kids its hard to see the John Deere, but its back there somewhere - I promise!
Cormac and Rex were happy to see an old tractor that looked like Travis from the Thomas the Tank Engine stories. They had to pose near the wheel so you could see how tall it was. On the other side of the aisle were some tractors from the late 1930's. Blase asked if my dad ever got to drive tractors like that when he was a kid. I just wonder how old he thinks Grandpa Bestgen is? (I love you Dad! heehee) I did say that if he did operate any tractors like that they were probably old when drove them.
Old McGebes had a farm - E, I, E, I, O. And on that farm he had a PIG - E, I, E, I, O...with a Cormac Michael here and a Cormac Michael there - E, I, E, I, O.

Old McGebes had a farm - E, I, E, I, O. And on that farm he had a COW - E, I, E, I, O...with a Stephen George here and a Stephen George there - E, I, E, I, O.

Old McGebes had a farm - E, I, E, I, O. And on that farm he had a SHEEP - E, I, E, I, O...with a Rex Howard here and a Rex Howard there - E, I, E, I, O.

Cormac, Stephen, Rex and Brech with a boost from Dad.

We had a great time watching the logging/chain saw show. It was impressive when one of the men climbed to the top of a pole and cut off top of the pole. I was freaking out. I'm sitting safe and sound on the ground and I'm about to pass out for fear of heights just watching him climb. He does it for a living so he was VERY good at it. We also had a good laugh at them on the log in the water. I recorded one of the contests. It was the best out of three. They tied.

Blase, Stephen, Cormac, and Rex each got to target practice with paintballs and have a ride on a merry-g0-round. We had promised them two games or rides that we approved of. While they were having their fun, Gianna, Brech and I watched some of the animals being loaded up to head home. There were just enough tickets left for Brech to have one ride on the merry-go-round too.

Darren let me go with Brech. This is a good picture of Brech and a great picture of me TRYING not to puke on the ride. Who would have thought going around in circles would be so hazardous to a mother's health?!

We also stopped by the DNR exhibit to see the fire lookout tower. There are a few old fire fighting equipment on display inside the building. You can't go inside, but there are a few windows to look into.
That last place we stopped was the forester's building. They have a neat hands-on exhibit that features different activities related to the forest or forest products. As you can imagine, forestry is to the U.P. as ranching is to Western South Dakota. There really isn't much else.
Among the things the boys learned about were habitats and wildlife in the forest, fire safety, what is made from wood, hauling logs, and Christmas trees grown in the U.P. area.
The boys were suppose to be chipmunks in this one and hide from a hawk. Playing chipmunks in our family is a dangerous game. We would rather play rabbits - well, maybe not them either.
We ended up being pretty much kicked out of the building when they were closing. We rushed through the last few activities. Rushing or not - SAFETY FIRST so they had to put on their gear before "cutting" the log. At each place they were suppose to take a token (maybe a wood chip or a small hammer) and then turn them in for wooden coins to spend at the "store". Each boy was given 3 coins. The 3 youngest picked fruit snacks and a small trinket. Blase and Stephen each picked a little game and a trinket.

After the last exhibit we made our way back to the van. We had missed the draft horse pulling contest, which disappointed Darren and I. Maybe next year we will be smart enough to make it over to the horse arena in time. We did get to see them walking their horses back to the trailers. They are HUGE, HUGE horses. I have never been so close to one before. They walked in step and were quite beautiful for horses (even the ugly ones had an air of beauty about them). Something to look forward to for next year's fair.

On a side note - our last kitty died Saturday morning. We are once again kitty-less. That does not mean send us every kitten you don't want. Maybe some day...