All Faired Out

The State Fair was a lot of fun. This was her third time going to the fair. The first year she couldn't walk, which rocked. Last year she could walk, but just barely. This year she was a woman on a mission.

It turned out that I was wrong about the rides - she missed the height requirement by a full four inches. She was able to ride the carousel with me holding onto her and that was about it. There were plenty of other activities going on, though. She saw some animals, made a mask, rode a pig slide (that one's a little hard to explain but basically you crawl inside the pig and then slide out its butt - but hey, the money went to a local food pantry so it's all good, right?), and ate all kinds of junk. She really enjoyed seeing the horses in the horse building. I always feel very conflicted about looking at the animals at the fair. I didn't mind looking at the Alpacas because I know they are prized for their coat and then I can pretend that maybe they are treated decently. I have a much harder time looking at the "meat" animals and try to avoid those buildings for the most part. On the other hand, I know a lot of the animals are raised by 4-H kids and I do think it's good that those kids learn where their food comes from. City kids may have some idea but they haven't seen it live and in person. My kid, nonetheless, will be raised with the understanding that our vegetarian diet allows us to eat without causing so much suffering. Sure, we could all pretend that animals are slaughtered humanely but then we'd have to pretend that factory farming does not exist. But I digress.

All in all, we had a great time at the fair. The kid ate enough sugar to keep her buzzing for days. A couple of photos:





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