West Texas Fair and Rodeo Part II

We went back a few days later, and this time many of the items that had been sent in to be judged were already there and displayed.



However, there were no enormous pumpkins or watermelons that we could see...
I have to admit I was a little disappointed.
I like gasping at how gigantic the pumpkin entries have been in the past.

One thing the little boy  hadn't seen before, though, were the Piggy Races.

They had several shows a day, and the time we were there wasn't at all crowded.

The little boy even won a prize after the pig he had been assigned to root for, won the race!

He was quite proud of his Pig Snout and Oreos prizes. :)

We continued on to revisit the exhibits that we had just rushed through the other day, and got a closer look at Mamo's quilts.

She hadn't known that 2 of her quilts were the year's Chairman's Choice till we told her about it!

I had packed a dinner for us, and the lady in charge of one of the exhibition buildings was ever so kind and let us eat at the kitchen area.

We made sure to clean up thoroughly after ourselves :)

We managed to catch the participants who had brought their llamas, showing them to the judges.

It was quite an eye opener. The llamas had to go through several obstacle courses and show that they trusted their owners and had a camaraderie with them.

The little boy, though, could not wait till the midway was open :)

On a side note, we did see the local TV station setting up base and I was quite impressed by the satellite/antenna that they had for such in-the-field purposes.

Oh, and then there was Granpa Cratchet and his traveling automobile thingy.

He was quite taken with the little boy's choice of hats,

and stopped long enough for a photo op by an over eager camera trigger happy mom :)

When the rides were finally open to the public, the little boy knew exactly which one he wanted to start off with first.

This year, we let him ride on a few on his own, and he was brave and glad to do it.
We aren't too helicoptery anymore.. we are learning too :)

I DID ride the bumper cars with him, though.. TWICE.

Just because I didn't want him to waste his bumper car time getting stuck in a jam and not
getting enough mileage out of the tickets!

He had often wanted to do the Fun House "rides", and this year he finally got to do a few, but the hubs wanted to make sure that I would be there along.

I do not have the stomach or inner ear, apparently, for the rides that have a G-Force above a certain number, even though when I was young I would have gone on them over and over and over.

We sat on the relatively mild swirling puppy dog, and even THAT made me a little green at the gills, I am sad and embarrased to say.

Granpa Cratchet had a puppet show on top of the mobile puppetry he drove around, and we made sure to be there in time to catch it.

Then we were off to the Petting Zoo, which was FINALLY open.

And what better fair food than FUNNEL CAKE???

We were too early to catch the rodeo, and were a little sad we had to miss it,

but the little boy sure had a splendid time going on the rides over and over......

....to his little heart's content, even if he DID have to close his eyes the whole time he was on the mini gondola thingy :)

Till next time, West Texas Fair and Rodeo.