It's that time of year again...

when the Beltrami County Fair is in full swing. We always enjoy going every year...it's a summer tradition. We purchased a three day pass and Friday night we enjoyed the Triple B Rodeo. The girls loved it and even participated in an event in the arena where they had to put their shoes in a pile in the middle and then they all went back to the fence and raced across to see who was the first one to get their shoes on and race back to the Rodeo clown. We were surprised that Meirah was willing to do it (Ellie wanting to do it was a no brainer) but they both did it and had fun. They didn't win a prize because even though Ellie was fast out of the gate, she wasn't fast enough with her shoes and then she went back and helped Mimi. Ellie wants to participate in Mutton Busting next year (where they plop the little kid on top of a sheep and see how long they can stay on after letting the sheep go). We watched all of it except for the last few Bull Riders because it was 10:00 by then and they were getting tired.

Saturday we went back and browsed around the animal barns in the morning before coming back for lunch and then heading back so the girls could ride some of the rides and so we could walk through the arts building and see the veggies, flowers and home arts exhibits. We then headed back to arena, after getting a ride on a horse drawn wagon, and watched the draft horse pulling contest. It was pretty fun to see the teams of big horses pull and the reigning champions broke their own record and pulled 8300 pounds of cement blocks. One last walk through the barns and we headed home. Today we are just hanging out and relaxing and getting caught up on the laundry (well I am that is!!).


Boris the pig is at the Fair every year and man is he a whopper!!


The Pinewood Fire Tower was relocated to the Fairgrounds a few years ago after the DNR put it up for sale. Local people and businesses rescued it and now you can climb 80 feet into the air and get a birds eye view of fairgrounds...and boy was it a workout getting up there! A little bit scary too but we could definitely see how they were able to spot forest fires that high up!


While waiting for our turn to climb to the top of the fire tower, Meirah channeled Ellie and sat next to people she didn't know and talked with them while getting chips and a sucker. The women was having a blast talking to her because, as she pointed out, she has four boys and couldn't enough of Mimi's little blond pigtails and little voice.Mimi was very brave this year too about going on the rides!! Here she is coming down a slide on the Indiana Jones Adventure!

The fair is not complete until they ride the ponies!

Ellie always has to do things her way. Here, instead of sitting down and sliding down the inflatable slide like the rest of the kids she jumped up in the air twice and landed like this...which of course made all of the other parents watching their kids gasp and made Andrew and I laugh out loud. We are by now quite used to Ellie living on the edge.

Mimi was adamant that we stop visiting the horses (my favorite of course) and go see the sheep. She just wanted to see the sheep. I don't know why but she needed to see the sheep.

Checking out the tractors!

More rides!!!

Visting the kiddie barn is always a favorite! They got to pet a baby chick, baby bunny, a kitty, a calf, a pig and a mini horse!

I liked this cow...don't know why. I would have brought her home. Andrew was in heaven in the cow barn...living up those memories of working on the Farm!

Ellie was with me in the horse barn and we had a blast loving on the horses!
First tractor ride!!!


All in all we had a great time and the girls are already planning on next years visit to the fair.