Reminiscing about the 2010 Iowa State Fair, Part I

Here are some pictorial highlights from our trips to the 2010 Iowa State Fair.

Liv and I headed out alone on Friday August 13th. Here's the view when we first walked through the gate:

We stopped at the Paul R. Knapp Animal Learning Center first. This is where the coloring-contest artwork was displayed. The three pictures off to the very right were the 3-4 year old category's 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners (looking, in my opinion like the artists had a lot of adult help). Unfortunately, Liv didn't get a ribbon (I didn't help her color - I let her do it all by herself). Hers is the one on the top right corner of the big group of entries.

Click on the link - Liv's entering an Iowa State Fair Contest! - to see a better view of her artwork, which I scanned before I sent it in.

Fortunately, she didn't seem to mind. There were plenty of baby animals in the Paul R. Knapp Animal Learning Center to get her mind off the contest results. Here she is, all excited to see the new ducklings.

Here are some sheep and lambs.

Off we go to see other sights, like this big marble globe, which floats and spins around on some water (which is why North America is currently upside down in this photo).

Here's the famous Butter Cow, made of approximately 600 pounds of butter on a wood and metal frame.

It's hard to get a good photo of it when it's behind glass. 

And here's the Green Eggs and Ham butter sculpture to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Dr. Seuss' famous book.

I took Liv to the horse barn and the new AIR CONDITIONED indoor arena to see riders warming up for a western class.

As we headed out of the horse barn, we noticed the weather was starting to change.

We ended up getting caught in a thunderstorm, complete with thunder and lightning. We took cover in a cow barn to wait for a safe time to run back to the car. 

In the meantime, here are some photos of some cows we liked. 

This one was Liv's favorite cow (and mine, too). She's got a pretty coat. I don't know what kind of cow she is.

These are Milking Shorthorn cows.

These are Guernsey cows.

This is a whole lotta bull!

Liv wanted me to take a photo of the cow-colored trash can!

And before we left for the day, she asked if we could go see the piglets.

These three were hungry. The rest of the litter is sleeping.

I'll post Part II of Liv's 2010 Iowa State Fair pictorial tour later this week.

In the meantime, check out which activity I got to check off my bucket list by reading my "I Get to Check Something Off my Bucket List" post.