Spanning the Miles - Collins Family Updates: July 2010

I know, I know, it's been a long time since the last post. I got a little behind in June and then I kept thinking "I'm not going to post about what we did today until I go back and post what we did two weeks ago." This morning, while in the space between fully asleep & fully awake, I thought of the lesson my sixth, seventh, and eighth-grade math teacher, Mr Totten, always repeated to us regarding unfinished homework assignments: "Keep up, catch up." He told us we'd never be current on our homework unless we did the present day's assignment and then completed a missing assignment. So I am going to apply that very good lesson to the blog: I'm going to start keeping current with the posts while also going back in time a bit to post pictures and stories about what we've been up to (Mick's and my long weekend in Florida, our trip to England with my parents, summer activities with Jack, etc.).

This week, Jack and I are staying up north with my parents while Mick has a week of travel. (Boston for two days and then to Vegas on Thursday for a long weekend to be part of a bachelor party... lucky guy!) I figured this would be the perfect time to visit as it's the week of the annual county fair. I avoided the fair when I was growing up here, but now that I've got a son, the fair takes on a different meaning. Instead of focusing on the questionable "carnies," I'm taking Jack so he can see all of the animals in the agricultural part of the fair.

Last night, we took our first trip to the fair, along with Marcus and Deagan (we were so excited to be able to go with the two of them; I think it made it so much more fun to see all three of the boys together!). First, we watched the kids' competition for the "costume class" of horses. Think Halloween for horse and rider. We saw a girl dressed as a princess with her horse outfitted like Pegasus (complete with wings), a few boys as knights who came with their horses equally decked out, and -- the winner -- a girl who had a shower cap on her riding helmet and had a box around the horse that looked like a bathtub. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures so it doesn't sound very good, but it was a cute and original costume.

After the competition, Jack really got into the swing of things. He took Marcus' hand (very willingly - which shocked me since he refuses to hold my hand as everything is "SELF!") and walked through the exhibit hall with all of the cows. He and Marcuses were amused when we found a cow that responded to my calls of "moo!" with a much heartier "moo" of his/her own. (I'm sure people had me pegged as a city girl.)

We also saw all of the goats and sheep (I couldn't tell them apart, but luckily Marcus' grandma was there to help me identify which was which). Once we met up with Deagan and Shelby (Marcus & Deagan's cousin on their mom's side) we went to see the horses which was fun because Jack and Deagan both perfected their "neigh" sounds... which strangely sound like MOO! We also went to see the ducks and turkeys (which the kids were mesmerized by), the rabbits, and the pigs. While we refreshed ourselves with some lemonade, we were able to peek into one of the tracks to see the harness racing. I'd always wanted to see this when I was younger, but given that I avoided the fair, it never happened. It was good to watch a few minutes last night until my allergies got the better of me and I had to move away.

We plan to head back today so there may be more pictures to come. (The following pictures were taken with my phone, so aren't the greatest quality, as I conveniently left my camera at home.)

Marcus showing Jack the goats/sheep