Goodbye ~ Evergreen State Fair

For a few years, 4-H was a HUGE part of our life (actually it's probably my favorite season of life with our children)! Elizabeth and I would spend nearly everyday at The Evergreen State Fair each year (12 days + some time before and after) and the boys joined us now and again. I think our last year involved, Nicholas spent quite a bit of time out at fair too.

Well, we still have dear friends involved in 4-H and I love seeing the sheep (though I didn't get there today), 4-H barn and 4-H/fair friends ~ so everyone had today off from work and we thought it would be a great family outing for our Sunday afternoon/evening. The weather was predicted to be light rain with temperatures in the low to mid 70's (and we live in Seattle), so no worries... It started raining (fairly hard) before we left home, but Blaine reminded me that we were driving about an hour northeast and the weather would likely be better. Famous last words! It poured relentlessly the entire time we were there. At first, it was just raining steady ~ but by the time we left it was coming down in buckets. Ugh!

While it was a bit amusing, but not a lot of fun for a fair day ~ we did discover it was a time of 'closure' for us. 4-H was a wonderful season in our life, but now we've moved on to new things. We don't fit in with the 4-H people anymore and the fair just didn't excite us much. So, we said our goodbyes today. Fair food didn't even sound enticing... Elizabeth and Nicholas each got a Purple Cow, Benjamin got a corn dog and we all shared a bag of Kettle Korn ~ we collectively decided that fair food for dinner wasn't appetizing and we stopped on our way home and got Blaine, Benjamin and Elizabeth Thai food, Nicholas Taco Bell (he is still 16 - give him some time) and I got a Jamba Juice (plus ate leftovers at home). And, we did end up with some great pictures! Enjoy!

The "Fab Four" ~ don't you think this would make a great album cover?!

The cute girls!

Elizabeth waiting in line for a scone. Oh yes, they all had to have a scone before we left the fair. The boys went ahead of us, got their scones and left to walk back to the car. I waited with Elizabeth to get hers. She's the one in the faded blue jeans (at the end of the line).

Nearly the same picture, but closer to the storm drain to see all the water flowing into it...

After what seemed like 'forever', Elizabeth reached the front of the line and was successful! However, she told us the scone tasted better when it was only a dollar... (they raised the price to $1.25 this year)!

And, a flashback to the same day 3 years ago - August 2005. The family (minus me - I stayed in the 4-H barn) went to see the Sunday evening concert: Audio Adrenaline. The weather had been fairly nice that day, but the downpour began during the concert and they were all thoroughly drenched when they got back. It's still a concert they remember to this day and loved it! There was so much water on the stage, the stage crew was using a large squeegee to get the water off... You can tell how wet they are by their hair and their pants. Oh, what great memories!