Fair 2006

My family camps at the fair. This means that we go to the fair for at least a portion of 11 days. My DH and I don't have time to go every day, but my parents and DD do. People often ask what in the world we do for so many days. My answer is this: the longer you stay, the more there is to see and do. As much time as I've spent at the fair, I still haven't begun to see it all.

One of the little gems of going to the fair for so many years is captured in this photo. For nearly 10 years, DD has had her arm or face painted by the same gentleman, and it seems like he's always wearing a plaid shirt. Sometimes he brings other people with him to help with the painting, but she always waits for him. She goes to see him almost every day of the fair, and on the last day he always gives her a free design. Visiting the same artist every fair is a little thing, but it's one of things that makes the fair special to us.

The sum of a hundred little things like this one is why we love the fair. It's why we get excited each year deciding which contests we'll enter. It's why we love the chug-chug-chug sound of the campground shuttle tractors starting up at 8:00 every morning. It's smelling the giant cinnamon rolls, walking up to the campground store to buy a jug of milk with Grandpa, and watching the draft horses pull their carts on the last Saturday night of the fair. It's why no matter how hard we try not to, we always cry when the fair is over each year. It's part of us, part of who we are.

The fair is over for this year. We cried. But we've already started our list for next year's fair. And just for fun, we'll be adding a new challenge to our list of entries: Household Cat Competition. Preparation begins today!