At least the Hemlock Fair was not a total wash out. In the beginning, we were so dry and happily unaware of the pending downpour.

I think Dan believes he is on a REAL 4-wheeler. "Don't bother me, I'm ridin."

You can bother us girls, we're silly with horse-love. Okay, maybe just me, but who doesn't like the merry-go-round? Not this little lady.

Or this one.

The "hot air balloon" ride was a real winner. Though Shannon never loosened her grip on the rail, for a little while I worried she might be getting sick. Thank goodness she wasn't. She was just scared. I can handle scared. Throw up not so much.

We were just getting into the rides when it started to rain.

It didn't just rain, and the skies didn't just open up. The atmosphere turned inside-out, gathered all the moisture from all the lands (and seas) and dumped all of it on us till we were wetter than a wart hog's backside. (is that even a phrase? where have I heard that?)
Amongst all those animals, I was fearful of getting kicked off Noah's Ark for being a human.

But we were undaunted. Take cover and retreat now? Naa, we'll just wait it out like we did last year when a monsoon passed through. The animal barns seemed like a good place to go.

The pigs were kinda cute.

Not so cute. Look at those veins!

Aaahhh, I bet she feels better.

Got Milk? She gave about a gazillion gallons of it.

This is cuter.

But we did see a lot of these

Then it was time for the Demolition Derby. Daniel has been waiting for this all day and kept reminding us about it. All day. Lots of times. He called it "the dervy" every time.

The derby is a really cool show with lots of cars smashing and explosions and wrecks and hoots and hollers from the crowd.

Pretty cool huh? Okay, this was an Indiana Jones reenactment at Disneyworld on our honeymoon. I guess I shouldn't have expected Disney-level entertainment from Hemlock, (not that I did) but I did like the 4-H horse riding competitions a lot more. No pictures of that though. I was too busy convincing 3 severely bored children the exciting world of equestrian events and it's importance in our culture. No one listened. (big surprise) So we played paper-scissors-rock instead.

This was the derby. It was ok, but due to the now pounding rain and lightning, it was cut short.

Anyway, I found myself looking over at these guys the whole time. (the horses, not the men. I'm pretty hopeless)

But we kept busy because we were in a dry place and we weren't ready to get wet yet. Shannon loosened her tooth some more.

Katie was fed salt potatoes by Grandma. And Daniel and daddy really had fun watching the derby. All 2 heats of it.

Because people were now swimming from barn to barn, and the lightning was getting scary, the derby was canceled. So to avoid getting wet, (like that wasn't a lost cause) we sheltered ourselves in the 4-H horse barn.
And that's where I met HIM. Isn't he beautiful? This handsome fella is over 17 hands high. (I think a hand is 3 or 4 inches so that puts him at 5.6 feet tall at the withers, the highest part of his back) I saw him go during the show jumping and he stepped over those almost 4 ft. jumps. He was quite good natured too. Those 4-H girls are so sweet for letting us bother them.

It's late now, and I'm tired. So nothing clever to say. Despite the rain, we still had a good time and we all got to do a bit of what we wanted. Well except maybe Shannon. She really wanted to play a game and never got the chance.
And she doesn't really like rides much.

And she doesn't care for stinky barn animals or for cars smashing together.

I think we owe her one. She was a pretty good sport today.