Tales From the Iowa State Fair (BUTTER COW!)

People? These pictures might be a little out of order because there are a LOT of them and it's 5am and I'm super tired, but this CRAZY STORM woke me up at 4am, and I couldn't go back to sleep. Mother Nature has a Case of the Mondays. That sign you see above was one of the first things I saw at the fair. It went with the giant pumpkin you'll see later.

Ma, Pa, and I went to the Iowa State Fair last Thursday to help Pa ring in his 67th birthday. I didn't get any sleep the night before that, either, so I was a bit loopy. The very first thing we did was get FOOD. (I swear, no matter what I do to try to stop it, my bra straps are ALWAYS showing. I guess I think I'm Madonna circa 1985. Whatevs.)



I was having pork, green beans, mashed potatoes, veggies, and a cup of iced apple juice:


Later on, I was offered a hard-boiled egg on a stick, but something just didn't seem "right" about that:


Here is the 1st place pumpkin, which weighed in at almost 1300lbs. It was a big pumpkin. I did not climb on it, I swear:


HERE IS THE BUTTER COW!!!!! (It's in a refrigerated room. No melty.)



For those of you who don't know (*rolls eyes*), there is a Butter Cow sculpted each year at the Iowa State Fair. Since this tradition started in 1911, this is the 100th anniversary of the event. This statue group is to honor Norma "Duffy" Lyon, who sculpted the Butter Cow for 46 years:



It was on a rotating platform, so I stood there annoyingly and waited while it turned to get all of my shots:



So creative:


And very realistic:


Sea Wee told me to check out the Cultural Arts building, and we found this large Butter Cow sand sculpture there (and dollhouses!):


Then we headed to the livestock section and ended up watching a goat show. For reals. These 4-H girls were very professional. I was sitting next to the mom and sister of the one shown in the middle. And guess what? She won!


There were a lot of huge cows and bulls:


This guy was spooked by my camera, so he stood up for me:


I think this white cow is BEAUTIFUL. Want:


This photo doesn't really do justice to how BIG this boar was:


Or how big this elk was:


If you want to meet a huge boar, here is this dude's info:


And here are these dude's balls. Yep, that's the tail end of the boar:


This is the front end:


CHICKENS!!


All girls need a good hairdo for their big day:


Love the fuzzy feet:


More fun hairstyles:


This poor thing was completely asleep on its head. Like the top of its head. I talked to it, but it didn't wake up:


Random yellow pheasant:


We were hungry again, so we ate Monkey Tails. I had one with nuts, Pa had plain chocolate, and Ma can't eat chocolate, so she ate a plain frozen banana. Good times:


Then we walked through another barn. We saw a lot of these wagons:


Looks like I missed a chicken:



CHICKENS!!!


I knew I had to find the much-talked-about "fried butter on a stick," so I went on a mission to find it:


I watched one dude standing over a trash can as the butter melted down his arms. It didn't look nearly as gross as I thought it would while it was cooking. It's a slice of butter, cinnamon batter, and cinnamon glaze. Since the internal butter melts, it's kind of like a big piece of cinnamon toast on a stick:


I didn't buy one, but I asked a lady if I could take a picture of hers. Of course, hers turned out to be the most phallic-looking:


I really wanted to go on this Ferris Wheel, but it was time to go. It was also going to rain:


This ride had been going in the wrong direction for us to enjoy it:


But even though we walked allllll the way up the hill to the chicken house and the chickens were NOT THERE (it was randomly full of bunnies), we did find a flattened-penny machine, so I got my favorite kind of souvenir.

Rebecca made the trip, too, even though she was almost washed off by the end of the day. She kept me calm and reminded me to have fun with my parents:


And so I did. And I even got a tiny Butter Cow ornament to prove it:


Thanks for a wonderful day, Parents! I love you!