fair...

 Remember these 2 cute little calves?  Well, they grew up....

With all of the time our boys spent with their cows, they also grew into beloved, sweet, docile beasts who our boys absolutely LOVED!  

I love this picture!

Jayden with Beefy

So, you can imagine how we all felt going into fair week.  Here the kids are getting in one last walk around the pasture the night before load in day at the fair.

Spencer with Steaky

Anaya with Tornado

Look how nice Spencer got Steaky to 'set up!'  Well, remember this picture because at the fair, it didn't go quite so easily!

Cleaning every last bit of them before the fair in the morning...

Giving lots of love!

Anaya cleaning Tornado's hooves with an old toothbrush...

Luisa helped too...

Easton and Bullseye...

I am not a huge animal fan, but I will admit, I cried like a baby when they pulled out of our yard.  I knew they wouldn't ever be back and I knew how hard this was going to be on the boys.

The morning of the big boys show...

Before the show, Ryan took the boys and their steers into the ring for a trial run...Oh.my.stars...These sweet, docile creatures who are walked daily, freaked out when they got in the ring, even Ryan couldn't get them to behave.  That caused everyone to get a little nervous.  Poor Spencer had his toes stepped on by his 1390 lb. steer on several occasions and it didn't feel good!  It was so neat to see several of the adults in our 4H club come and talk to the boys and encourage them.  We have such a great club and they really take the time to invest in our kids. 

Thankfully, they did calm down some and the boys were able to walk them into the ring.  You can see Spencer leaning into Steaky as he was still being obstinate, he took a few little leaps but Spencer held on tight and kept a smile on his face!  Although he came in last for showmanship with his unruly steer, the judge did acknowledge the fact that he could tell Spencer put a lot of time in with his steer, which made us all happy.  They did very well and had a good time!

 Easton did so good in his show, we were told that a parent had to hold the lead rope for his age group so that is how we practiced.  I thought he would freak out when the judge had the parents just stand inside the ring, but not hold the rope.  But, instead he just did his thing and never even flinched!  So proud of him.

Anaya's show was on the following day as she had a dairy calf. 

She had to be dressed in black and white to show Tornado.

She came in 5th for showmanship and her calf placed 2nd in the Junior Bull category!

She was the most excited over the neon green lunch sack!

Anaya and her friend Hollis, too cute!

Barn duty!

The night of the auction the boys had to talk to potential buyers at the fair.  4H is so good for the kids, it teaches so much more than just caring for their animal, there is speaking, writing (lots of work in their fair notebooks,) marketing and many other practical skills being learned through the whole process.

Their steers did remarkably well the night of the sale...

We had prepped both boys for last years sale prices and warned them that they probably wouldn't make much money after all their expenses.  They would have done it for nothing, they loved it so much.  But, thankfully this year prices were up and they did very well!  So well, that their eyes bugged out of their heads when they found out, it was pretty funny.

More barn chores...

relaxing!

Having fun hanging out...

Cow and kid dress up competition, Jayden, Spencer and Anaya all got prizes.  I missed it because while they were out having fun, I was in the barn doing their barn duty!  Now that is love folks!

Dylan during the Ag Olympics.

Tug of war between the horse barn and the cattle barn, cattle won. "We always win," says our 4H leader, "cow kids have greater upper body strength." 

Easton before his auction.

a few last hugs the night before loading them out.

We did let the kids ride a couple rides one night, but mostly we stayed at the other side of the fairgrounds all week.

Finally the dreaded load out day came and it was pretty sad to see all of the kids load up their steers and walk away with the harness in hand and bury their heads into their parents arms and cry.  There have been tears, but they already have their calves for next year and want to do it all over again.

 Meet Stetson and Duke!

 And another adventure begins...