The Iowa State Fair

Leah, Adam, Emma, Noah and I participated in a Veterans Memorial Concert this summer.  We had four weeks of rehearsals- Leah and Adam in the orchestra, Emma and Noah in the children's choir and me in the sanctuary with the adult choir, and after each one everyone was chatting and challenged in a way that I knew they were feeling satisfied with their involvement in the group. 

On Sunday we had a big dress rehersal performance- 

I, along with the other altos, was squeezed in behind the trombones. 

The music was all beautiful and it made me so happy to introduce my kids to the joy of patriotic celebration.  Military bands and performances were a big part of my childhood but they have been much harder to come by in my adult civilian life.  This was a great way to interact with veterans and share our pride of being Americans!  

The main concert was on Monday at the state fair- our participation earned us free tickets into the fair which is a good thing because, despite the many fun traditions and memories we have of the fair, I will always liken it to Casey's pizza.  I know as an Iowan I'm supposed to like it I'm just not really sure why.  It was SO crowded this year and hot, cloudy, and raining on and off all day.  We kept our eye on the big yellow slide in hopes of getting a run in before the concert, but that didn't happen.  

We did get our eggs-on-a-stick (with a quick run-in with the missionaries) 

got not nearly enough time with the cute farm babies- 

saw some of the fair's blue ribbon winners- 

Emma picked out some cute origami crane earrings-

Noah was in charge of ordering our bucket of cookies this year!

We ate lots of something on a stick...

And the kids rode the skyliner in pairs while I enjoyed the walk on the ground.  (Daddy was out of town for this big adventure.)

Another growing up milestone- riding the skyliner without an adult!

We were only at the fair for a few hours before it was time for our concert, but we had eaten plenty of food and checked off most of our favorite stops by the time we had to head over to the pavilion. 

Overall the concert was a success.  We all agreed that the dress rehersal was more fun and polished than the actual performance (high winds blew everyone's music off their stands, Adam had to nudge the accordian play awake when he missed his entrance, the children's choir mikes weren't working so they were hard to hear) but all in all it was a fantastic event and we were all glad to be a part of it!

My view of that same cute trumpeter.

After the concert we tried to hurry over to the yellow slide- Emma and Noah took off first and by the time Leah, Adam and I made it over to the ticket hut they had disappeared! They were absolutely nowhere to be found, and if it had been a few years ago I think we all would have panicked.  They were gone!  We split up and looked in the line, at the ticket hut, and at the slide, and once we confirmed that they were nowhere to be found we started back over to the concert pavilion right as my friend called to say that they were with her.  Somehow we crossed paths when they got to the slide first and realized we weren't behind them and then turned around to go back to the pavilion.  It doesn't matter how old you are, getting lost is not fun!  It was only about 8 minutes that we were apart but that was more than enough time to remember that we should stick together!  And after all that, the yellow slide was still closed and we agreed that we will just have to try again another year. Because love it or not, the state fair has become a summer tradition!