Friday's are my day's off so they are our family days. For this fun family Friday we loaded up the car and headed to the State Fair. It just started the day before, so we were early birds (although we missed the dollar day which was on the first day). We went last year and we pretty much did the exact same things this year, except Graham enjoyed it even more, his favorite things...the animals. Our favorite thing...food (essentially the same thing except the timing is off). Adriane had her standard Indian Taco, and instead of being adventurous, I went with Earls, a local BBQ joint that had a booth there. I just wasn't in the mood for risky food.

Something happens each year we go over to the barns, where all the pig, sheep, cow and horse shows are taking place. Instantly as we walk in, I am smacked in the face with a wheel barrel of memories from my childhood. The smell has to be the strongest ignitor of all the memories - to some it may be an awful odor of who knows what coming out of who knows where but to me it is a very familiar and welcoming smell, taking me back to my very young years where I showed pigs and spent many fall months hanging out in the barns of various fair grounds in  various towns in Oklahoma. Days were filled with washing pigs, bedding down their pins and then waiting and waiting, but within the waiting there was alot of the fun going on, running around with the other 4-H or FFA'ers, living off of candy bars and nachos bought at the concession stands, experiencing the latest crush on that cute girl from the other school and just enjoying being covered in dirt and it not really mattering. Even though I didn't always do that great showing my pigs (except one year my Chester won grand prize at the Grady County Fair and then first place in the Oklahoma County Fair) I always enjoyed the lazy days spent in the barns, with the animals, and with my friends. As we were walking through the barns I kept feeling  that nostalgia, and loved that I was able to share that with Adriane and my son.

Everything I just typed I was thinking about in this picture, we were watching kids show off their sheep, and they were doing a great job. Maybe one day Graham will get to experience some of that life - I hope, it is a good one.