Steers and Tears

The weeks leading up to the fair are full of practice.  This time every summer, you can look out back and see the kids walking, walking, walking.  Standing, showing, practicing.   Spencer sits a the window and watches them.  

Spencer fell asleep watching them one morning.  He has not been feeling well.  He has not felt well for a long, long, time.  His tonsils will be coming out the end of this month in hopes that he will stop feeling perpetually tired and sick.  

In between practicing, Janae and her cute girls came for a visit.  Ruthy wasn't feeling well, so she stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Card.  Diana has the cutest smile.  They are a cute bunch. 

The weekend before the fair, I took Laura Lee and we went to visit Missy.  I went out to eat on Friday night to Donner Kabob.  It was delicious.  (Donner may not be a great name for a resaurant out West, but hey-- it was good!) It was so much food, but not super heavy.  Then, the next day Missy took us to her weights class.  It was a great workout.  The instructor reminded us of one of Sammy's friends, and I wouldn't be surprised if this friend turned out just like said instructor.  Super skinny, super strong, and stuck in the late 80's/Eary 90's.  Sammy's friend will be stuck as a weighlifting cowgirl of the twenty-tens.  

Missy then took us to bargains around town.  Here we are showing our awesomeness.  We are expert selfie-takers.  I don't know why my girls didn't think it was #natural.  Come on!! We know how to model glasses!! 

On to the week of the fair.  Spencer and I usually come a little later than the rest of the family on Wednesday, and we hang out at the creek.  All. Day. Long.  I read a really good book-- and Spencer accused me of ignoring him.  He caught penny skippers and got wet.  I need to find all the pictures of the last few years of Spencer at the creek on the fairgounds to compare them.  He has stretched out quite a bit.  

Rich knows that one of the nicest things about the girls getting older is they can really take care of the steer without much help.  Laura Lee is an expert washer now.  

This year, we adopted some strays and new kids into the RLO Steer club.  Laura Lee's friend Cheyanne asked if we could put her by our steers.  She is all by herself in her own little club.  She did a steer last year, even though her parents really didn't want her to.  This year her mom said she begged again, and they let her.  Her mom, Lisa, is has been our kids' bus driver to elementary school since Laura Lee started kindergarten.  Cheyanne was the manager for LL's basketball team last year.  LL calls her Cheeney.  Cheeney was really grateful to have Rich around to help her.  She can do a lot herself, it is her last year. Here she is using our cattle shoot to blow off and comb her steer. 

The other addition is Garrett.  My kids were a little hesitant about adding Garrett.  Garrett has a bit of a reputation for telling tall tales and generally ticking off all the kids in town.  My friend Kelli told me how he walked into her mom's house when they were gone, took out some soda, grabbed some chips, and sat down on the couch to watch TV.  Kelli's brother came in and found him.  He just said "Hello" and kept on eating.  

He offered $50 for Luke's one-eared rabbit named Pete, and Luke was highly offended.  I was ready to say "Take the money!! It's a one-eared rabbit!" but how could I forget the intrinsic value of odd animals?! I also couldn't let a kid give us $50 for a rabbit. Maybe we can sell him 50 rabbits for a dollar a piece?  That would be just as easy, and less up front... but I digress.

Luke and Spencer learned to enjoy hanging out with him.  Luke said "He actually isn't so bad, Mom,"  even though he picked a handfull of our blackberries, and came walking around back eating them like he owned the place.  We don't get many blackberries right now, so I was a little put out.  I teach him for piano, and I have learned to love him-- even when I want to pull out my hair while teaching him.  There is just something about him.....

However, his hair color perfectly matched his steer's hide color-- "Big Red" and "Little Red" said his sign!  He's a good kid! His parents are wonderful and we had a great time with them. 

 We had a plethora of visitors.  One of our favorite teachers, Mr. Ashcroft, stopped by.  Sammy had him in 4th grade.  He is retired, but one of the best.  

 If you can guess where the steers' names come from, I'll give you a sweater for your birthday.  

Spencer got a chance to show one of Billy's bull calfs.  He loved every minute, but for some reason freezes up when the judge asks him a simple question such as "What is the calf's name?"  I practiced that with him a few times, so I was suprised he couldn't spit the words out.  My kid who can't stand silence in conversation when with someone, freezes up with a microphone.  Maybe I just need to carry a microphone around with me.  

 Actual evidence of Sammy shoveling sunshine.  She needs proof when she is a mother.  "When I was your age, I was shoveling crap! My parent's were mean!  They didn't buy me designer clothes, I had to get them at the D.I.! Now let's go shopping somewhere fancy, honey!"  (True story about her designer jeans-- they are originally $100, we found them at the D.I., never been worns, $15. A little pricey for the D.I. if you ask me!! Hmmph.)

 The girls were very helpful to the younger kids.  I did notice once, Sammy was blowing Garrett's steer off while he was sitting on a camp chair drinking a soda.  

Sale time.  To be honest, it was a very disappointing sale. Many of the kids made nothing.  The average was about $1800, so that means some may have taken a loss.  A steer will cost about $1000 to buy, then you have all the grain and hay.  Not to mention, it is at least a year's worth of work. We are super grateful that we have people that will buy our beef. I wish that more businesses would come and buy these kids' animals.  Apparently, Nucor over the mountain from us drops over $100K a year on 4-H animals at the Box Elder County Fair.  We have several people in our ward that work there.  They are surprised that Nucor doesn't come to our fair, which would be nice since it employs a lot of people from Cache Valley.  

 Sammy makes friends with the little kids quite easily.  Wyatt is his name, and cuteness is his game.  Wyatt told Sam, "You are my 'realest' friend ever!"  He was in Primary Children's just like Luke when he was only 18 months old.  He went through nearly the same thing-- just had a different intestinal problem. His brother showed a steer that was aply named "Oscar" for "Oscar the Grouch."  Oscar was quite the handful, and thankfully was the only steer this year who went nuts in the ring. 

 On the last day of the fair, I finally got Spencer to leave my side and play.  He and Garrett headed up to the old announcer's box.  They were up in that oven forever, and came down sweating buckets.  

 The girls had friends stop by, and the funniest was when these two came-- Savannah and Chante.  While they were chatting, Laura Lee's steer stood up and let out a giant cough.  The force of the cough caused his rear end to spew out some runny, green, smelly cow manure and it sprayed her friend Chante.  Then, for some odd reason, Dusty the steer kept shooting manure out his hind quarters into the walkway! People were ducking and backing away as fast as they could.  The girls were squealing and I was laughing!  Poor Chante-- we got the wet wipes out an assured her it would come out.  These pictures are before the incident, of course! 

 The Vances came to both the Showmanship competition on Wednesday night, and the Market show on Thursday afternoon.  That was a really sweet thing to do, since I know that Ann-Maree doesn't like crowds of people, let alone a dusty smelly barn. I am sure that Dell doesn't love the mess either-- but they have been fantastic to our kids.  They gave them jobs to do all summer and paid them more than they deserved!  They even came to suppor them. 

 They all earned blue ribbons for their steers.  

 We had a great judge this year.  Sammy said "It takes a woman to do it right!" and I'd have to agree!  Sandi the judge was super.  She was able to give constructive feedback to the kids, and even if they placed last they were able to leave feeling like she built them up.  She remembered all of the kids' names every time they came into the ring, and she took time to talk to each of them.  I was super impressed with her professionalism. 

 One of the best parts I like about the fair is when the kids get to show off their steers to the public that come in.  LL always takes the kids over to the steer and helps them pet it.  She also lets them sit on it and the parents get a big kick out of it and take pictures.  Honestly, I am proud of my kids because they interact with the people who come by.  They love helping kids onto the steer and love seeing them giggle because they are sitting on such a big animal.  

Spencer got a blue ribbon for showing the calf!

 Oh my! Wasn't it fun to walk into the enormous new fair building and see my kids on the big screen! haha!  I first noticed it when I could hear Luke's voice over the speakers, "The best part is interacting with the animals and getting to know them...." I look up and there they are.  I was the only one who asked for their autographs, I just don't understand why. 

As you know, price gouging is alive an well at every fair in the nation.  Then you find a lemonade stand that becomes addicting, and suddenly there is a well worn path between this lemonade stand and the Beef Barn.  In an instant, price is no deterrant, and you MUST. HAVE. LEMONADE! Oh-- and a few churros to go with the lemonade.  Not just any churros, mind you.  These are GOURMET churros, cut into small pieces, covered with a small amount of vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, fresh peaches (not from a can!!!NO!), and toffee bits.  

 Laura Lee's face says it all.  I think she is entering a lemonade coma. 

We are happy to be done this year.  It was a difficult fair year, but I cannot complain because Rich truly does all of the work with the kids.  He was exhausted at the end.  We were double sad to be missing all the grandparents this year.  Grandpa Olsen had to head to Wyoming to help Rich's brother who had a hernia operation.  I think he was so sad to not be there. We all were sad he couldn't come.  We are so grateful for support from family.  This is a huge project and so much work, and to have support means so much.