The Lake County Fair

This past weekend, we got to enjoy some family time at the Lake County Fair.  The fairgrounds are actually just up the street from our neighborhood, but we've lived in Mundelein for 3 years now, and this was the first time we made it to the fair!  I have been begging Ryan to go to the fair because the schedule of events always sounds amazing (Demolition Derby, Tractor Pull, Lake County Pageant, and last but not least, the Banana Derby...what is a Banana Derby you ask?  Oh, its monkeys that race like jockeys on top of dogs.  And we got to see it, I know you're jealous, but try to move on :)

So although it has been hotter than the surface of the sun for the past 3 weeks, we still decided to venture out to the fair on Sunday.  We went right when it opened, which meant there wasn't much to do yet but look at the prize winning animals that have been sold to local grocery stores (Ryan had to remind me that this is what they're raised for, but I about passed out when I saw that Fuzzy the prize winning cow had been bought by Sunset Foods!).   Gavin really enjoyed looking at the animals.  He however really wanted no part of the petting zoo, which is funny because last fall he went to two petting zoos and loved them both.  Anyways, here are a few pics from our first trip to the Lake County Fair!

We asked Gavin to pose for a picture, and this is what he gave us.  What a ham!

 Having a deep conversation with the goat.  Gavin enjoyed speaking to all the animals in their native tongue, but he seemed most fluent in goat and sheep.

 The look on Gav's face says "I'm hot and sweaty take me home" but I swear he was laughing and smiling right before I took this pic!  At least Ryan looks like hes having a good time!

 Checking out the pigs.  Gavin wasn't interested in getting any closer than this.

 We underestimated the popularity of the Banana Derby and showed up 5 minutes before showtime.  As you can see, next time we will have to plan ahead.  But you can make out two monkey jockeys racing neck and neck in this pic, thrilling!

 Gav had zero interest in the petting zoo, which was the same travelling petting zoo from Geneseo that we visited at Diddier Farms last fall!

 The heat started to get to us all, so we went to the one air conditioned exhibit, which was a bunch of vendors, 4-H exhibits, and local police and fire fighting units, which is where Gav got this sweet helmet!