The Great New York State Fair!!

Today Pat, 4 children and I headed to the New York State Fair. We try to do this every year and we all have a great time. This year Becky stayed home with the babies, Dan and Matt had soccer practice and Patrick Jr had to work.

Hopefully, I will go back next week with some of the kids who missed out on the fun this week.

New York is an agricultural state,(there is much more to NY than just New York City), and above, the kids portray some of the livestock of the region.

Mark participated in the raptor demonstration, he did a wonderful job in spite of being quite scared of this "meat eating" owl.

Dad took this picture of a real live bald eagle in the raptor show. I think this photo deserves to be blown up large and hung on the wall.

I think that this white Iceland falcon was one of my favorites.

We watched the New York State troopers repel off a 60 foot tower. They repelled down backward, forward, feet first, head first and upside down. Great job guys. (It was law inforcement day and Pat got us free entrance tickets to the fair today.)

Gracie made friends here, just as she does everywhere.

She made friends with bears, and

friends with horses.

The kids drove fighter jets,

jet skiis,

and snowmobiles. It may have been 95 degrees today, but we all know that winter in northern NY is headed our way.

Our favorite thing to do at the fair is to find all the free stuff that we can. This year was no exception. We made quite a haul.

We have counted-

56-pencils

25- pens

12-coloring books

8-rulers

6-key chains

4-gun locks

2-t-shirts

and other things to numerous to continue.

We do want everyone to be warned though. If you are headed to the fair and the weatherman says that the temperature will be 95 degrees but the "heat index" will be much hotter, know that some of your children will arrive home looking like this.

It is now time for bed.