Ice cream, maple bars, apples, corn, dutch oven (YUM!)

All that delicious food means two things; summer's ending, and the fair is on!
Monday we wanted an outing so we went to the new park past the hospital. The kids enjoyed themselves and it was early enough the park wasn't swarming with kids. Both Kendal and Peter loved the track swings and climbing on the rocks. At one point Kendal declared she was the queen of the rock. It was a windy day so we ended up pulling our kites out of the trunk and flying them for a bit till the kids wanted lunch. We left and went to Culver's to redeem their free kids meals and ice cream that they earned from the Library's summer reading program.

Wednesday Afternoon we headed to the Cassia County Fair in Burley. We checked out the historical museum next to the fair grounds first. Peter loved the train car and wagon parked outside and Kendal enjoyed the school room and dresses she saw in the buildings. At the fair we stopped at the tractors first. Peter and Kendal wanted to find the biggest one and enjoyed climbing up a few of them. Next we made our way over to the animal area. The jr competition for lambs was going on so we sat down for a bit and watched the kids parade / drag their lambs around the ring. After the competition was over we headed to see the rest of the lambs and cows. The grand champion lamb ended up belonging to the son of Casey's former football coach. He talked with us for a bit and let the kids pet the lamb. Peter was terrified of the lamb but we got him to pet the lambs back after a bit. When we finished seeing the animals we headed over to see the 4H displays in the buildings. We spotted the kids' second cousins beets and found a high school picture of Casey's grandpa Darrington in a Declo high display. We ended our fair trip by visiting the Declo stake booth to see Casey's parents and enjoy the best maple bars around! Kenny and Cheryl had to work hard all afternoon / evening to shell out maple bars and help with the grill to serve hungry fair goers. We were lucky the line was small when we went so we got to chat for a minute before they needed to get back to work.

 After the fair we headed home and went to the park in Kimberly for a ward dinner. They had a rocket launch for the kids to make paper rockets to shoot off. Kendal and Peter loved shooting their rockets over and over again. They also got their faces painted before we left.

Thursday we went and picked apples at Northview orchard. We now have three boxes of delicious apples waiting for me turn them into yummy apple sauce. (I bought my own water bath caner this year so we'll see how my caning adventures go doing things solo.)
Friday evening we headed out to Raft River to put up some corn with Casey's parents. We went strait to the field to pick corn and filled the back of the pickup truck with corn. (Normally we do nearly two truck loads but with less help this year we did less corn.) After dinner we headed out to the field and spent near three hours husking the corn. Kendal was a non stop chatterbox as we husked corn. (When she has an audience to listen and watch she takes full advantage of the opportunity.) Peter helped, then played, then helped. Saturday morning we started fairly early blanching, cutting, and bagging the corn. I was cooking the corn outside on a camp stove. Casey cooled down the corn, and transferred loads inside. Casey's Mom had the kids inside cutting corn with her and watching a cartoon for a while then when the corn was all cooked we were all inside cutting and bagging corn. We ended around two in the afternoon and did a little under two hundred bags of corn. Thankfully the flies were not a problem this year thanks to the wind outside and minimal comings and goings into the house. (I killed an obscene amount  of flies last year and I think it was less than a dozen this year!!!! {Yes I have issues} )

The above is what happens when your kids soaks his shirt "helping" clean corn from bins, 

then has to entertain himself while you cut and bag corn. 

After an afternoon rest while the kids played we headed into town and Cheryl treated us to some dutch oven dinner and a night at the Rodeo (Thanks Mama D, it was a great evening!!) The kids had never been to a rodeo so it was all new to them. Kendal wanted to know about everything and liked the parts where the girls got to ride / compete, and the clown acts. Peter liked the tractor at the beginning and the little cows.

Casey had CPR / First aid training on Wednesday and he was back at school Friday. He will be prepping / attending meetings this whole next week before school starts on the 31st. He also starts football tomorrow. It's going to be an adjustment for the kids. They've had Daddy most every day this summer and now they won't see him till dinner and on game nights from a distance in the stands. They adore him and lately Peter wants Daddy over anyone else. Good luck with your new school year Casey!
We have back to school night this next week. We'll find out Kendal's teacher and if she is in fact in the afternoon class. Kendal is excited to start school. Her only worries are making friends and if it will be fun. On both trips to parks this past week we've watched Kendal introduce herself ("I'm Kendal, I am five and a half. How old are you?") and that's all it takes for her to be off on an adventure with a new buddy. We smile at her worry over friends and just reassured her she'll meet kids at back to school night and during the first week of school find friends to play with in class.