MN State Fair

I have been meaning to share with you our trip to the State Fair. I know that I all ready filled you in on the disappointment I experienced over the deep fried Oreos, but the State Fair was more than just that. Apparently, according to the MN State Fair website, the MN State Fair is the largest and most attended State Fair in the country, and after spending the day there, I am inclined to believe it. The place was massive! We spent 6 hours there and still didn't see everything. I was certain that Parker would only want to be there for a couple of hours, but he was a real trooper...he just kept watching what was going on. I imagine that it had to be really interesting to him with all of the sounds, smells, and sights.

First, we stopped at all of the different agricultural barns. Parker got to see pigs for his first time.

He even got to see some baby animals. Our favorite were the baby pigs that were only 1 day old. The people kept the little piglets in some sort of incubators to keep the babies warm and prevent the mama pig from accidentally stepping on the piglets...they are so cute!

The area with all of the baby animals was called the birthing room. Of course, it was one of the more crowded buildings in the agricultural area. A ton of kids were very excited to see all of the baby animals. And as great and important as I believe it is to teach kids to respect all living creatures and to teach them at a young age about animals, I had some problems with the room. Again I will say it - this building was VERY crowded. I can only imagine how stressful it was for those cute piglets that were only 1 day old. I am just not certain that the best interest of the animals were there. But the real issue I had was the poor cow that was in the middle of labor. She was in a pen, smack dab in the middle of the building, with a bunch of bleacher seats in front of her. Many people and children were all around her pen as well as sitting in the bleachers. She was in the middle of labor. Your could tell she was uncomfortable. Not only was she having to deal with the pain of labor, but she had to do it in a warm, noisy area with tons of people watching her and kids screaming. I am sorry, but since I just gave birth, I tried to imagine what it would be like to be this poor cow...I had drugs and privacy, she had nothing! Labor is stressful enough as it is. Wouldn't this environment not only cause more stress to her, but to her unborn calf? I appreciate that they were trying to be educational. I also appreciate how awesome it would be for a child to see something so special. But isn't there a better way to do it? A way that wouldn't cause extra stress to the animals? It really bothered me. The last ting I wanted to do was take a picture of her with flashes and such, so I don't have a picture to show you. (Actually, besides the food pictures - which will be a separate post - all of my other fair photos did not come out well.)


All in all, we had a great day. The weather was perfect. Parker was an angel. There was lots to see. We just had fun hanging out.