AZ STATE FAIR 08

We left home on Tuesday the 14th for State fair in Phoenix. Josh, Riley and I went to my aunt and uncle's house and clipped his 3 lambs and his goat. Wednesday we went to the fair grounds and the fair began. Josh took the same lambs and goat as he showed at our county fair.

Friday the show started with the breeding classes. Miley is a ewe lamb that my parents gave Josh to show. She was in the commercial ewe lamb (girl under 1 year) class. She won the class and then got to compete for the champion commercial ewe. Commercial ewes are not registered ewes, that are used to raise show lambs. Josh and Miley won the champion commercial ewe, they beat out older bigger ewes and showman. Here is a picture of Josh, Miley and the judge.

Next to show was the goat. Let me just say he was not on his best behavior, evidently he did not get the memo and did not realize he was supposed to be a good goat. He did not do well in the market goat show but Josh managed to take the worst behaved goat and place third in the Jr. goat showmanship. For some reason Michael (the official photographer for the weekend) did not take any pictures of Josh showing the stupid goat.

After the goat show was lamb showmanship. Showmanship is about how well the kids show the animals not how good the animals conformation is. Josh showed Miley because she is by far his best behaved lamb. The two of them did great. Miley did exactly what Josh asked her to and the two of them looked great. Josh did everything he needed to and was named the reserve Jr. showman (second out of all the Jr. showman).

Saturday afternoon it was the boys turn to show. Josh started with his southdown. There were only 3 southdowns at the show. But, there was one that weighed in at 140lbs and was shown by an older more experienced showman. As you know it is Josh's first year showing and when we weighed in Downer he was only 116lbs. Josh and Downer held their own and won the southdown class. Downer was the champion southdown market lamb.

Don't let Josh's expression in the picture fool you. He was very happy to do so well he just wasn't happy when I said he had to go in front of the backdrop and take pictures. (I have got to be the meanest parent ever to want pictures.)

Only three classes later it was Rocket's turn to show. Josh and Rocket were in the black face market lamb division. Rocket weighed in at 136lbs which put them in the third out of four classes. Rocket did great for Josh and they won the class. After the fourth class ended they went back to compete for Champion black face market lamb. They won. Rocket was the champion black face market lamb.

Don't they look great together? Once again I was the mean parent and forced Josh to take pictures in front of the backdrop.

After the black face division there were 2 other breeds to show. Once those were done the champions of all 4 breeds (Josh had 2 of the 4) went back to compete for Grand and Reserve Market lamb. The Grand was shown by a young lady from the valley. She did a great job and had a good lamb. The Reserve champion market lamb was shown by JOSH. That's right Josh and Rocket won Reserve Grand champion market lamb (the second best lamb at the state fair).

Notice the great award displayers that we hired for the occasion? They work cheap. We did have to settle the dispute over who would hold the "big" one (the banner) and who would hold the ribbons. Lets just say it took a mom intervention to settle it.

As soon as the show was over for the 4-Hers it was time for the PEEWEE showman to take a crack at it. Peewee is for little ones who can't be in 4-H yet but want to show anyway. Both Conner and Riley have been doing peewee since they were a year old.

Conner is now old enough that he can show without the help of an older 4-H member. See the look of concentration on his face. I can see the time spent watching Ty, Holly and Josh has not been lost on him.

Riley on the other hand still needs help. This is Peyton Frost from Snowflake. She is Riley's new best friend. He usually has Holly help him show. Not this year, everything was all about Peyton. He was going to show the goat but at the LAST minute changed his mind. He told me "mom, I don't want to show this stinkin' goat". So we rushed back to the pen and changed to Downer.

Sunday evening was the Sale of Champions. Josh sold Rocket. Here they are in the sale ring, again notice the hired award displayers.

It was a great show, run by good people. The kids had a great time and can't wait for next year. I for one want a few weeks of sleep before I try this again. The boys and I came home Monday morning. After being at the fair for 5 days, we were all very tired. Riley decided he had had enough and this is what happened.

There is nothing as exciting as driving home from the valley with a tired screaming 3 year old. For those of you who have not yet tried it, you don't know what you are missing. It is an experience all teenagers should have to endure. I am confident it would put an end to teen pregnancy. All in all we had a great time and other than a few minor incidents (melt downs) it was a smooth show.