Coming to Fremont for fair week is a double edge sword. It's fun- there's food and animals and ribbons to be had. But, it's also a lot of work. My mom offered to help at the Flower Building on Monday morning to set up all the cards for the entries, so I went out with her to help.
The fun part was that the needlework is in the same building- and it had already been judged. So we got to see that Hayden had won a best of show on his chicken that he sewed. The chicken of all things! It took him all of five minutes!
Of course, I didn't tell him when we arrived back at the house. I figured I'd let him see it when he went out to the fair on Tuesday. The boys had gotten up and around while we were out at the fairgrounds and Asa was working from upstairs.
My Aunt Patti and Uncle Emmett had been in Ohio for the family reunion and the party and Monday was their last day there, so we invited them down to Fremont to have lunch with us. Aunt Dawn and Aunt Bonnie came along too. Asa came down on his lunch hour and we had a nice time visiting. Of course, he also offered some tech support where needed. Aunt Patti was busy working on pictures from the party and editing an issue with my grandmas book.
After lunch we all spread out to work on various projects. The boys went back outside to dig up some more stakes, and Uncle Emmett supervised.
He also helped a bit.
They got a lot of stakes out of the ground- enough in fact that all that was left were the stakes in the flower beds, so when the guys came that afternoon to mow the lawn, my mom declared the area safe for mowing, and she was very excited about it!
Aunt Dawn meanwhile, fixed moms screen door that wasn't closing.
And I gathered up all the supplies for the boys to work on their flower arrangements for the first show.
For Dinner on Monday night we talked Aunt Patti and Uncle Emmett into coming along, and we all went to Chuds.
Of course we ordered the ever famous Chud Spuds and the boys got their cherry cokes.
I knew when I was in Ohio I wouldn't be eating as well as I had been at home, so I told Asa we should try and get lots of steps in to counteract our less than stellar eating habits. We decided to walk home from Chuds, and go past my grade school. It hasn't been used in years, and apparently they are going to tear it down. I took some pictures in case it's the last time I ever see it.
I went from 1st grade to 8th grade in this building.
Right next door, on the same block, is my high school. My kindergarten sat on the same block too, but has long since been torn down. I showed Asa all around and we peeked in windows.
Speaking of grade/high school- my longest of friends made a trip from Columbus to come visit with me. Ben kept us up quite late telling all kinds of stories, which Peyton found very amusing (Ben is a DJ at a bar, so he's got stories!) But, I was happy to get any time I could with him. Thanks for stopping by, Ben!
I think Monday night/Tuesday morning we went to bed around 3 am, so coffee was needed Tuesday morning. Asa picked out one of my dads old mugs.
Then it was off to the fairgrounds to enter our flowers and help get things set for the day of judging. There's always a bit of time between getting everything set and the judges coming in- so we headed off to see how the boys (though mostly Hayden) fared with all their entries.
Over in the art building his felt flowers got a first, as did his quilled paper Up house, and his pastel and glue resist art.
He got second place on his crayon art, and a first on his metal owl. That's not too shabby, because now he's in the older kids group and it can have some pretty hefty competition.
Over in the photography section he won a second for his picture of m&ms, a first on his dip kiss picture of me and Asa in Daytona Beach,
He also won a first on his orange snail and a 3rd on his plant.
Peyton really just entered photography and flowers this time around. Both have pretty good payouts and he's been working toward money for CEO Taku so he wanted to try his hand at both of those. He had two different pictures of my lily pad flower. One won him a second, and one won him a first.
I also printed out one of anniversary picture in pictures that Peyton took, and it won first!
His close up of coins and his close up of red onions both won him a first as well.
He also won a second with a picture from the dock down at the lodge.
Over in the craft building, Hayden cleaned up. I knew there wasn't a lot of competition, because Calib had entered something in crafts once before, and wasn't up against anything. But, I had no idea Hayden would be basically the entire class. In fact everything but one item in this case was his (and the one item that wasn't his didn't even win anything because Hayden got a first, second, and third in the same category). He took home something like 13 first place ribbons in this building, and 9 seconds and a handful of thirds.
I couldn't find his memory in a jar, though. We almost didn't enter anything because I couldn't afford any more weight in my suitcase, so at the last minute we decided to grab a bunch of his ribbons from previous years. I decided they didn't weigh very much on their own and we could get a jar at my moms house. So we shoved them in jar and tied a bow around them- and they won best of show. Go figure.
I knew that was his second best of show, but Hayden was unaware that his chicken had also won one. We went back to the flower building to show him, and he was pretty excited about his TWO Best of Shows. In fact, we have been calling this his $9 chicken- because you get $4 for first place, and an extra $5 for Best of Show.
We had a bit of time before we had to help with the judging in the flower building, so we went to grab something for an early lunch. Of course, a family favorite is the 'Beef It's What's for Dinner' tent. I sent Calib a picture and he asked for me to bring him some.
To be fair, the chopped steak is delicious. The lemon shake ups are good too, but I kept ordering mine with half sugar after the first time because holy geez.
After lunch we went to help with the judging. I did the clerking and marked down everything on the official papers and the boys put the ribbons on.
A couple of hours later the judging was done and while my mom and some of the flower building ladies had a meeting with the judges to talk about boring stuff, we went off to pet some animals!
While I do enjoy the goats, I also like the pig barn!
When we showed back up the meeting was over, but my mom was still chatting. The boys sat down and I had flashbacks to my childhood... of waiting for my mom while she talked to people.
When we arrived back at moms house, we had a few squirrels rummaging through her backyard. And they are not at all scared of people, fyi.
I also had to take all those official judges score sheets that I tallied and read off the winners to my mom. Every ribbon you win in the flower building is worth points- and the person with the most points wins a trophy. So, I had to read off all the points to my mom while she entered them into the computer.
We planned on going back to the fair on Tuesday night for dinner with Asa, but a downpour thwarted those plans. Instead we stayed in. I knew Wednesday was going to be a busy day, and I had gotten such little sleep the night before having Ben over so late and then getting up early for the fair that I was ready to go to bed early.
There were a couple of things I had on my list to do while we were in Ohio, I wanted to walk the bike trail and I wanted to go down to Spiegel Grove. But, fitting in two little walks was more challenging than one would think. I told Asa if we got up early on Wednesday, we could take the bike trail. On our way we saw some interesting sites. Next to my moms house sits a stone I never noticed before. It says 1894- 19 years after my moms house was built! Not sure if it belongs to the neighbors house or the house that once sat inbetween, but it is pretty cool.
When I lived in Fremont as a kid, this trail was only sort of there. It wasn't paved. It was like a secret little trail covered mostly by brush with some gravel. It took you across an old rickety wood plank bridge and it was scary. Since then it's been transformed. It's paved- and there are fences on either side so you can't wander down and into people's backyards.
And the only rickety bridge has been replaced. Also, instead of having to climb down a steep slope to get off the trail, they have nice paved ramps. (Although Fremont thinks it has a 'Downtown District'- that's too cute.)
We took the trail across the river (which I'm not sure it ever actually went to- I think there used to be railroad tracks here and you couldn't cross at all), and down to the fountain at the park across the way.
When we walked back we took the ramp to the 'Downtown Distrcit' and climbed down to check out the river.
These pictures look pretty- but there was a lot of gross trash on those rocks, including someone's underwear. Once you got down there it was nice, but you really had to avoid stuff on the rocks.
The river was low on the day we were there (it was much higher later on), so I was able to climb out on the rocks into the water. Also, if you're climbing down there, I would suggest something other than flip flops. But, that's just me. And I hardly wear anything other than flip flops, so I probably wouldn't take my own advice.
When we got back we had about an hour before Asa had to be at work, so we rounded up the boys for a project. My dad also had a pond in the backyard where he kept fish and had lily pads. But since my dad died and my mom was taking care of my grandma the whole thing had become overgrown and had missed it's spring cleaning for several years. My mom said she would either like to clean it out to fill it in, or if the liner was still in good shape clean it out to get some water plants to have a water garden.
But, nobody really wanted to clean it out. Enter the Waterstrauts! We got ourselves some gloves and some buckets and started cleaning it out. Asa helped for about the first hour and then had to go to work while it took the rest of us about another hour to get it all clean.
We do have a before and after picture for you. Yes, that's a pond in the first picture. It just had weeds growing on top. Who knew weeds could grow in water like that? Anyway, I took on most of the muck at the bottom myself since I couldn't smell it. And now my mom has a cleaned out pond!
We had done a good job with the pond, and since we now had Cedar Point passes, I thought I would reward the boys with an extra trip to Cedar Point. Asa planned to take one day off work to go again, but I thought I could also give them a bonus trip. Peyton doesn't mind going alone, so he went into the park while Hayden and I opted to spend some time at the water park.
It's been reamed and rebranded since I worked at Cedar Point, but I still call it Soak City. I mean, it's mostly the same with the bucket, the same slides (although newly painted), and the same lazy river. But, I guess there are some new things- and the kids area is totally different. I spent many hours at choochoo lagoon with Peyton and Calib when they were just babies, and now it's totally different.
After a little while at the water park, Hayden and I changed and headed into the park. Unlike our time there on Sunday we had a nice clear day to enjoy, with just a few passing clouds.
Hayden mostly did a lot of spinning rides. He went on the Monster like four times in a row, so I walked over to Camp Snoopy to check out things. My first job was here in 1999, the first year it was opened.
Of course we also had to reward all of our hard work from the morning with cheese fries and mini corn dogs from the only place to get them from- the Happy Friar!
Hayden and I took the train around.
And we discovered no wait for his favorite ride in the park, the Iron Dragon. I did it once and then told him I'd wait for him. He did it a total of five times, and somehow still didn't have a headache. I don't know how he does it. That thing is really showing its age.
Peyton, meanwhile, had texted me and told me how useless the times on the app were. I totally agreed, so whenever I was near something I thought he had interest in riding, I'd send him a picture of the wait times. I think were just spoiled by Disney who seems to update the wait times in real time. It is rare that a stand by time says something different at the entrance than it does in My Disney Experience.
Hayden and I took the skyride up to the front of the park.
Again with the good views.
And Hayden took to riding the Troika 18 times in a row.
Since I worked back in Camp Snoopy, I have a bit of an affinity for Snoopy so I took my picture in some very Snoopy places.
Hayden meanwhile continued his tour of the old, rough mini coasters.
There is a really cute sunflower mural painted on the fence in front of the Mine Ride, though.
I told Peyton to meet us to head home around 6 and we headed back to Fremont.
After Asa clocked out and we had dinner, we headed over to the fair since we had missed it the night before because of the weather. Asa was going to see the boys winnings and best some animals with us.
Mom had the point totals all printed out for the flower building. I had handed her the paper because it almost flew away from me, and then it ended up flying away from here and into a bucket of cow water. I guess there's worse things it could have landed in, though.
Over in the flower building the boys showed Asa their ribbons. Hayden got second on his cookie jar.
And they had both gotten ribbons on all of their flower arrangements.
Of course, Hayden had to show off his best of show $9 chicken.
But he had a few other needlework items as well. His little toddler skirt got first, and his apron from an old pair of jeans got second.
His sunflower pillow also got a first.
Over in the arts and crafts building he showed off his second best of show.
And of course his whole case of ribbons.
And we found his bracelet he had made at the library which we hadn't seen before. Of course, it was another first place ribbon.
Over in the art building I snapped a few pictures of some of his other work I had missed before. His fabric flower painting won an Honorable Mention and his charcoal owl won 3rd.
And Asa and I took a picture of our picture in picture winning first.
We had eaten dinner at my mom's, but of course, there are desserts to be had at the fair. We settled on an elephant ear and a milkshake.
And then we finished up our night at the fair with a trip through the sheep and goat barn.
I particularly enjoyed the goats that were eating their name tags and decorations for their pens.
Next Up: The Homestretch of the 2019 Ohio trip!
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