2010 Wyoming State Fair

Last week was the Wyoming State Fair. I spent about 8 years competing at the state fair, but hadn't been back for a couple years. It was a different experience toting a camera bag instead of leading steers, scrambling from one end of the fairgrounds to the other to take pictures instead of camping out on the show boxes in the beef barn, or wandering through the huge livestock barns instead of navigating the maze of combined buildings that housed animals when I was there. FYI I liked the old beef barn better!
The kids are different too. I do not remember so much..skin at state fair when I was competing. There was a pretty strict n0-shorts policy in our county as I recall, but this year I saw about half the girls wandering around in shorts and flip flops.

But some things are the same, like how cute the little kids are...and the enormous citrus inspired drinks you can get on the midway for an exorbitant fee.

The horse show was never that exciting to me. But this little girl and I assume her brother are too cute. I also caught the little bitty kids pole bending and it was great!
Some of the kids that do compete can do some incredible things with their horses...

This girl was one of them, and she had a big grin the whole time. Obviously good at it and enjoying it all at once!

This girl was experiencing her first state fair and was a cutie. The pig people humor me with their variety of colorful muck boots. The pigs humor me because they have so much personality...I'm easily humored.

Sheep....well...it's an art, and a gift to be able to put up with, feed and show sheep in my opinion. I had to do it in college and it wasn't as bad as I thought...but it wasn't incredibly great either.

Judging of most clothing, photography, leather craft, cake decorating, cooking etc... was done Monday.

This is maybe my favorite. My mom said this could be me.

The fitting contest was interesting. I've never watched one before and have some friends that are into showing cattle and do this for a living. They have some skills.

The livestock judging contest...possibly the most nerve wracking morning of my State Fair career...that or showmanship. They are practicing their reasons on the bleachers.

You could fish!!! If you were under 12...

Team roping...makes nice pictures if you don't fall asleep watching.

Crabtree Carnival has been a State Fair staple for as long as I can remember.

Keeping things clean..

The judging contest isn't just nerve wracking for the human contestants.

Almost all of these pictures were in a center spread in the Roundup this week. I was so excited about the spread, and I had a lot of fun taking them and getting back in the State Fair groove. Following three days of taking pictures and attending meetings I collapsed for 12 hours and realized I am not 15 anymore :(