Tom turned 26 a couple of weeks ago. We celebrated a few ways. A lot of them were food-related; I made him breakfast, his traditional ice cream cake, and his requested dinner (chicken and noodles). The day before his birthday, we went to the Indiana State Fair. He had never been before, and I had only been once (a decade ago), so we were both pretty excited about it.

It was hotter than we'd expected, and I got a pretty wicked sunburn (it was a very bad day to forget my sunscreen!), but we had a really fun time.

The Pioneer Village area was super cute. If it hadn't been so crowded, we would have been able to spend more time there. There were all sorts of craftsmen doing demonstrations.

Tom said he was an angry cow.


There was a little area all about water, called the Pathway to Water Quality, with facts about the water and soil, conservation information, and the chance to get a cool drink from a well pump (which my well water-lovin' self TOTALLY took advantage of!). It was really pretty, with a creek, waterfall, fountains, bridges, and flowers.



Near the Pathway to Water Quality was the Boy Scout Legacy Bridge, built by Boy Scouts. I was impressed.




We went through a "popcorn maze", which was a maze of panels with facts about popcorn and some little activities throughout it. It's obviously geared toward kids, but we still had a good time :)


My favorite part was an animation exhibit. It was really informative, and had really cool artifacts (like a typewriter that was used to write Bugs Bunny cartoons).

a painting of a Bambi scene

an original Chuck Jones sketch

a Chuck Jones watercolor painting

Po

Turbo

And of course, what would the State Fair be without food?

Like fried butter. The very thought is a little horrifying. I did try a deep fried Snickers though, and it was AH-MAZING.


And a giant sculpture made entirely of cheese! Cool, huh?


We went by the midway on our way back to the entrance we came in, but didn't ride anything (tickets are SO expensive, yo).



The last thing we did on our way out was stop by the butterfly garden. You know I love to take pictures of butterflies!


We had a really fun time, and I can't wait until we can take our kids there someday :)