The great Western Idaho State Fair Rip-Off!

Am I just REALLY old, or what? We were so excited to take the girls to the Fair. I was astounded that ONE ride costs $3-6 each!!!!! That is $1 a minute! How in the world can any family enjoy this with such outrageous costs! (Compare that to the Panguitch County Fair that offered a FREE meal to everyone who came!) The girls got to have one ride each....and lots of gazing-in-total-overwhelment time!

I don't know about all this noise and color and commotion!!

Does Noelle look a little worried here?

This is how she spent the whole ride once it started! Our efforts to ask her how fun it was were not met with much enthusiasm!

Amaya warmed up to her Dumbo after the first few rounds.

Tara is here!!

All Austin babies have to get initiated into game night right away!!

Content grandpa!

After the fair and our stay at Harrises we went to settle back into our own cabin for a few days...only to get word that Tara was determined to be born 4 days before her due date. We quickly finished cleaning and laundering from the Graf group then headed for Idaho.

Tara is a sweet, perfectly formed, gentle and laid back little baby. She seems very comfortable to be here! She has the look of Amaya at birth but I have seen a lot of little Noelle expressions cross her face, so she will, no doubt, somehow be a composite of both sisters who adore her. Beautiful Colleen looks like she was never pregnant and is recuperating well. Their birthing center with mid-wife was a nice experience (except that Tara took a lot longer to come than the other girls). What a joy to have them closer than Florida so we can be with them. Nathan's bar exam is behind him and the waiting for results time and not working time allowed him to be home with Colleen. I don't know that we were exactly needed but we sure had fun taking the older girls to parks and playing with them while Colleen relaxed a bit.

Victor and Jill judge talent at the Garfield County Fair

What a fun, hometown gathering in Panguitch. Victor and Jill were asked by Sister McKee in the Panguitch Branch if they would come judge the annual talent contest at the County Fair. Three hours of talent during which little Alyssa just played and watched and never cried. (Also never slept! She was out, though, before the car had left the parking lot at the end of the day! )

Talent of all kinds in several age categories. Nice artwork, quilting, and photography displays. The Lions club even offered a FREE lunch to all who attended: Burgers, hot dogs, soda, corn on the cob, and huge slices of watermelon.

Since the Grafs were having a reunion at the cabin, we stayed with Morgan and Ann Harris at their cabin down the road. Had a wonderful visit and yummy meals with them.

My sister Elaine, niece and nephew Emily and David and their families were here to collect lizards and rocks and help me celebrate my birthday a day early. Family is pretty great stuff!

We ate GOOD while they were here cuz they like to take turns creating!

Still at the cabin

We are still at the cabin, hosting as many as will pass this way who know our home in the mountains will give Rest and Relaxation from city/student/work/hectic family life! These are our surrogate kids, Rachael and Daniel Lippmann who came to rid themselves of post-bar exam blues. They are dedicated campfire people, traveling all the way back to Duck Creek to get large marshmallows for the S'mores we had after our foil dinners. Who knows, maybe toasting miniature marshmallows would have been fun!