Osceola County Fair

I need to catch up on all our summer activities but this one deserved it's own post!  Even though I don't have a ton of pictures from our weekend in Sibley, it was definitely a memorable one!  Our trip back home just happened to coincide with the Osceola County Fair held in Sibley each year.  My dad had a great idea for the boys (Paul, and my brother-in-law Brandon...who had never been to a county fair before!) to enter the BBQ contest.  There were three divisions with a $500 prize for first place in each division!  There was also a $1000 for the grand prize winner.  It only cost $10 to enter too!  The boys entered three entries into two divisions; a Fatty (deli meats and cheeses rolled into a ground sausage log) and ribs into the pork category and ribeye steak into the beef category.  Low and behold, the Osceola Country Fair BBQ committee has a few kinks to work out... each contestant got a number which told them when to bring their entry to the judging panel.  But they were also told that all entries needed to be ready by 3:00pm.  So they had their food ready, but their steak didn't go to the judges until 4:30 so you can imagine it was really good!  :/  Fortunately, their pork entries had an earlier number!  The day was long as they started smoking their meats around 8:00am and judging didn't commence until around 5:30.  We all waited anxiously for results...and they received FIRST PLACE in the pork division for their FATTY (out of about 30 entries!).  They were quite proud and I'm pretty sure they didn't wipe the smiles off their faces for the rest of the weekend!

Meanwhile at the fair, the kids saw lots of animals, a sheep show, tons of tractors...Jace's personal favorite!... and jumped in lots of bouncy houses.  The day was a success all around!