Goin' Showin' at the Oklahoma Youth Expo

Every year, on the weekend before Spring Break, our family goes to the Oklahoma Youth Expo in Oklahoma City, where our oldest three children show goats. This year one of our sons took his pig to show, as well.

Others from our local 4-H and FFA also showed this past weekend and will continue to do so during this whole week. This picture shows the front of our goat stalls. Some clubs choose to decorate their stalls and work hard to keep it clean. There is an award given for Herdsmanship for those who work towards this competition. Last year our club place 1st/Overall Champion. This year our group place 3rd.

I took some chalkboards and my daughter decorated them with Chalk Markers.  She did a great job, but in the picture below, you can see where her little ornery brother messed it up!

She wrote:  Got goats?...a play on the "Got Milk?" slogan.  Then at the bottom she put, "WE DO!"  Tyler got the Chalk Marker and in the middle wrote, "WE DON'T".  I got on to him for messing up her sign while the other two brothers laughed hysterically.  Soon my daughter and I were laughing about it, too, but we didn't let Tyler know it!

This is Jacob getting his goat ready.  It's neat that they are able to clip a lot themselves now.

Zachary washing his goat.  Thankfully the goat is seeming to enjoy the bath.

Lauren working with her red goat.  It was my favorite one because of it's hair color.

Jacob with "Floop".  He enjoys the pig more than the goats.

Jacob's goat...before going into the show ring.  Looks like the goats smiling, doesn't it?

Lauren with her goat....right after the show....and right before taking it to the trailer... 

The male goats don't come back home, so it's sad for some of the kids who've grown attached to their show animals.  Lauren is always sad to have to say goodbye to her animals.

Zachary with his goat doing the same thing....posing before heading to the trailer.  He's more business minded, so doesn't get too emotional about the goat's future.

Zachary, Lauren, and Jacob watching the goat show.  I always try to get a "from behind" picture of them in their 4-H and FFA jackets. It just looks neat to me.

Tyler had some fun learning to play the "big" Sequence with our high school principal and his wife.  It was a fun way to pass the time for him during the long, long, long goat show!

As the people began to clear out during the day, the aisles became free to have some fun.  This is at the end of the day, in between times of cleaning and packing up to head home.

Tyler giving rides to our county extension agent, plus his sister and one of his brothers.

I walked by a table with a skirt around it and saw a few legs and boots sticking out. I also heard giggling coming from underneath as the kids were trying to hid. It was so cute, but I didn't want to scare the kids by talking to them, since they were hiding under there. I waited until one of them kind of came out and asked if they would line up with their boots in a row. Such a cute picture! I never did see any of the kid's faces, but thanked them for posing!

And finally, Lauren and Zachary giving their dad a ride back to the barn to get the final load before heading home.  We were all ready to be home after four long, busy days!
 
Last year I wrote a post about our worship each year at the stock show.  Read more about that here.